24 used to be a kick-ass show. The show that wasn't afraid to kill off central characters, have its lead disobey all protocol in the name of protecting the good 'ole US of A. It reintroduced bad-ass to America.
And now? Now they can't even come up with a plot line that lasts an entire season, the bad guys have to have "my heart is breaking" monologues, and Bauer has been proven time and again to be so much of a bad-ass that we're no longer surprised when he does something cool. In fact, we're just depressed that he can't always be a bad-ass. We're addicted to Bauer breaking the rules, but unfortunately that can't quite fill 18 hours of programming.
And that's why 24 now sucks.