"I did what I thought was right at the time!" Maybe 24's producer took a line from their own show to excuse the sixth season of 24. Maybe it seemed like a good idea at the time to have a nuclear bomb detonate in Los Angeles and then not mention it four hours later. Maybe it sounded fun to have mercenaries infiltrate CTU. Again. Maybe shoehorning in a story about interning Muslims sounded like it would topical and edgy. Or, maybe 24 had just run out ideas.
To say the last season of 24 was bad wouldn't really do it justice. Putrid, maybe. Unwatchable? Well, no, but close. It started out promisingly, with the aforementioned nuclear bomb and Jack returning from captivity in China. Unfortunately, the rest of the season (which felt more like a year than a "day") didn't come anywhere close to the addictive and outstanding show that 24 had always been. In an ironic sense, then, the writer's strike may have been the best thing that has ever happened to the show. With a two year layoff to improve and find new ways to execute the show's real time story, it seems Jack really is back.
The season really started with an entertaining (if somewhat overwrought) two hour special with Jack evading custody in Africa. Events would unfold, however, that would bring Jack back to the US, and put the fictional African nation at the center of American foreign policy. There is a new president (where have you gone, Wayne Palmer?) but certainly no lack of the usual 24 palace intrigue. It seems the African nation of Sengala (sp?) is embroiled in genocide similar to Rwanda, and the newly elected president is only too eager to intervene. Simultaneously, domestic terrorists have stolen a MacGuffin... I mean, a device that hacks into the US domestic "firewall" and is threatening to crash airplanes and unleash all kinds of similar havoc. And, as if that weren't enough, Jack Bauer is forced to testify before a Senate committee eager to prosecute him for his extracurricular activities involving terror suspects.
If all of this sounds relatively boilerplate, it is. Shit, we even have a previously thought to be dead cast member (Tony Almeida) come back to life. What is really surprising about the first four hours of the new season, though, is how well all of this is handled. While there are the requisite shoot outs and government corruption, it actually seems fresh and interesting again. Much of this can be attributed to the (so far) lack of obvious red herrings or bullshit storylines designed to fill time in previous seasons. While that could certainly change, the tight pacing and fairly small cast is proving far superior to anything season 6 (and, honestly, seasons 3 and 4) had to offer. It seems like a throwback to the days of season 1, where Jack wasn't hamstrung by CTU every minute of every day and was able to get out there and do his thing. There is, of course, a government conspiracy that goes as high as the Cabinet (and if you can't pick out who the traitor is, you don't watch much 24) and a potentially annoying sub plot involving an asshole FBI agent, but that's part of the charm.
What really makes 24 work has always been Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer, and the new season is no exception. While it felt like Sutherland was at times going through the motions last season, he too seems invigorated and ready to roll. Gone is the self doubting Jack, which actually had some interesting potential until the writers butchered it. That version of the character is replaced with a man who has complete conviction that everything he ever did was right. And that is the fundamental question of this season, and 24 in general. Is Jack right? Do the ends justify the means? Are we rooting for Jack to torture people who may or may not be terrorists in the name of saving American lives? If so, what does that say about us?
Luckily, for those who don't feel like engaging those questions, 24's action and suspense are more than enough to get through the day. I have very high hopes for this season, both for its bad-assness and its examination of battlefield morality. Jack is back baby.
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