24 is going to be 22 episodes this season

Well, talk about taking some of the wind out of a premise. The producers of 24 have announced that there will only be 22 new episodes of the show for the January 2009 season.

Now, I've watched this series from the beginning, and I have to tell you, this is some grade A bullshit.

You see, there is a 2 hour prequel movie that is going to premiere in November, which is non-contiguous with the rest of the season. But that was supposed to be a bonus for fans because the entire 2008 season was postponed, but now, that is no longer the case.

I mean, come on, the entire premise of the series is that the events of a given series take place over a complete day in 24 one hour segments. I mean, that's why it is obviously called 24. It is an easy concept to follow.

I know it is an expensive show to film, but you've had an extra year to prepare for it, and if they are using those same preexisting episodes this season, it makes this whole thing even harder to fathom. Seriously. What the hell are you guys doing over there?

The loyal fans of this series, like me, sat through season 6, and for the most part, we held our tongues about that trainwreck. I kept expecting to see a cougar pop up at the oddest places... it was just that bad.

And when the writer's strike happened, well, we were disappointed that the series was put on hiatus for a year, but we understood the motives behind that move. But now, somehow the writers and producers can't come up with material for 2 episodes?

What were they going to do before the strike? They must have some idea of what was going to happen in hours 23 and 24, and it most likely had to do with Jack Bauer killing someone and thus, ending the grand threat. It isn't that hard people.

Part of me thinks that a more appropriate title for this entry is: "24 Producers/writers drop trousers and urinate on fans while waving their extended middle fingers just for the hell of it," but I don't think that, while it is accurate, it would fit easily in anyone's feed reader or even the title part of the Blogger template.

I have a feeling that more than a few fans, after the season six fiasco (and I just had a Freudian slip while typing that, as I somehow kept hitting "u" instead of "i" in the word six) and now this, well, they may be off the show for good.

Tags: 24, jack bauer, 22 episodes, movie, kim bauer, cougar, season six, writer's strike, hiatus, dropping trou, duh