"24" is back, but now it's going to be in 12 episodes. I guess there will be time gaps built in. Maybe the terrorists and the good guys will take a three hour lunch. Or perhaps Jack will be taking a long bathroom break. God knows we never saw him pee once in the previous eight seasons.
I should know. I watched every single minutes of those years. Truth be told, I didn't get into the show until Season 4. But, once hooked, a friend and I immediately went back and rented the first three years. I think we invented the concept of binge watching. We completed a season a week. It was dizzying, but, in the still-fresh-in-our-minds post-9/11 world, the experience was so gratifying.
Over the years, Jack Bauer usually waged a one-man-campaign against some group of world terrorists. And they hit them all the best countries for their villains. Iran. Korea. China. Russia. All the countries we should love to hate. At the end of the series, Jack was basically a man without a country. Being hunted by both the Russians and the Americans.
That was four years ago. Ardent fans like me waited for the promised feature film. It never came. Eventually, the original producers figured out a way to bring the series back in a truncated way. Who cares??? For us, any "24" is better than no "24" at all.
Don't get me wrong. You need to suspend logic when it comes to "24." There are plot holes that never make sense. In at least every episode, there is one moment where you say "that would never happen." Every season has one good guy who is really a bad guy. And, in the middle of every year....make that day...there is a major death and an event that shifts the plot in a totally different direction.
That was always the formula and I expect that will happen as well with this new reincarnation called "Live Another Day." In the past, the show setting for each season....make that day....vacillated between Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and New York. All of it was shot in California and looked like it was. This time, it's in London and being filmed totally on location. Whatever the case, just know that something really major will blow in the middle of town.
Jack, on the run since 2010, has gotten the usual "intel" that there will be a assassination attempt on the President of the United States in London for high level meetings. Of course, as we have seen over the years, Jack always gets this "intel" but it will take two-thirds of the season for anybody to believe him. That's part of the fun. And now, with his status as an international fugitive, he has less than zero credibility.
In the premiere hour, Jack appears to break his old computer-friendly cohort Chloe out of prison where she is being held for impersonating that WikiLeaks guy. Let me tell you. It doesn't take long for Jack to get her out of this jail. If I'm ever incarcerated, I want it to be in England.
Now, Jack is going to track down what he heard about the threat and make sure the President survives. In the Chief Executive role this time around is former Secretary of State James Heller, played by the always welcome William Devane. Jack has history with that family as he once loved Heller's daughter Audrey and actually put her in a catatonic state. But, apparently, there is life after coma because Audrey's traveling with her dad and is also married to his Chief of State who we may grow to like or hate. The jury's still out.
Meanwhile, President Heller is making world decisions while in the early stages of dementia and that would be a horrible scenario if we weren't already subjected to Joe Biden. Obviously, Heller is supposed to be the second term of Ronald Reagan without the Jelly Bellys. Luckily, we're spared the red tie and the annoying wife who just says no.
So, in the first two hours, this is all set up. The government guy who wants to break Jack. The inside analyst who wants to believe Jack. And the President's daughter who will undoubtedly see Jack again and fall in both love and unconsciousness. It will all be silly. I won't care. As long as Jack gets to yell "damn it" in each and every episode.
It's great that they populated this new iteration with the familiar faces. Keifer Sutherland looks amazingly fit for somebody who's probably been living in a drain pipe the past four years. Despite hiding from two governments, Jack apparently has managed to keep up his membership with 24 Hour Fitness. Meanwhile, Chloe has gone punk and looks like her fashion and make-up consultant is Ozzy Osbourne. She's also gone rogue but you know she will do everything in her power to help Jack. That's how it always rolls on "24." In its utter unpredictability, it's always predictable.
"24 - Live Another Day" is probably no groundbreaking TV show. With every season/day of the series, you would judge its merits at the end. Indeed, the best days/years were likely Years 1, 4, and 5. Seasons/days 6 and 7 were terrible. Regardless, I watched them. Sometimes shaking my head every five minutes. But I was tuned in nonetheless.
And this new version is also on my DVR. And always will be. You have to know Jack to know Jack. In the first hour, he remarks that he "has no friends."
Oh, yes, you do. Call me. I've got your back.
Dinner last night: Had a big lunch so just a sandwich.
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