I promise not to use the phrase “Jack is back” in this entire post.

I forgot that 24: Redemption was even on last night until I happened to glance at a banner ad for it a few minutes before (hey those things do work!). I went into not expecting much, but honestly it gave me hope for the future of a show that I’ve all but written off as past its prime. Redemption did more in two hours than last season did in 24, and here’s why:

1) It’s all about Jack

24 often finds itself suffering from Heroes syndrome, in which 27 different plotlines try to coexist and overlap simultaneously. In the span of two hours, we only had time for three, and Jack’s story took up the good bulk of the show, as it should. Half the time we spend so much time dancing around in CTU and the Oval Office that we forget why everyone watches the show, for Jack #$@#ing Bauer.

2) A change of villain

Was anyone else tired of Jack fighting evil Europeans, scheming American corporations or terrorists from the dangerous region of Unspecifidistan? Seeing him take on African tribal warlords was a welcome switch, although to be fair I think they did make up another country. Sangala? Did you mean “Somalia”or “Senegal”? Seriously, can we stop doing this already? Is Africa really going to get pissed off and attack us if we use an actual country’s name?

3) The human side of Jack 

The only time we ever really get to see Jack be human is when he bursts out crying after a long day of biting the nerves out of terrorist’s necks. But here, in the rather long action-less lead-up, we got to see a softer side of Jack we hadn’t really seen before. For vengeful killing machine you would think this wouldn’t be accepted by the show’s fan base, but speaking as the show’s fan base, I say it’s a nice change from the usual “DAMNIT THERE’S NO TIME!” Although I believe that was said at least once. It wouldn’t be 24 without it.

4) Limited amounts of product placement

In two hours they only managed to slip in Hyundai, Cisco and Sprint/Nextel. And by slip in, I mean plaster the logo directly in your face for a good couple seconds. Seriously though, it could have been worse, Jack could have gone on a tirade about how much better service he gets in the jungles of Africa with Sprint over Verizon. The best part was the guy who was on the phone with his friend literally put him on hold to activate the Hyundai-branded GPS and play around with it for a few seconds before resuming conversation. Classic.

5) An appropriate running time

I’m almost wondering now if 24 would almost work better in a shorter format like this, maybe blocks of 4 or 8 episodes, rather than a sprawling 24 episode season. You can see the perils of such an extended format when you look at season four, which in the course of one day was forced to cram in everything from a massive bomb, to a nuclear power plant meltdown, to the crashing of Air Force One in order to keep the plot moving. This two hour format made every scene count, and there wasn’t time for extraneous useless plotlines involving mountain lions or Chloe making pouty faces.

I’m worried for when the show debuts in January that it won’t learn from it’s past mistakes. I have faith that 24 can be good again, it just needs to remember the way. And zombie Tony Almeida is not a good start.

Remember this? Well, just kidding!

Share

More Unreal Posts

• The Absolution of Jack Bauer
• Definitely Not Liveblogging the 24 Season 7 Premiere Part 2
• 24 Season 7 Trailer
• The Rights and Wrongs of Television Product Placement
• The Morning Link: Megan Hauserman Gets Her Own Show

Trackback URI | Comments RSS