Exec Producer Discusses Fans Negative Reaction To Dana's Storyline

zimovain

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s9/24/tubetalk/a219287/24-exec-producer-talks-series-finale.html

A lot of fans reacted negatively to Dana Walsh/Jenny Scott (Katee Sackhoff) and her subplot. How do you feel about that?

"Man, every season there is something that people seem to fixate on. You know, I got it and I guess all I kept telling people was to please wait until the story had been told before you commented. To me, I think episode 20 answered that question. I was really, really proud of that episode and what I liked about it, too, was that for the first time, this very complex and admittedly very confused character, this onion of a character, got peeled down to the nub and you finally really understand a little bit, anyway, who she is. Now of course she is a sociopath and of course it’s kind of an insane story - a girl from Rock Springs somehow managed to get in to CTU as an analyst under an alias. What I liked about it was that what felt unnatural or felt weird at the beginning was that very part, that she wasn’t authentic, that she was this counterfeit personality in the midst of our heroes."

Minstrel27

zimovain wrote: »

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s9/24/tubetalk/a219287/24-exec-producer-talks-series-finale.html

A lot of fans reacted negatively to Dana Walsh/Jenny Scott (Katee Sackhoff) and her subplot. How do you feel about that?

My main problem with Dana was

we had this woman who was being blackmailed and didn't know what to do about some loser turn out to be working for the Russians and was a cold hearted killer.

It felt like the writers changed their minds mid season

tvnutz

Minstrel27 wrote: »

It felt like the writers changed their minds mid season

You see that is exactly what happened but they are not going to admit that. They clearly realised this was the worst character since the couger in season 2 and that they had to do something. So they decided, hey lets just make her a mole because its not like we have never done that before.

Dana as a mole was a lot better than her character at the start of her season but what that producer is saying is pure nonsense. She was terrified of the ex boyfriend guy who beat her around the place and blackmailed her into breaking into an evidence locker. She then decides she might kill them in their van but takes about 5 mins thinking about because this is such a big massive decision to make. Yet later she has no problem strangling some poor parole officer and shooting dead several agents without hesitation and within CTU.

If you look at her character the whole season it doesn't make sense and it was really two different characters.

unreggd

tvnutz wrote: »

If you look at her character the whole season it doesn't make sense and it was really two different characters.

Exactly!!

DeepBlue

I don't think they changed their minds because you wouldn't cast Katie Sachoff as the Dana from the first half of the season as she just doesn't fit that role but you definitely would cast her as the Dana from the second half.

I kept wondering why they'd cast Starbuck as this weak, stupid character but it only makes sense when she emerges as this cold-blooded killing machine in the second half of the season.

I think the first half of the season was just really badly written. It's probably best to forget about it really.
Don't forget that what also made the first half of the season really poor as well is how they trotted out the same old cliches that they've re-used time and again i.e. another mole in CTU, another pain-in-the-ass director who doesn't listen to Jack's eminently sensible advice, Jack going rogue for the 4,657,796th time etc etc.....
While Dana was a big part of why the early part of the season sucked she wasn't the only reason.

cooker3

Yeah there is no way they spend 12 hours on some new useless character without the mole reveal in mind imo.

tvnutz

Seriously! Come on! There is defending the show and then there is just blind allegiance to it. They clearly changed their minds mid way through. Why not just kill the ex boyfriend in her apartment? Seems less riskier than killing a parole officer within bloody CTU!

Why ring Cole about the parole officer to say she was going to give herself up only to kill the guy later,no need to even let Cole know he was there. The EMP gave her another chance but then they just decided to change the character. The scared helpless character from the first half of the season who was beaten around by some punk was a totally different character to the one who gunned down a load of CTU agents trying to escape and then underwent waterboarding without giving up any info at all. Even when she was going to kill the two guys in their van she sat in her car for 5mins trying to come to terms with a major decision she was going to make and whether or not to do it. But later she has no problems gunning down poor CTU door man.

Give me a break,they realised how much fans hated the character and storyline,which is evident from all the threads here on the early episodes,and just made her a mole. Look at the character over the entire season and unless she is a schizophrenic,they made it up half way through the season.

zimovain

tvnutz wrote: »

Seriously! Come on! There is defending the show and then there is just blind allegiance to it. They clearly changed their minds mid way through. Why not just kill the ex boyfriend in her apartment? Seems less riskier than killing a parole officer within bloody CTU!

Why ring Cole about the parole officer to say she was going to give herself up only to kill the guy later,no need to even let Cole know he was there. The EMP gave her another chance but then they just decided to change the character. The scared helpless character from the first half of the season who was beaten around by some punk was a totally different character to the one who gunned down a load of CTU agents trying to escape and then underwent waterboarding without giving up any info at all. Even when she was going to kill the two guys in their van she sat in her car for 5mins trying to come to terms with a major decision she was going to make and whether or not to do it. But later she has no problems gunning down poor CTU door man.

Give me a break,they realised how much fans hated the character and storyline,which is evident from all the threads here on the early episodes,and just made her a mole. Look at the character over the entire season and unless she is a schizophrenic,they made it up half way through the season.

Agreed. If she was bad ass from the start rather thanturning mid way through the season I think we'd have taken to her.

Mr. CooL ICE

Maybe she was apprehensive about killing the guys in the van because, as the evidence video shows, she wanted 'out' after doing this mission and actually wanted to settle down and marry Cole?

At this stage, she wasn't anywhere near being found out and her problem with killing the guys in the van was because of her fear of being found out afterwards and it ruining her 'new life' with Cole.

This would also explain why she told Cole on the pehone that she was giving herself up... She was lying and faked it because she also knew the EMP was coming?

pah

she definitely knew the emp was coming as we saw in the last episode. Still think it's too hard to defend the turnaround though.

whosedaddy?

just admit you changed your mind about Dana...

Don't expect all viewers to be expert psychoanalysts to follow the plot... this is 24 for gods sake...

Mr. K

I didn't think the Dana storyline was that bad, but she had some cool moments after the revelation that she was a mole.

And, regarding how she managed to get into CTU, she had the backing of Russian government officials. They could have created a convincing new background for her.

She's also further proof that, when a character is bad, Jack will most likely

kill them

. And it will be awesome.

unreggd

Mr. K wrote: »

I didn't think the Dana storyline was that bad, but she had some cool moments after the revelation that she was a mole.

And, regarding how she managed to get into CTU, she had the backing of Russian government officials. They could have created a convincing new background for her.

She's also further proof that, when a character is bad, Jack will most likely

kill them

. And it will be awesome.

The main thing is that if she really was a mole from the very start, she wouldnt have gotten involved in all the Kevin crap

Kiwi_knock

Dana was an excellent character as soon as she was revealed as the mole, however her behaviour up to that did not go with her status as being a mole. Why did she simply not kill Kevin in the apartment, it would not have blown her cover with the Russians. The way her character was used was baffling

Mr. K

unreggd wrote: »

The main thing is that if she really was a mole from the very start, she wouldnt have gotten involved in all the Kevin crap

They wrote that in later, for sure! They're all dead now anyway...so we can put that particular inconsistency behind us!