Another 24 Hours

So, Jack's back. I've been eagerly awaiting the new series, ever since the previous concluded. It is one of the few arc-based shows to which I'm prepared to devote the sort of commitment required. One of the things I like about the various CSIs and Law and Orders is that you don't have to watch them in any particular sequence. Keeping up with a long convoluted storyline can be a real chore and it doesn't take much for something a little bit short of must-see to tip over into drudge-watch. What 24 shares with another arc-based series I rate - Battlestar Galactica, is the serious but necessarily abrupt way it contrives and deals with ethical dilemmas. Both series confront the viewer with lifeboat ethics, in the case of BSG, literally so and demonstrate how lexicographic orderings crumble in the face of scarcity. This sets 24 and BSG apart from most other TV shows, including some of those aforementioned shows I enjoy, which prefer to shirk such dilemmas and imply that an appeal to high principle will always suffice and will never lead to undesirable consequences.

But back to the new series...[Semi-spoilers inside]

..I'm impressed so far. The action begins characteristically briskly: within about ten minutes two major characters are killed off. There's a conscious echo of the first series with Jack evading CTU and a mysterious "controller" who has figures working for him, including one semi-prominent character from the previous series inside the president's office and perhaps within CTU. It's shaping up well so far and, for the moment, I probably won't be able to wait until it airs on Sky next month and will have to rely on less orthodox sources.

Comments

[Abiola]

Ah, so you too are a fan of Jack "Da Man" Bauer? I am really impressed with the way the new series has started off - the cynic in me would never have bought that actors' agents would permit them to be killed off on the very first episode of a new season of such a major franchise - and yet these guys went ahead and did it anyway. That alone tells me that I can't expect anything or anyone to be off-limits this season, which certainly makes things a lot more interesting.

[Abiola]

While we're at it, I also love the way they show at the end of episode 1 that Jack is still the same old cold-blooded killer we know and love ...

[Frank McGahon]

"Tell me what I want to know and I'll get you to a hospital"...