I didn’t get on the 24 bandwagon, like ever. Then last summer, I blasted through a five season marathon. I still have more to watch, but I needed to take a break from Jack and the gang mainly due to how duplicitous everyone was, how sure everyone was sure that Jack was bad, etc. etc. But then I found out that they were starting up a brand new season and I just had to try it out.
Live Another Day begins in London at 11am. President Heller is in London and there is confirmation that a high value suspect is at large in the city. The local office of the CIA received a tip where this suspect could be found. Turns out the suspect is Jack Bauer, resurfaced after four years underground. Why would he be so careless now? He wasn’t. He called in the tip himself. He is after something…
So Jack really is back in all his bad ass glory…and certain sections of the government are back making similar bonehead mistakes, including thinking Jack Bauer is out to hurt President Heller…and Audrey is back—and with a new politics climbing husband…meanwhile, who Jack turns out to be after to break out of custody is Chloe…
This episode actually ran for two hours and spanned the hours of 11am and 1pm. This new day of terror includes hacker geniuses manipulating American drones. Jack believes the next target is the president and he came out of hiding to stop this all from happening. Jack traced the hacker he believes responsible to an underground organization that Chloe has been working with. This individual was no part of their organization anymore, but Chloe has the skills to help Jack find him. In the meantime, US and UK relations aren’t that great. The hacker drone attack was able to make it look like an American soldier killed two American and two British officers in a drone attack because he was upset about losing his leave…The hacker who created the program that can take control of the drones was murdered in the end because, inevitably, someone is pulling his strings…
The only person who seems to get that Jack is up to something…and I think will be the one to help him eventually, is the person who is on her way out at the CIA, Kate Morgan. She was a good field agent, but unbeknownst to her, her husband was selling secrets to the Chinese. After being tortured for two months to see if she was in on it with him, she was cleared, but is apparently being relocated.
It has been a few years since Jack’s last day in action, and while sometimes the dialogue is a bit exposition heavy (no seriously, who talks like this?), the writers do take care to make sure that the audience is clued into the vitals about Jack’s stories, and the lives of the others. I thought they did a pretty good job of getting key information newbies might need. How many shows can go into their, correct me if I’m wrong, ninth season and provide enough information someone who has never watched the show before can just jump in and get enough to go forward without being lost for a few episodes? I’m not entirely a newbie, so I hope that it worked for most…
Anyway, I thought it was action packed and detail oriented. 24 is definitely a show that you need to actually WATCH when it is on your tv. I have this habit of multitasking—like for instance, writing a review for Revolution while watching Game of Thrones, or some such. Really, with 24 you should be watching the episode, or you will miss things.
I don’t have a lot to say this time on the episode because I’m getting my sea legs so to speak on writing about 24— so let me know what it is you would like to see gone into here, what kind of evaluation you’d like to see so we can explore this season together!
Let me know what you thought of the episode! Screencap from 24: Live Another Day Facebook page.
