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24 7.1: "Day 7: 8AM - 9AM" |
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Monday, 12 January 2009 |
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By John Keegan
Visit Critical Myth for an archive of John's TV Review archives, with more than 1100 entries.
| After the sixth season, a number of fans were disappointed in the direction taken by the writers. In truth, many had been disappointed for quite some time. Bombast and shock value are rarely a good substitute for tight planning and careful preparation. Supposedly the producers, in light of critical lambasting after the sixth season and the writers' strike, decided to take a different approach this season, working out the direction and arc of the story beforehand.
That's a good move, because this season is important to the overall saga of Jack Bauer. For better or worse, Jack has lost almost everything over the past several years. As the season begins, there’s no CTU, no Audrey, no support staff, and the full weight of a smug Senate subcommittee on his shoulders. Freshly in the States after his self-imposed exile and the prelude "Redemption", Jack seems resigned to what he has coming to him.
In this political climate, there's no question that someone like Jack Bauer would be questioned for his tactics and decisions. The use of torture in counter-terrorism is a hot topic of late. Jack makes all the necessary arguments in his short but sweet responses. While it's absolutely correct for the general American populace to question his actions and declare them unacceptable, he was doing the job that he was assigned to do. He cannot regret being successful at that job, because in the end, thousands (if not millions) were saved as a result. If the eventual cost is his own freedom, or even his own soul, then he's willing to pay it.
Which means that the season is very likely going to be what it always needed to be: the beginning of the restoration of Jack Bauer. Jack began as a man in balance, and the years have stripped all of that away. The world wants to pretend that it doesn't need a Jack Bauer anymore. Already, it's abundantly clear that this is not the case, and one can see how this season (and however many remain) will deliver the proof. Just by the end of the first hour, it's obvious that someone with Jack's unique attitude and skill set has a place in the dirty world of counter-terrorism.
As such, the typical FBI characters have already emerged. Agent Moss doesn't believe in "loose cannons" like Jack Bauer, and wants him on a short leash. Agent Walker, played by a gorgeous Annie Wersching, is a field agent with a more pragmatic attitude: unleash Jack with reasonable limits to accomplish the mission. (Those limits should stretch pretty quickly.) Janeane Gerofalo plays a pseudo-Chloe in the FBI office, and there's an annoying tech named Sean. And there's at least one mole in the FBI working with the terrorists, because that's always a "24" trope.
In an interesting (if too publicized) move, Tony Almeida is a senior member of the terrorist organization, which is trying to break through a firewall that protects most of the major government networked systems. This particular gambit involves a plane, and the writers play that to the hilt (note the constant shots of the little kid). There's some hint that Tony is acting out against the government because of Michelle's death at the hands of President Logan's hit squad in the fifth season.
Back at the White House, President Taylor is dealing with the problems explored in "Redemption". Her son is dead, presumably at the hands of the villains working with General Juma, but everyone except Mr. Taylor thinks it was a suicide. One can assume that his investigations will slowly but surely expose the complicated truth behind the scheme in Sangala, which will inevitably connect to Tony's terrorism. (And, in turn, one can speculate that all of those connections will show President Taylor, and many others, the value of an organization like CTU and a man like Jack Bauer.) |
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