10 Silliest Things On 24 (And The Lessons To Be Learned From Them)

6. The Alan Milliken Affair (Day 3)

When 24 decided to drop the assassination cliffhanger that ended day two, it had to find a new storyline for President David Palmer in day three. The first thing they tried was to give Palmer a romantic relationship with his Doctor, Anne Packard. It turns out that Anne's ex-husband was involved in a pharmaceutical scandal, and in his anger at his ex-wife, he tries to implicate Palmer. The writers quickly realized this storyline €“ which they had intended to last the entire season €“ wasn't working, and wrapped it up after just eight episodes (Anne's ex-husband commits suicide, she finds evidence clearing Palmer's name, and decides to end their relationship). This meant they needed something else for David Palmer to do, which quickly arrives through a convenient phone call from Alan Milliken, one of Palmer's key financial backers and an important political ally. The Milliken storyline is too complicated to describe here. Suffice it to say it ends up involving both David's brother and his ex-wife, whose mild redemption from day two is quickly reversed when the writers need her to be a villain. It also never once connects to the main storyline of day three, a viral attack on the United States, and therefore comes off as a pointless distraction the entire time it's on screen. At the end of the sixteen episode arc, there have been three murders, a suicide, and David Palmer decides to drop out of the presidential race €“ but it is by far the least engaging time for the character of David Palmer on the series. The Lesson: Don't waste one of your best characters on a pointless side-story (or worse, two pointless side-stories) that has no connection to the main plot. Dennis Haysbert was the show's secondary lead in the role of David Palmer, a Senator (in Day One) who was catapulted to the Presidency (in Days Two and Three), but the writers lost track of the character as soon as they disconnected him from the primary storyline. Palmer's ultimate decision to drop out of the race for re-election was less a dramatic character beat than it was the writers throwing their hands in the air and giving up.