As nice as it was to watch Jack Bauer making amends for his past sins by helping poor children in Africa during last night’s TV movie 24: Redemption, come on: You have to admit that you watched the screen with half your mind thinking all the time, "Okay, okay, do I really have to pay attention to the 24 version of random acts of kindness? Where is this taking us? Is any of this going to apply to the new season? Is the new season going to be better than last season’s sputtering spew? ‘24: Redemption‘? Gimme back my un-redeemed, action-packed 24, dammit!"
And so it was easy to gaze upon all the Africa stuff as though it was just a particularly mean-minded episode of Survivor, with Jack as Jeff Probst with a big freaking rifle. The real pleasure resided back in the United States, where some very energetic new-season plot-points were being set up:
• We’ve got a new president, played by Cherry Jones, whom we’re all supposed to immediately be in awe of because Cherry Jones is a Highly Respected New York Stage Actress, but whom we actually liked last night because she looked as though her character was capable of kicking outgoing President Powers Boothe in the cajones if it would remove him from the White House sooner.
• The president-elect has a son who’s buddies with a guy who has adrug problem and info on high-level crimes: excellent for the kind ofseedy melodrama that always brings out the best in 24!
• Jon Voight looks like the new season’s Big Bad. Boy, is Voight big! Boy, is his acting notbad! He’s got that rumbly, slit-eyed malevolence that makes him looklike a puffed-up cobra with a white-haired wig. Plus, if Voight hangsaround, we can all speculate endlessly on whether hishey-I’m-a-Hollywood-conservative-for-McCain status—the kind of"defiance" that’s really show-biz code for, "I have to come up withsome reason why no one’s giving me major movie roles, so it must be mypolitics"—has anything to do with his presence on a series that untilthis season was co-run by another prominent H’wood conservative, JoelSurnow.
• All the really intriguing tidbits were dropped in at theend, in the extended preview of the season starting in January: Jackbeing brought in front of a D.C. hearings panel for human-rightsviolations; a shot of Chloe saying, "I’m a stay-at-home mom"; and overthe words, "One of the men behind this threat is someone you know," aglimpse of Tony Almeda, the Man Who Will Not Die.
My hopes are officially raised for a top-notch new season. How about yours? While you’re thinking about your answer, watch Jack kicking some butt below.
I loved it!!! Action packed, heart felt ( i can’t believe im talking 24 here) and the change of scenery to Afirda was magnificent. I can’t wait for season 7. I hope the children will have some sort of role in it. they were just too cute!
I wasn’t crazy about a “redeeming” Jack Bauer either, but DAMN was it good to see him back on tv!
Loved it!!! Glad that it is back. Now I know that I might get alot of flack for this, but I wish like hell that kid Willie would have died. He was hard headed and got Benton killed because he was sentimentalilty. A scarf!! Really!!! Then when he was going to run for him and then when he let Thomas to follow Jack when he was going head to head with the child soldier. I was thinking that whole time that kid soldier should have shot Willie, I would have jumped for joy.
Otherwise, great movie. Will hold me over to January.
I can’t say that I loved 24 Redemption (I kept flashing to Mrs Lovejoy from the Simpsons and her “won’t somebody think of the children!!” cry) but it was GREAT to see Jack Bauer kick butt again. And the preview for the new season really grabbed me, I have high hopes for this one.
Am I a bad person for having wanted Jack to strangle Willie with that stupid scarf ?
Jack Bauer is back… need we really say anything else?
the sacrfice scene was off the chain!!! I forget the actors name but he was in top form. Jack is always the man who has to carry out the mission wheater he wants to or not. welcome back Jack!!!
So you proved Jon Voight’s point: he can’t just do great work without some left wing outfit slapping him for his conservative views. Losers.
Totally hyped for the new season. Tony Almeida, will he be bad the whole season ? I don’t get how he could become a major bad guy, he was Jack’s one and only real friend………….but it still looks juicy.
Does anyone know where I can find the preview of Season 7 that they showed last night. I missed it …. stupid DVR.
“Whetted,” not “whet.”
OH MY WORD. That previw was awesome! I’m soooooooooooo excited for Season 7!!
That little boy was obsessing over Jack was quite annoying. And he thought his silk scarf was the greatest thing in the world. Then he cried because his teacher ‘lied’ to him. Agh, he aggrivated me.
Can’t wait for Season 7. Sadly it doesn’t look the same though. I’ll miss CTU! It really will be odd without them.
so, what day of the trial/hearing do you think they’ll cover? i’m pretty wary of this concept in real time, because let’s face it, not much happens in one day of court proceedings, especially in a trial that would most likely take two to three years (if it ever went to court)…
SUPERB!!! I never realizeed how much I missed the Adventures of Jack Bauer. Looking forward to Season 7. And for the record, if Tony A. can come back from the dead, so can Nina Myers, HEH!!! Of course the real life tragedy is as I type this comment for EW, somewhere in Hostile Africa several little boys are being kidnapped and turned into killing machines. I applaud the Fox Network & “24″ for bringing this horrific nightmare to light. Why doesn’t President G. Bush send U.S. Troops over there to help those children, hmmmm.