REVIEW: It’s ‘24′ and Bauer’s Back
by James HudnallSome spoilers coming:
24 returned last night with the sound of snipers shooting at some former colleague of Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). Bauer is shown in good health after that risky experimental cure for deadly bio-toxin administered at the end of last season. Perhaps having a Muslim cleric issue the last rights is what saved him. Except Jack isn’t sporting a Shukr or a Kufi. That’s forgotten. He’s busy playing with his grand-daughter and planning to go with his daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert), back to L.A. in retirement. But the ghost of Godfather III enters the mix. Just when he thought he was out…
The story is set in New York, which is a nice change of scenery after 7 seasons in Los Angeles. His daughter and his son-in-law are in New York and left their kid with Jack while they go shopping. Suddenly, the grand-daughter whips out a blow gun and knocks out Jack with a dart. You see, she’s a double agent and…oops. I spoiled the season for you. Never mind. Forget I said anything.
Anyway, it seems some moderate Muslim leader named Omar Hassan (Anil Kapoor) from some unnamed country is cutting a treaty with US President Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones). Naturally, some mysterious villains are out to stop the deal at all cosyts. They’re trying to kill Bauer’s buddy, CTU Agent Torres (Benito Martinez formerly of The Shield) who has info on the hit. Torres makes it to Bauer’s place, seriously wounded, to tell him an assassination’s going to happen. But he won’t give all the details. He needs to talk to someone in CTU. Bauer contacts Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) his former partner, who is now working for the NY branch of CTU. And asks to speak to her boss.
24-style hilarity ensues. They can’t just get in a car and drive over there. They have to send a helicopter and the nearest place it can land is five blocks away. So Jack and agent Torres have to hoof it over there while he bleeds all over the place. But of course, the bad guys are monitoring the police bands and they soon catch wind of Bauer’s movements and give chase. There is a final twist which I left out in case you want to see the episode.
It was fun enough, but here’s a couple problems I had with it. Chloe, who has been shown in previous seasons as being the world’s greatest hacker, smarter than anyone else working for the government, is shown here as being too slow in catching up to the rest of her co-workers and is in danger of being fired. Right.
President Taylor is back, who was incredibly unrealistic last season for her stupid decisions. Wait, I take that back. She’s more realistic than WPE Obama*. But obviously, she was cast before they knew the primary results last year. They were expecting a President Hillary to match their female president. Big oops! So now they’re stuck with this actress to remind them of their lack of ESP. She’s rather lackluster, but the good news is Charles Logan is scheduled to come back this year for a string of episodes. Hopefully they won’t waste his talents this time, unlike his last appearance on the show.
Of course, we’re sure to see double CTU agents and other tropes of the series. Let’s hope it doesn’t lapse into more apologist BS like last season. The villains appear to be Muslim terrorists, but I’m sure they will be working for right-wing bad guys later. The clock is ticking.
* WPE – Worst President Ever
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81 Comments
Unfortunately, Janeane Garafolo is also back.
Jean Barfafolo! well I won't waste my time……bleaching your eyeballs afterward is unconfortable.
It great to see 24 back and it will be even greater to see Special Agent Freckles again tonight, but this assassination plot is a bit on the lame side. After watching Jack preventing L.A. from getting nuked or destroyed by a deadly virus or nerve gas and taking down a corrupt POTUS, I just can't get all fired up about what happens to some philandering kleptocrat from South Ickystan. I'm sure they'll start in absurdifying the plot pretty soon, but the stakes are still looking a little small after last night's preview.
(And by the way, wasn't that questionably accented guy Looney Bin Jim from the new Punisher movie?)
Last night was actually pretty damn cool. Here's hopin' for hours 3 & 4,
I have to hand it to "24." As lame as the format has gotten and as much as it requires you to suspend all logic (just how many bad guy 'insiders' can there be?) it still grabs you and drags you in. It is fast paced television and still free.
It was OK, but did you see Human Target, that was AWESOME!
Although it is predictable, like nobody ever believing Chloe or Jack, like the new CTU boss, it's still interesting to watch … for me, that is. If a show doesn't really, really beat me over the head with leftist politics (like the last few seasons of Boston Legal), I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
Of course the assassination plot line is only the beginning of something bigger, and hopefully better.
I'm looking forward to the return of FBI Agent Renee Walker (Federal Babe of Investigation). Plus, there's a new CTU agent who, I believe, played Cylon or starpilot in the first remake of the Battlestar Galactica series. And Freddie Prinz, Jr., actually did a real good job as a CTU field agent.
I'll stay tuned….
Are you sure. There are no episodes listed on her imdb page.
I believe only six seasons were in L.A. Last season was in Washington D.C.
Here's hoping she is written out soon! Maybe she'll take one for the team – naw, a lib would never consent to that!
it is supposed to start off boring,then pick up presumably when renee walker comes.
24 died a few seasons back, lame as hell!
Love the show, but at a loss where you can land a chopper on a Manhattan building, nor why you'd want to. In fact, Federal Plaza is on a good day a 5-minute ride with lights and sirens from Jack's supposed 18th Street and 9th Avenue apartment. Though CTU's heliopad seems to be in Long Island City. Suspected the driving in DC and LA was probably often as laughable, but don't know those cities well enough to know this is beyond ridiculous.
Also generally cracks me up that police and federal law enforcement offices always look like they're designed by Frank Gehry right down to the glass and steel desks. Having been to many "professionally" unfortunately such offices are usually government issue cheap.
So far Jack has 2 kills.
The informant was not a "colleague" he was a shady snitch-type that Jack had used in the past. Otherwise, he wouldn't have needed immunity and he would have just called CTU himself! Try to actually watch an episode before reviewing. Geez. Oh, well, at least Ben Shapiro didn't write this…
Well, I hope she turns out to be a traitor like she is in real life.
Then Jack can shoot her through the head- after carving her eyeballs out with a rusty spoon….
"Oh, well, at least Ben Shapiro didn't write this… "
LMFAO! Good line! Hee! Hee! Hee!
As an LA native, I can assure you that the speed with which Jack and others were able to criss-cross the city on a work day, usually by car, would be next to impossible even if there was no traffic. But I always check my disbelief at the door when it comes to 24.
Katee Sackhoff. I forgot to mention her. She's a great actress.
I did watch it and he is listed as CTU agent Torres on IMDB. Of course, they do get things wrong.
IMDB has him listed as Torres. I did watch the show, but that slipped by me. I miust have been distracted by something.
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So far, so good. Renee is a loose canon.
But season 8 doesn't compare to Jack Bowsers hunt for the UNDERWEAR BOMBER (hilarious!):
http://www.digitalfuntown.com/videos/179
Had to quit watching in middle of Ep. 2. I have seen em all, and probably will be back for another go, but they are asking too much. Too much Elisha Cuthbert whining. Get on the plane for God's sake. There are other flights. She is going to swing by the UN to pick up Jack while the whole city is in gridlock lockdown because of the preposterous negotiations- – sorry it's just lazy writing to put her at risk. Is there any doubt Starbuck is the mole?
Hey you rhymed! Maybe that should be the shows new slogan "Always check your disbelief at the door when it comes to 24." Sorry I couldn't resist. I love it when things inadvertently (sp?) rhyme.
I like the show, started watching last season then missed some episodes and never caught up. I don't know if I will watch this season or not.
It's time to bring in a chimp to play POTUS. He'll have had the right amount of experience.
Boring CTU characters this year (and a couple of really bad actors).
More Pres Taylor. (I disagree about Cherry Jones. She classes up each scene and didn't win an Emmy last year just based on her past Tony Awards.) Gawd, to thank we could see real actors like Jones and Bob Gunton instead of precious time wasted by the scenes with the redneck ex-boyfriend harassing the boring CTU blonde.
I didn't like Renee last year but after the 4th hour tonight, she seemed like the one spark in the first four hours.
It was pretty obvious since he refused to give the info until he got immunity. Good grief to the rest of you. Losing your grip over a few plot points. Makes us look as paranoid as we are accused of being. So the Islamic leader supports a 2 state solution. That's progress from a no Israeli state solution. Any rate Renee Walker is back and makes Jack look like a wuss. Could be fun.
I hope to be reading a live blog of the 24 episodes here again this season.
Hey, thanks. I had Human Target on my DVR and didn't much feel like getting to it, and now I don't have to since Glover's in it.
The script is horrible and apart from Kiefer, the acting is worse. Please Daddy, make it stop!!!!
Uh actually she picked him up at CTU.
me too!
It was awesome right up until the ending of the first episode when the main character is protecting Danny "I heart Hugo 'the Fatmouth' Chavez" Glover. Egad.
It wasn't a small plot point. If the guy was a CTU agent and wouldn't just report in what he knew THAT should have been your main criticism of the show! That would be a serious WTF moment. Let's see, he seeks out Jack, Jack disarms him, Jack calls the President and arranges immunity, when they are being hunted, Jack says tell me what you know in case you don't make it, and the guy says not until I get my immunity. It's not like you had to study the episode like a Biblical passage in order to pick this up.
Is it just me or is the acting sub-par this season?
No problem. Looks like Fox has started a new charity operation with Mr. Glover in "Human Target" and Ms. Garofalo in "24": Liberal Ideologue Actors Rescue Series (LIARS).
I did have another problem with "Human Target" which concerned the woman being protected by the main character. She was in charge of getting the San Francisco to LA bullet train project built and running. It was like she was a super engineer as well as administrator and budgeter. The train was making a trial/demo run for the "investors" (they did mention lots of taxes being spent on it too) and there were several subsystems that were not operating which she knew before the train left SF. If I was associated with the project I woulda been trying to kill her too.
Yes, that was Doug Hutchison playing the Davros/fake cop role. He played Percy Wetmore in The Green Mile as well as Loony Bin Jim in Punisher.
yeah! That face seemed familiar, but I couldn't place it. He porked out a bit.
You are correct.
Ok – after counting down the months, the new season of "24" has arrived.
I was not overly impressed, but I was not repulsed like in S7 – worst season ever.
Episode 4 was the best of the lot, imho.
Dumb ass sub-lots – stupid cop beating up Jack – idiotic time filler. Foreign Prez involved with blondie. Dont care. Douche bag hillbilly threatening hot babe in the tight gray sweater. Get rid of him.
CTU set – a bit too modernistic, but better than that shabby looking FBI offices last season.
Good move – getting Chloe into the show ASAP.
The new CTU guy is inept and I am not fond of that actor. JIm Morrison rarely seemed like he was acting as Bill Buchanan. He acted and looked like a leader. This new guy does not.
All th stuff that happens in these first episodes usually just sets upo the 'real' plot.
Cherry Jones as Pres. Taylor – last year – horrible. So far this year – much better and she doesnt have that dead weight of her hubby and daughter around, plus no mindless plot about Africans with laptops.
Glad to hear that a former president will be returning, though I rather would not have known in advance.
Waiting for Aaron Pierce who has never not been in a season. Would be nice to see Mike Novik again
There is no way to redeem Tony Almeda unfortunately. All my other fave characters are dead. Edgar, Michelle, Bill,
So I think we are off to a pretty decent start. Nothing fabulous.
I have no more desire to watch 24 for the sheer predictability of the show. It is the same damn thing every season. After season 3, that is it. No more.
I'm going to give it a couple weeks. But my personal "24 stopwatch" is running down to zero. Last night seemed pretty much the same as any of the other heh seasons.
Uh..no. Last season with Garafolo and Jack getting forgiveness from a Muslim and those absurd green commercials, I'm done with it. They lost a loyal viewer with all that shenanigans.
The last few seasons have been sub par and I thought this one started of pretty weak and boring. The story is typical leftwing drivel; the noble and righteous Muslim is seeking to make peace [the two state delusion is also advocated] and here come the white Russians to shatter the peace agreement. No thanks.
Of course the assassination plot line is only the beginning of something bigger, and hopefully better.
The main villain will be a "corporation."
It's rare for leftwing Hollywood to have an original thought.
I thought the whole episode was lame, lots of screaming by jack (he only whispers and screams, what great acting) and if the season is built around a left premise, or so it appears, if so this is how it will go.
The lovable Islamic nut jobs are really reasonable rationale human beings that just want to be treated well, Our president is a leftist, talks a lot, makes few decisions, and preaches about how America is better than her enemies la la la la la and the Islamonuts are wooed by here rhetoric oh praise be to Mao we are saved.
Although it will appear that an internal faction of the Islamist nuts are to blame for the assassination of our Islamist hero in reality it will be some white ex-military guy that hates everyone pulling the strings, probably christian, la la la la la. and we will get more preaching about how we suck as jack screams his way through another dozen scripts.
24 gets worse every year, and yet here I am watching it because my wife talked me into it, again…
It was not Agent Torres who had the intel on the assassination. It was an old informant named Victor Aruz. Agent Torres was in the chopper and killed in the explosion. If you're going to recap something…could you …I dunno watch it?
Maybe FOX should just consider renaming the show 12 and writing a much tighter plot with half the episodes and none of the goofy subplots i.e. the redneck, the reporter mistress (anything revolving the personal lives of any of the main characters). C'mon people, it's a crisis, concentrate on your jobs dammit! Also, Hassan's country is clearly Iran, don't make any pretense of hiding it. No one is fooled into thinking it's anything else.
Then again, in the real-life version of 24, the head of CTU would continue his ski vacation and the President would complete his golf game during a terrorist incident. Which scenario is more absurd, 24, or our current version of reality.
.
Watched 10 minutes of "24" after watching "Human Target". Looked too predictable and I give up on the series. "Human Target" had me thinking I'd be a regular watcher til they had to have Danny Glover in a small part at the end. Proving their leftwing bona fides I guess. Now whenever I watch I'll be cringing waiting for the leftwing tell/sucker punch.
Dammit Chloe – can't they write a better script?
He was Eugene Tombs in two episodes of the X-Files. He played the liver-eatin', Stretch Armstrong mutant.
Is that who's playing Dana? That's a man, baby! She could play right guard with those shoulders.
Sure they jumped the shark, if not the whole damn aquarium, a few years back, but it's still fun watching people beating a dead shark.
"(just how many bad guy 'insiders' can there be?) " __________________________________ Depends how many characters they there are besides Jack, Kim and Chloe. There is also usually a male character that, while not as good as Jack, won't be a traitor and will have some moral choice that makes everyone know that he is no Jack Bauer. The "Tony" character this year is played by Freddie Prinze Jr., I guess.
…and what's with that CTU blonde (she looks looks like a Sandra Bernhard clone) being harrassed by some white-trash ex-con? Turns out she had a past life as a piece of trailer trash who changed her name and managed to get a job as a director at a Federal counter-terrorist agency! Are you kidding me?! Every season of 24 has had a mole or feckless-loser-with-a-past, if not in CTU (there were more "moles" in that agency than in the British secret service of the '50's), then in the highest levels of government close to the President. And Mary Lynn Rajskub's turn as the snarky, whining Chloe is getting old – really old.
Ok..my apologies. But sometimes getting your intel from IMDB is the same as getting it from Wikipeida!! lol
…maybe they'll bring back Dennis Haysbert as the zombie ex-president David Palmer…
"Why a spoon cousin?" ~ Gisbon
"Because it's Dull! It would hurt more!" ~ Sheriff of Notingham (Alan Rickman)
Bring back Jean Smart as the loopy ex-First Lady.
Well, it's another season of 24 and we have another season of dumb/crazy/slutty women. They even managed to make Chloe dumb this year. I guess they had no choice but to take down the one smart female left alive.
Russians are the bad guys. Again. Well, so far anyway. We ALL knew the Muslims couldn't possibly be Evil. The real mystery for the rest of this season is how long the Russians will remain the bad guys until the REAL culprit turns out to be a white male American politician/CEO monster. Login will fill that role, probably, until we find out whose dupe he really turns out to be.
24 has always been completely unbelievable. That's been most of the fun of watching it. The Whatever Technology. The Jack as Energizer Bunny. Dumb Kim plots. It was always fun even when it was stupid.
But so far it's just plain stupid and there is no fun.
The most interesting aspect of the show so far for me, 4 hours into it now, has been watching Katee Sackhoff's hair. Every time she's in a scene I wonder how much money was spent to make sure her hair is always draped over her left shoulder like that.
It takes about 5-6 year at least to become an NYPD Highway motorcycle cop. NYPD also does extensive background checks on foreign born cops, and they have to be citizens. In fact one NYPD cop born in the former Soviet Union, Russell TImshenko, a good guy I knew personally, gave his life in the line of duty in 2008. So the idea a Russian organized crime guy could somehow become a cop in 5 minutes is beyond laughable. Again 24 requires suspension of belief.
Yes! And she can do a takeoff on The Sixth Sense while talking to Jack – "I see dead people!" Cue entrance of Dennis Haysbert as the zombie President Palmer who then does a "King Hamlet's ghost" turn in reply to Kiefer Sutherland's "Melancholy Canadian".
You have specialized knowledge in a field that most of us do not possess. Hence, yours is not an issue for most viewers.
The fifth season of 24 was when I became a fan of the show. It does seem that the show has run out of ideas with the repeated plotlines. Freckles Bauer is what kept me from dropping the show as a viewer for me last season. Jack, Chloe, and Freckles are the only reason to continue to watch but this should be the last season. (Make the 24 movie already.)
The writers of this show have too many plot holes. For example, if Freckles Bauer was an undercover agent who infiltrated the Russian mob, Jack's methods shouldn't have been foreign to her last season. I laughed when CTU just happened to have Freckles being helicoptered in as they just figured out the Russian mob was involved.
Kim's back? Kill her.
WE WANT AARON…….WE WANT AARON!!!!
With Renee having what is apparently a personality change from last season maybe she is being groomed to be Jack's replacement. Maybe Keifer is getting out after this season. Could she carry the show?
Let's see Agent Walker take her( the Garofolo character) out . She showed in last night's episode that it would be easy for her to accomplish.
They should bring Dennis Haybert back… not as the President, but as Jonas Blane from the Unit. In fact they should bring in all of the members of the Unit (and NONE of their wives) and together with Jack (and NONE of the other cast members of 24) they would handle 12 episodes worth of baddies in about 15 minutes. Without breaking a sweat. And the plot might even make sense.
The axe to the chest was a Golden Jack Bauer moment…. Also pretty hilarious to see "Dom" from "Entourage" kicking Bauer's ass…
But nothing stands up to Agent Jack Bowser hunting down the Underwear Bomber (hilarious!):
http://www.digitalfuntown.com/videos/179
Yes, your geek bonafides are safe
Right, John Wayne, I managed to pick up on something that half the episode was explicitly about, and I'm therefore a 24 geek. Well, I've been publishing reviews since you were wondering where babies came from, and while I might miss a detail like a character's name, I always managed to not ignore the whole plot motivation– even when it was stupid. At least if I was supposed to write about it the next day…
Frankly, I'm on the fence about the show. It's just that a day after the most read column on this site was by a guy said Rebecca and NOTORIOUS were the same movie (!!!) I'm wondering if people on one of my very favorite websites actually watch the things they review.
Kim! Hahaha! There was a parody of "24" on YouTube with Jack and Tony at a drive-thru and Jack gets a call from Kim and Tony disdainfully asks – "What? Is she trapped on a merry-go-round or something?" LOL
You can send the blond hottie wife over to my place.
So this is what I want from "24", tho it won't happen.
We find out that Bill Buchanan is not dead. I looked at that last shot of him lying on the ground and i have seen deader people come back to life. He was too good a character to lose.
Edgar needs to be brought back, We learn that b/c of his size the Centox nerve gas didnt totally kill him and he has been in "24" rehab in secret relearning basic motor skills and such. And then he returns to work. Now – this is a reasonably plausible plot twist b/c the last we saw of him (and they used 2 different shots – one in the show and one in the 'previously on "24" segment) and he was still twitching a bit.
Tony Almeida – how can they ever possibly redeem him for all his twisted revenge murders in Season 7. Depression? No! Brain cancer? That's a stretch. He needs to come back 'good'. It was insanity to make him evil.
And, boy, do i miss Michelle Dessler! I don't see anyway to bring her back except as her twin sister or some such rot.
Still missing in action-
David Palmer – never resolved him
Charles and Martha Logan – although there was a spoiler in the article above.
Aaron Pierce – in every season since S1. That honor goes to him and Jack Bauer only.
Mike Novik – too good not to come back. Saw him on NCIS recently. Still flinty eyed!
And in my opinion, the latter part of Season 4 and then Season 5 were the best seasons of "24". Season 6 was much better than people thought at the time. Season 7 will never be better than awful. "Redemption"? That set us up for the horrors of Season 7.
And don't forget Renee will come in torturing the suspects now, and Jack will try to show her the error of her evil ways since he's been prayed for by the muslim cleric now.
…
Хм …
Which is a real possibility, the other is that jack tortures some americans and lectures them about their imperialist capitalist pig selfishness.
Arghh, I miss the better episodes of the Unit
That would be so sweet! I miss my unit boys so much.
Amen.
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