24: Live Another Day

Jack's Back: What We Loved (And Hated) About The Premiere

Four years ago, the clock stopped: Jack Bauer, after thanklessly saving the world innumerable times, was put out to pasture by Fox. But Jack, being that resourceful and relentless rogue agent everybody loved for eight nail-biting seasons, hooked up a car battery to a barbed wire fence, interrogated the pasture until it gave up the location of the terrorist threat and got himself back on TV.

Yes, #JackIsBack.

And although his return wasn’t exactly how I was imagined (admittedly, I have a pretty ludicrous imagination), I’m still happy that he’s back. The world — even when under enormous threat — feels safer when Jack is around. But that same world has changed a lot since 2010 — can Jack keep up?

Reviving a series (especially one that was past it’s expiration date) is always a big risk. I was a huge 24 fan when it was on and I was skeptical when I saw the trailer for 24: Live Another Day during this year’s Super Bowl. It’s not taking place in 100% real-time? And it’s set in London? And Chloe has some weird haircut? Blasphemy! But I put aside my reservations for Jack and the CTU team (what, no CTU?!) and tuned in. Overall, it was pretty damn good. Sure, the show isn't perfect — it never was — but it still is a helluva lot of fun to watch.

[Spoilers ahead.]

12 Thoughts On 24

#24LAD starts tonight! For those of you who watch it, I hope you dig it. For those of you who don't, I'll see you in the bar. — Kiefer Sutherland (@RealKiefer) May 5, 2014

: Jack’s back. That’s all that really matters. If you have a problem with that, talk to the man himself:: What’s with all the Stark Industries tech that Jack has in his body? Is he android Jack Bauer? Maybe he’s Ultron? It’s pretty impressive stuff but you’d think the CIA station in London has full body scanner or at least a metal detector, right? Will he use all this gear to fight the drones?

No. 3: One of the weakest parts of 24 has always been the forced dialogue that’s peppered in between action sequences to move the story along. Unfortunately, it hasn’t gotten any better.

Weak dialogue is when a character has to summarize plot to pick up the reader/viewer - as was just demonstrated. #LiveAnotherDay — KW | Robert (@PeopleofKW) May 6, 2014

: Look, I love Yvonne Strahovski but the last season of Dexter left a bad taste in my mouth. I was hoping to see her bounce back as Kate in 24: LAD but as soon as she tasered Security Guard #2, I realized she’d been cast in another ridiculous role. But 24 ridiculous, so I’ll have to accept it.

No. 5: Benjamin Bratt is perfect as the competent/incompetent station chief. He’s no Tony Almeida but I’ll take CIA Rey Curtis for a dozen episodes.

No.6: This whole Chloe thing is a bit weird.

now that chloe is a hacker she was issued standard girl with the dragon tattoo clothing and ink #24LAD — parva (@parva_x) May 6, 2014

Julian Assange

: And even though she is working for, sorry, Adrian, Chloe is right: Jack should have just asked her for help instead of orchestrating his own capture and escape.

No. 8: Speaking of Adrian, I still think Michael Wincott’s best role was in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.

No.9: Is President Heller going to pardon Jack at the end of all of this just to forget five minutes later? His whole dementia/Alzheimer thing is going to have to come into play at some point.

No. 10: So, who is the terrorist working inside the CIA? Agent Erik Ritter? Too obvious. It’s probably Yvonne Strahovski. But somehow Jack will make her flip to his side and then they’ll fall in love. And then he’ll realize that he can’t protect her so he’ll leave and become a lumberjack in Alaska.

No. 11: Speaking of snow: Winter is coming. Sorry, Catelyn Stark, things didn’t end well for you last time I saw you on TV.

No. 12: We don’t want to admit it but this is really what we all want to see, right?