'24': Time may not longer be on this aging hit show's side
After eight years, even the best ticking clock can slow a bit.
And that's what you get from the first four hours of Fox's returning adrenaline-fest 24: a slightly balky start, and one that repeats a few too many aging tropes. Repetition is inevitable in a series that has run through as many world-shattering crises as this one, and "slow" is a relative term; 24 still packs more punch than most shows. But after last season's creative rejuvenation, this first two-night burst feels a bit less compelling.
But there's good news to report: Get past these episodes and the next three improve as the bureaucratic tangles that hinder the launch begin to unravel. And tonight you can enjoy a welcome mood shift for Jack Bauer (an invaluable Kiefer Sutherland), who is still stirringly intense when he needs to be, but is finally given more opportunity not to be.
Indeed, when we meet Jack, he's in New York and, yes, happy, with daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert). The good times can't last, but the setup gives Jack a hope-driven motivation to get his job done and get back to his life.
That job involves an attempt to stop peace talks between President Taylor — played again by one of the best actors in any medium, Cherry Jones— and a Middle Eastern dictator (Slumdog Millionaire's Anil Kapoor). The plot draws a retired Jack back into a high-tech new CTU with a mostly new set of employees, including a new boss (Mykelti Williamson), agent (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and analyst (Katee Sackhoff). The only familiar face belongs to Mary Lynn Rajskub's belovedly difficult Chloe — though soon you'll be treated to the startling return of Annie Wersching's Renee Walker.
Pray for that moment, because once Walker's story takes over in the fifth hour, it pulls Jack away from the CTU office, which is where most of the season's problems reside. Sackhoff has been saddled with a particularly weak plot and character. (Outside of Jones' president, must 24's women be so unhinged?) And Williamson's ridiculously obstructionist CTU boss is an eye-rolling drag. We may not expect a political appointee to be bright or noble, but we do expect him to have a strong enough sense of self-preservation to humor a man who has reminded him twice that he has the president's ear.
Though the premiere's twists are not as shocking as in years past, better ones are coming, and quickly. Trust me, the show has not lost its ability to surprise — or even to make you gasp. So don't panic if the start is slow.
There's plenty of time left to get back to speed.
24
Fox, Sunday, 9 ET/PT and Monday, 8 ET/PT
***1/2 out of four
Source: USAToday.com
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