The new season of 24 has begun and Jack Bauer is once again a one-man army, fighting terrorism and keeping America safe. When Fox launched this series in November 2001, just two months after 9/11, reviewers questioned whether people would want to tune in to see a show that focused on terrorism. Now in its eighth season, we know the answer. Although terrorism terrorizes Americans, watching Jack Bauer outwit the bad guys is far more inspiring than reading about our government’s attempts to keep us safe. We like to think that there are real life Jack Bauers out there going undercover to thwart plots that, thankfully, never happen and that we never hear about. Yet after the events of Christmas Day, no one can blame us if we would prefer watching a fictional hero succeed rather than listening to news reports about how Homeland Security and other government agencies were unable to prevent a suicide bomber from boarding a plane.
Jack Bauer will never win any awards from Amnesty International. Last season began with him being dragged before a Congressional committee bent on prosecuting him for his less than kind efforts towards enemy combatants. Yet when another plot is uncovered, the government once again calls on Jack for help. It seems the country can’t live with Jack, yet can’t do without him. Jack is ostracized for bending the rules, but when the security of the country is on the line, others keep asking him to bend the rules just this once. If he’s caught, however, Jack knows he’s on his own. (Even James Bond had more back up than that).
Season Eight begins in New York with Jack finally ready to make the transition to a normal life. His daughter, Kim, wants him to move to Los Angeles with her family. She has a little girl and Jack is obviously smitten with the idea of being a grandfather and taking a low-key consulting job. Events, however, intervene. (We’re reminded of Michael Corleone’s line in Godfather III, ” Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”) When a former informant turns up at Jack’s hotel room, bleeding from a gunshot wound and spouting talk of yet another assassination plot, Jack has no choice but to get involved.
Unlike the CTU facility in Washington D.C., that took on the look of a government office building, the Counter Terrorism Unit in New York is all high tech gloss. Chloe, played by Mary Lynn Rajskub, is back working at CTU, yet is obviously uncomfortable in her new surroundings. Chloe’s computer skills have always placed her head and shoulders above everyone else, but in the opening episodes she’s laboring to come up to speed with CTU’s new systems. Jack and Chloe have been down this road before, working together even when it means working outside the law. After all this time and having saved the world numerous times, one would think the dullards working at CTU would trust both Jack and Chloe. (The head of CTU is once again portrayed as a CYA type). Each season, however, they must prove themselves all over again.
And that’s a good thing for us. 24‘s gimmick is that the show unfolds in real time—24 episodes, 24 hours—a full day’s worth of action. That time frame keeps the suspense at a high level, accentuated by that ever thumping clock at the end of each segment. Sustaining a plot over 24 episodes is a challenge and in previous seasons, there were moments when events became disjointed even, at times, silly. But there’s always enough action to keep us watching.
What saves this series, however, are the characters and how they not only connect with the audience but also—dare I say it—give us hope. We want to believe that there are heroes like Jack Bauer out there watching our back, keeping us safe. And that, in the end, the good guys will win out over evil. Even if that battle will take more than 24 hours.
