BRAD OSWALD - WATCHING TV
YES, it's true.
Jack is back.
You've seen the regular rotation of Fox-fed promotional ads, and you endured the endless wave of 24-related hype on the entertainment magazine shows.
Jack is, in fact, back. And it doesn't look like it'll be long before he wishes he wasn't.
As any seat-edge-clutching fan of 24's breath-stealing action can tell you, the last time we saw planet-saving rogue CTU agent Jack Bauer, the show's devious crew of writers had just ruined a chance for a perfectly happy ending by having Jack captured/kidnapped by Chinese operatives who wanted to bring him to justice for the murder of one of their U.S.-based diplomats.
And by "justice," what they had in mind was pretty much endless torture for the rest of his miserable life.
Poor Jack.
But 24 is a hit show, and Kiefer Sutherland (a.k.a. Jack) is its Emmy-winning star. So when the show returns this weekend (with a two-part, four-hour premiere that airs today and Monday at 7 p.m. on Fox and Global), those same sinister scriptwriters had to have a plan to bring Jack back to North America, right around the time the next big terrorist threat explodes (both literally and figuratively) on U.S. soil.
I won't say it's completely plausible; 24's relationship with logic and plausibility ended badly a few seasons back. But within the chaotic and confounding world that Jack, his CTU colleagues, the forever-compromised U.S. presidency and their various nefarious foes inhabit, Bauer's return makes as much sense as anything else that'll happen in what's sure to be (again) the crappiest day of Jack Bauer's life.
His return coincides with (and is somehow related to, but the show's producers have asked us TV-critic types not to reveal how) a string of terrorist bombings that has taken place across the U.S. The most recent is an attack on a bus in downtown L.A., and Jack's return might be the key to bringing the wave of terror to a halt.
birthstone Tiffanys HeartBut on 24, two things are certain: first, that nothing ever turns out the way it seems destined to; and second, that Jack is an unbelievably resilient and resourceful guy.
So let's just say that even though 18 months of hell in a Chinese prison have dented his spirit and made him question whether he wants to be in the world-saving business any more, Jack's heroic instincts seem to be pretty much intact.
The bad guys this season -- at least early on, because there are usually layers of evil piled on top of one another as the episodes unfold -- are of the inevitable Middle Eastern terrorist variety, and the guy in charge is driven by a general ideological loathing of the West as well as a much more specific hatred that is revealed in due time.
As bad guys go, he's one of the worst. And he has the smarts, the connections and the resources he needs to wreak terrible, bloody havoc on his U.S. targets.
Many of the folks trying to stop him are familiar -- CTU is still under the command of Bill Buchanan (James Morrison), and the agency's top computer geek is still the brilliant but socially inept Chloe O'Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub). The White House has a familiar name -- Palmer -- in residence, but this time it's slain hero David Palmer's younger brother, Wayne (DB Woodside), who has been elected commander-in-chief.
The latest President Palmer's closest advisers are Karen Hayes (Jayne Atkinson), who went from villain to hero after taking over CTU last season, and new arrival Thomas Lennox (Peter MacNicol), who seems destined to be this day's chief inner-circle irritant.
As has always been the case with 24, the new season starts with a big, attention-grabbing blast and just builds more tension from there. All the usual concerns and contradictions involving real-time plausibility and the unlikely effortless manner in which Jack and company navigate the freeways of L.A. remain; but if you're willing to suspend your disbelief almost completely, again, 24 looks like it's ready to deliver another wild and wildly entertaining ride.
Replica Dior
