The first hour was a lot of set-up we already got from all the ads and promotions but the second hour was when we started to see some complications. The political aspects are being done a bit heavy-handed in an either/or situation though this is still a bit early (& I'm really hoping there aren't more secret agendas inside the government). It all still feels a bit familiar (even if we've never seen Jack rip out somebody's jugular with his teeth before) but it looks like there may be something major tomorrow night. Stephen King's piece in Entertainment Weekly said that there is a big surprise. My guess is that Jack kills one of the innocent homesteaders across the street from that nice Ahmed guy and then has a crisis of conscience. But we'll see.

And I know this is a kind of fantasy-world action series but I still find it amusing that Jack could be in a prison for three years and still emerge in top physical condition.

At least 24 still has the ability to somehow surprise us, as we saw when Bauer bit a guy to death and spit out his throat. Now that is cool.

It looks like somebody's going to die tomorrow night. You can usually tell by checking the opening titles each week who the short-timers are. By the way, why did Sutherland go unbilled in the first episode? So as not to give away that Bauer was coming back to the series? Uh, Kiefer's been on the cover of every magazine the last two weeks and in the Fox promos showing every eight minutes during football, so that was no surprise.

I was impressed by the exploding house. The missile was definitely CGI, but the house looked like a real explosion to me, and Sutherland and the other actors looked pretty close to it. I can usually pick out fake fire and explosions, but if that house didn't really blow up, it was the best CGI explosion I've ever seen.

I didn't buy that Wayne Palmer could get elected President (remember his adulterous affair? not to mention the goatee.) or that Fox couldn't afford to provide Sutherland with a realistic-looking fake beard, but 24 is still the best show on television. Although the return of Eric Balfour threatens that status. Is there anyone outside of network executives who thinks this guy is remotely attractive or talented? He's killed almost as many shows as Ted McGinley.

Not for nothing, Marty, but our current President is an admitted recovering alcoholic, and a rumoured ex-cocaine user. Stranger things have happened...

Vincent

OK. I need help.

Who's the actor playing the white FBI agent seizing the personnel files from the president's sister? I recognize him and can't place him. I just remember that forlorn look he has and I know I've seen it previously when he was a younger man.

It's Scott Winter. He's done a number of guest shots on TV shows over the years, but had a long running stint on OZ as brain-damaged inmate Cyril O'Reily.

It's amusing to see Carlo Rota back as Morris O'Brian - his new CBC comedy LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE just debuted last week.

Scott Winters. Of course!!

Thanks, Robert. That was driving me nuts. Even when he's looking serious, he still has that hangdog, slightly pathetic Cyril quality.

He's also known for his appearance in GOOD WILL HUNTING during the "How do you like them apples?" scene in the bar, which was parodied in JAY & SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK with Scott re-appearing, as well.

Didn't his actual brother play his brother on OZ?

Vincent

Yes, his brother, Dean, played his fictional brother Ryan O'Reilly.

Kiefer Sutherland was listed first in the opening credits. His name appears right before the closeup of the TV screen showing FOX News so there's a brief gap before the other credits.

Jack's surprisingly good physical condition aside, I thought last night's 24 premiere was terrific and am looking forward to parts 3 and 4 tonight.

Tonight's two episodes were terrific, can't wait for the rest of the season...

And I may be wrong, but as I was in the kitchen getting a snack during commercial breaks, I could've sworn they announced that the "24 season 6 premiere event"- i.e., these first four episodes- would be released on DVD tomorrow????

Vincent

Holy cow, slow start but the Monday night episodes really ramped up to what we have come to expect from 24. Y'know that whole "Surely they're not going to....yep they did" vibe. Which also makes you wonder that if this is going to happen after only four hours how can they possibly top it for the next 20? I hope there's more to the Jack-redemption angle; Bauer has never been much of a character so it'd be good to have that filled out a bit. By the way, I remember reading an interview with the actor who played Tony who said that the plan last season had been for Jack to kill Tony during that scene where Tony was threatening the guy who killed Michelle but that intention was changed somewhat last minute, one reason that scene felt a little lightweight. Well, I guess there was too much potential in that idea to drop it.

I was surprised about the DVD of the first four episodes as well but that seems like a good idea.

I saw flyers from two different electronics retailers in the weekend papers that had the four episode 24 DVD advertised for something like $9.99. I forgot to look at the sales dates to see whether they were already available a few days back or if they were held back for Tuesday.

BTW nice to see Megan Gallagher from CHINA BEACH and NOWHERE MAN once again, and fun to catch Canadian comedian Shaun Majumder (from CBC's THIS HOUR HAS 22 MINUTES) as the bomb maker. Majumder did a promo for 22 MINUTES more than a year ago where Sutherland appeared and he asked if he could be on 24 as either his partner or the guy Jack kills.

Yup, this is what was leaked on the internet last week. The head of the TV studio insisted on putting it out to make some extra cash and my understanding is the Exec. producers of the show were pissed. Especially I would assume because it seems ratings were not what they were hoping for.

I think whatever ratings woes 24 experienced this week were due to prime-time spillover competition from the NFL playoffs. Otherwise, the ratings were very good, maybe a smidge under last year's opener. And, creatively, the new season is off to a fine start. My prediction as to which regular would not survive the opener was correct (always check the cast credits, people), which didn't diminish the scene's power, although the moment certainly paled next to the final minute, didn't it?

Strangely, I felt just the opposite. I actually thought that Curtis and Jack’s final scene was the real emotional punch of the episode. Any show with a CGI budget and a bit of audacity can set off a suitcase bomb, but the choice that Bauer makes there (and particularly his reaction afterward) is exactly the kind of thing that keeps me coming back to this show. But there is still hope – I never actually heard anyone say “______ is dead!” – so, like soul-patch Tony last year, I’ll continue to believe that a resurrection is forthcoming. A few other thoughts on the season so far:

1. I already miss Kal Penn

2. I was genuinely thrilled that Bill and Karen got married (if anything happens to either of them…)

3. Where are the Lost Boys jokes – he bit some guy in the neck for heaven sakes!

4. Even after all those months of torture, Jack still gave himself a very nice haircut.

5. Who else caught 24 mega fan Stephen Merchant at the CTU hq? Apparently, it was felt that a Gervais cameo would be too much, but a scene in the oval office was filmed with Ricky as a Secret Service agent who cannot believe that people aren’t calling Bauer every few minutes. It sounds hilarious, and hopefully it will find its way to the season 6 DVD set.

What kept the Bauer/Curtis scene from really really packing a wallop is the fact that Curtis really has not, unlike many other regulars, been giving much of a personality or backstory. I don't feel we got to know Curtis very well like we did Soul Patch Tony, Edgar, Michelle, etc. Did we even know he was in Desert Storm before last night? And while it has always been clear that Bauer respected Curtis, he has punched out Curtis so many times that shooting him just seemed like a natural progression. I would say Curtis' actions seemed out of character, if he had one.

Oddly, for me, 24's most emotional moments have involved the deaths of unsympathetic characters. Remember jackass George Mason's (Xander Berkeley) moving sacrifice to rescue L.A. from an earlier nuclear bomb? And a great TV moment when Bauer was forced by his enemy to shoot his even jackassier boss Ryan Chappelle (Paul Schulze) in the head? They were jerks, but they still had more personality than Curtis, which is no fault of the actor, Roger Cross.

I have read a few LOST BOYS jokes on the Internet!

I didn't mind the haircut so much, but I was a little disappointed Bill didn't bring Jack anything to eat. Geez, the least the U.S. government could do is provide Bauer with a Big Mac or something before turning him over to his new torturers.

I wondered about Kal Penn too. Was the idea to cast him against type, the whole Kumar/Taj-turns-out-to-be-a-terrorist thing? Did the producers merely want a somewhat familiar face in that role? Or was it just a bit more random? Too bad he couldn't have been around more. I'm already starting to be annoyed by Peter MacNicol who I hope turns out to *not* be a deceitful, scheming political crony that undermines everything. But it may already be too late. I do suspect Sister Palmer has some secret to be revealed. Deleting those files on such a flimsy excuse is way undermotivated unless there's something else coming.

My biggest complaint so far is that they really need a script doctor to punch up the dialogue. Or maybe just a crash course in Mamet/Hecht/etc because you can always make heavy-handed obvious points with a bit more flair than we've heard so far.

Has anybody followed Dave Barry's blog (http://blogs.herald.com/dave_barrys_blog/)? He's been doing real-time commentary just like last season and though it's a bit too relentlessly sarcastic it's still fun.

Penn has been busy. He played a villain on tonight's LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT. And just like on 24, he got shot by the cops!

I suspect MacNicol is a red herring. I also presume his character won't last the whole season, because he's got a day job over on NUMB3RS.

I suspect by this point, anyone who runs against a Palmer in a Presidential election can point out that we've now had two separate terrorist nukes detonated on American soil under the watch of two separate Palmer Presidents.

And what year is it in 24 now? I know it's skipped several years hear and there between seasons, so are we now in the future? When will Jack have to face a Terminator?

I've lost track, but we're definitely 6 or 7 years (at least) into the future. I hope Bauer jacks a flying car in an upcoming episode.

I've been enjoying the show so far this season, which is strange because I wouldn't call myself a fan of "24" more generally. Although I really do like Kiefer Sutherland a lot, an action star in the oldfashioned mode.

I think it helps to throw plausibility completely out the window with this show -- although the attempts to try to make a point or two aren't horribly handled, it's certainly not the attraction of the thing. I've seen the first four episodes and am constantly amazed at Bauer's resilience given that he didn't even get a bowl of Special K this morning; at

SPOILERS, I GUESS


his boss's offhanded acceptance when Bauer, yet again, goes off the reservation; at how nobody listened to Bauer even though, by the logic of the show, He's Always Gonna Be Right About Stuff Like This; at how everybody packs a lifetime into four hours when I've had days when it's taken me that long to get dressed and get a shave.

I did really like the whole subplot with the Average American Family. The put upon kid/victim turns out to actually be a terrorist, and the nice guy across the street gets blown to bits by a suitcase nuke for his trouble. I like how they at least try to be complicated on "24" -- at least they have here, so far.

doug

I'd have to double-check, but I'm pretty sure seasons 1 and 2 take place a year apart, then we jump ahead I believe a full 3 years for season 3. Season 4 is I believe 18 months after season 3, and season 5 is 18 months after season 4. The Chinese mention having had Jack for "20 months" in the opener of this new season.

So since day one, almost 9 years have passed in 24 time.

Vincent

I just read an article online today that was written after the 24 producers took a bunch of TV critics on a tour of the CTU set this week. Apparently, the telephones on the set have the year 2012 on them. However, in a different article (which I can't find now), executive producer Howard Gordon claims that the current season takes place in 2007, and there's a sort of feud going on between him and the art department that created the 2012 date for the phones.

Holy crap! The evil puppetmaster who controlled Evil President Logan on Day 5...is Jack Bauer's brother?? And Jack shagged his sister-in-law??

This season is going to be juicy.

And Jack's "nephew" is practically a dead-ringer for Kim...

Also, didn't they actually establish the time line tonight- didn't his brother say something like he hadn't seen Jack in nine years, since his wife's funeral?

Vincent

We noticed that! I don't know who that actor is, but I wouldn't be surprised if he really was related to Elisha Cuthbert!

Yep, nine years. Putting Day 6 in...2010?

They also keep bringing up the exchange for Jack's release without specifying what it was. It would have been easy enough to toss this off by saying some prisoners or something were exchanged so it sounds like this may be a plot point later. Can't think of what it could be though. (Maybe Kim was sent to China, figuring hey Jack won't be around to care....)

The ID of Jack's brother was a nice twist. In hindsight it seems like I should have figured it out since the previews showed Jack with the bald guy and I couldn't see how Jack could track him down in such a small amount of time.

The one thing I really don't get is how the unappealing DB Woodside got to be president, which I guess is what happens when you've mostly run out of supporting actors to upgrade. Smarmy and, as I recall, scandal-ridden, but there he is, in charge. Plus that facial hair--when's the last time the American electorate went for that? Teddy Roosevelt? :)

Just what we needed. Jack Bauer's secret son. I was all set to accept his evil brother, but now we get the secret son, too?

Do ANY of the teenagers in the 24 universe not have shaggy mopey indy guy hair?

Hmmm...after five exciting, thrill-packed seasons of 24, capped by its deserved Emmy wins last season, is it about to "jump the shark"? I forgive a lot on 24 because I enjoy it so much but from-left-field family connection shenanigans are hard to swallow and hard to overcome if the audience doesn't buy into them. All I can say is that if there's a musical episode on the cards I'll stop watching. :)

We really should have seen this coming, as good brother/bad brother and good son/bad father are classic dramatic staples (THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, anyone? Oh, okay, HAMLET then.).

I don't really buy Woodside as President either, but I also didn't buy Jean Smart as last year's First Lady (even if she was obviously based on Pat Nixon), and that story worked out because her performance and Gregory Itzin's were so good. And, really, if DB Woodside as President is the most implausible element of 24, the show must be doing a great job!

I've started to wonder about jumping the shark as well because as much as I've enjoyed the season so far it appears to be starting to stretch things. Then again if they keep trying to top what's just happened it may jump the shark in such spectacular dumb splendor that it would be irresistible. Heck, pile on more family intrigue, kill more of CTU, find more traitors, the more the merrier. And let's start a betting pool that at least one more bomb will go off.

I think overall 24 is starting to repeat itself just a bit too much. The Sutherland interviews and promotions claimed Jack would start in a dark place and have to rebuild himself but so far there hasn't been much of that. He just didn't care for about an hour. He quits but five minutes later a bomb pulls him right back in. He was more convincingly out of it at the start of the second season.

Woodside definitely seems to be a weak link so far. My guess is that they wanted to avoid another new face. (By the way, was it ever explained what happened to the president Logan replaced? After the plane crash he was unconscious or in a coma but I don't remember him ever being mentioned again.) In those interviews again Sutherland has claimed that Woodside/Palmer will turn out very differently than his brother and I'm willing to wait to see what they do with him. There are hints already that he may be the one with a real crisis, thinking he can't handle this situation and possibly making bad calls as a result. Imagine another bomb going off and he decides after all that it's not such a bad idea to strike other countries, or declare martial law and send troops into LA, etc but that starts to get into stories that can't be resolved in 24 hours.

SPOILERS



There's only one thing cooler than having an evil brother. And that's

MORE SPOILERS

torturing him for information.

I've been enjoying this season thus far -- complaining about the improbabilities here and there seems to me like complaining about the wetness of water -- absolutely true but kinda beside the point.

Actually, I don't consider myself a fan of "24" and I've been enjoying this season a lot. Almost perfect pulp. Some of the domestic plotlines I think are/will be predictable (the evil brother will die, the kid will hate Jack but at the last minute will Learn The Truth; the hot sister-in-law will get busy with Jack by about seven pm but will probably die before daybreak because Jack Must Stand Alone) but maybe I'll be wrong, who knows.

doug

In a nutshell, so far...

BEST

SEASON

EVER.

Viva Le Jack.

Doesn't 24 sort of jump the shark pretty much every half hour or so? They just have a whole lot of sharks.

And yeah -- complaining about implausibilities in 24 is sort of like going to Disney World in June and complaining about the lines.

Wasn't Jack stabbed in the shoulder just a couple hours ago? Oh right, he changed his shirt, so wound healed!

Okay, silly question time.

If I remember correctly, when "24" first came on it was announced that each single hour-long episode was going to be 1 hour of 1 day, told in real time, with 24 eps. adding up to one whole day of action. Which would mean, presumably, that we'd get at least a few Andy Warhol SLEEP-style eps. showing Jack Bauer sound asleep or tossing and turning, etc. for the duration of the episode. But I don't think we ever got those.
Anyway, so if, as per IMDB, there are 147 eps. so far, that adds up to a total of about six complete days covered so far. Yet, there've been several different presidents in the run of the series, right? Which suggests the series has spanned a whole lot more time than six days.

I'm guessing they dropped that 24-hour concept a long time ago. Right?

(P.S. Never watched a single episode. I'm just curious.)

Jack is like Dalton. Pain don't hurt.

Still to come on the show: James Cromwell, Powers Boothe, Rick Shroder, Chad Lowe, and the returns of Kim Raver, Greg Itzin and Jean Smart.

While I liked D.B. Woodside's contributions to past seasons of 24 I'll echo the opinions that it's tough buying him as President. Wayne Palmer must have clocked in with some seriously impressive political time during those months Jack was overseas being used as a punching bag. That or the voting public had fond memories of Chris Rock in HEAD OF STATE.

Boothe is always fun to watch, and will be playing the Vice-President.

Nope, it's just that it's 24 hours in any given day. In other words, it's 24 hours of the day 1/22/04, then the next season may be 4/04/06 or 5/13/09. It's still 24 hours, but as much time as they want can pass between the seasons, which in turns adds layers to the story you may not find out about right away because of things that happened off screen between the seasons. They could in theory do an entire season that was a flashback more or less to set up a really epic story, then the next season start up again in correct time. I kinda think that would be neat, as all the characters that were killed could come back. Talk about jumping the shark, do it BIG if you're going to do it! :)

Brian, I'll try and break down the Presidents that 24 has had and how they fit into the timeline:

*SPOILERS FOLLOW*

Season 1/Day 1- we don't ever meet the President, but it's the day of the California primary and David Palmer is seeking the nomination.

Season 2/Day 2- David Palmer is President

Season 3/Day 3- David Palmer is still President and gearing up for re-election. At the end of the "day", he drops out of the race.

Season 4/Day 4- I forget the name of the President, but it's the guy Palmer was gearing up to run against in season 3. Halfway through Day 4, the President is incapacitated and Vice President Logan takes over office.

Season 5/Day 5- Logan is President. At the end of the day, he is arrested for treason.

Season 6/Day 6- Wayne Palmer is President.

Since Logan wasn't elected, he took over for the sitting President, he didn't have a full term. Of all the 24 Presidents so far, only David Palmer has had a complete 4-year term*. Wayne Palmer has only been President a couple months during day 6. So, all this should still fit in with the 9-year timetable since day 1.

Vincent

* Actually this isn't even entirely true, because David Palmer doesn't just drop out of the re-election race at the end of day 3, he resigns his Presidency.

Yeah, but do they ever show an hour of Jack sleeping? Or does Jack simply never sleep? :huh: