The wait is finally over, for
fans of Fox’s hit thriller “24.”
The last time we saw tormented
super-agent Jack
Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland)
was nearly 18 months ago.
The show’s sixth season,
which ended in 2007, was
probably the weakest, in that
it recycled elements that had
been used in previous seasons.
Compared to the stellar
fifth season, which in my
opinion was arguably the
best next to the inaugural first
year, it was definitely lacking
in many areas.
Here’s the basic story:
“Redemption” finds Jack
Bauer in the fictional African
nation of Sangala doing missionary
work at a school run
by his ex-special forces
buddy played by Robert
Carlyle (The World Is Not
Enough) and dodging a subpoena
to return to the United
States to answer questions
about the treatment of people
in his custody as a CTU
agent. The school comes
under attack by forces that
are part of a coup that is
threatening to take over the
country; these forces are
backed by a group of people
in the U.S. government with
Jon Voight as their ringleader.
Jack then decides to help
the children get to the U.S.
embassy in order to keep
them from being recruited
into the rebel army.
Meanwhile, the first female
president Allison Taylor
(Cherry Jones) is about to
take the oath of office in
Washington. She learns about
the coup and is angered that
she was left out of the loop by
exiting-president Noah
Daniels (Powers Boothe). In
addition, her son is alerted by
a friend to the possible conspiracy
led by Voight, but her
son is skeptical because of his
friend’s past.
Now, for the analysis: Did
“24: Redemption” live up to
the high expectations that I
had given it? Answer: yes,
and no. It was good to have
Sutherland back doing what
Jack Bauer does best after a
long absence. There were also
some great action sequences
that rival some of the show’s
best moments thus far. I also
liked the fact that he had to
do everything by himself this
time, unable to rely on any
satellite images or support
from CTU. The movie did a
good job of introducing many
of the characters that we will
see in the seventh season.
But with all the mystery
and shocking elements missing,
which made the show
great in the first place, viewers
are left hanging.
In season one when Agent
Nina was shockingly
revealed as the traitor at the
end of the year, or in season
five when it turned out the
seemingly weak President
Logan turned out to be running
the entire conspiracy.
Those kind of shocking
moments that are a main feature
of “24” were missing
from this movie.
Everything that may have
been meant to be those
moments were easy for this
“24” fan to see coming. It didn’t
help that most of those
moments were included in
the trailer for the show. Now,
I know it’s only a TV movie,
and they only had two hours
to work with, but that doesn’t
mean you have to take the
mystery out of it.
This was only a precursor to
season seven, and I won’t
make any immediate judgments
about the upcoming
season.
I liked “Redemption,” but I
felt that it could have had better
moments. Hopefully, season
seven will return to the
ways of “Day One” and “Day
Five” and give us the thrill
rides, emotional reactions
and shocking plot twists that
made this show so great to
begin with.