By: Brandon Wolfe
It has been four years since the clock finally ran out on Jack Bauer, and at the time it felt like not a moment too soon. Actually, it felt like a moment arriving years too late. ‘24’ was one of the defining shows of the ‘00s, it rewrote many of the rules of television and it had stretches where it occasionally brushed up against something like brilliance, but it ran out of gas long before it left our screens. Collapsing into a slog of poor writing, repetitive use of the same handful of tropes, frequent deployment of troubling politics and just an overall sense that its premise could not withstand being trotted out over myriad seasons, the latter years of ‘24’ became something of a chore to get through. Add to this mix rapidly diminishing ratings and it’s hard to argue that ‘24’s’ demise wasn’t the right call.
But all that being said, it’s nice having ol’ Jack Bauer around. The character has earned his place in the action-hero pantheon and, for all the criticisms you could lob at ‘24’ over the years, the one constant, the one thing that kept it all worth watching, was Kiefer Sutherland’s unwaveringly compelling embodiment of this tortured, torturing, killing machine. Sutherland was never handed particularly great dialogue, never given much new material to play around with, certainly never got any varying character shadings to apply to Jack’s personality, yet he somehow managed to keep his alter ego consistently gripping in spite of everything. In the years since the show’s finale, there was much discussion of adapting ‘24’ into a feature film, setting Jack up with a ‘Bourne’-like movie franchise of his own. This plan obviously didn’t pan out and now Jack has returned to our living rooms. It’s like he never left.
‘Live Another Day’ picks up a real-time (apropos) four years after the conclusion of Season 8. If you remember correctly (you probably don’t), Jack assassinated several Russian diplomats and attempted to kill the corrupt Russian president for the hand these men played in murdering someone he cared for deeply, and was forced to flee the country, branded a traitor despite his many years of ceaseless patriotism. He’s now living in London, lying low, until the CIA picks up his scent and apprehends him. Taken into custody, Jack refuses to speak and is to be turned over to a “special activities” unit for harsh interrogation (it ain’t ‘24’ unless folks are being tortured). But it turns out that Jack must have spent these last four years watching many summer blockbusters because he uses the same trope movie villains keep using of late, where he got himself caught on purpose so he can pull off some secret scheme from the inside. That scheme involves freeing his old ally, Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub), who’s currently being treated to these special activities.
Jack Bauer has never been a character who really changed a great deal over the years, but ‘Live Another Day’ actually does find something of a new mode for him: supervillain. The way Jack is regarded in the first hour of this miniseries is not unlike how authority figures viewed Hannibal Lecter or Jason Voorhees when they were held in captivity. He’s not just a capable former agent, he’s some inhuman other, an unfathomable danger mere mortals couldn’t hope to withstand. This in and of itself isn’t a huge leap from how ‘24’ came to view Jack as it went on, but the difference here is that Jack now inhabits the role of a bad guy, blowing up a large chunk of the very CTU-ish CIA station and shooting at the pretty blonde agent (Yvonne Strahovski) who is dutifully trying to apprehend him. We aren’t allowed much access to Jack’s headspace in this premiere, but his actions have a darker undercurrent than they ever have had before.
Of course, Jack has other things on his mind beyond freeing Chloe. He’s out to track down a hacker who worked for an underground group devoted to disseminating classified information to the public, a group that counts Chloe among their ranks. Reinventing anal-retentive taskmaster Chloe as Lisbeth Salander is one of ‘Live Another Day’s’ wilder conceits, but it does give ‘24’ a new dynamic to play around with, now that both Chloe and Jack act in the capacity of criminals, and ones that don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye, at that. We soon learn that there is a bit of the old heroic Jack left alive in there, as he intends to save President James Heller (William Devane, reprising his role from Seasons 4-6 with a promotion), who Jack has always respected and whose daughter, Audrey (Kim Raver), he once loved. Audrey is now romantically involved with Mark Boudreau (Tate Donovan), Heller’s Chief of Staff, who knows about Audrey’s history with Jack and seems especially motivated to keep Jack out of the picture. Jack works with a reluctant Chloe to track down his suspect while attempting to stay one step ahead of the CIA.
The first two hours of ‘Live Another Day’ set up a lot. In addition to all the business with Jack, we learn that the same people who mean to assassinate Heller have gained access to a program that can seize control of drones remotely and use them for evil deeds, as a dry run in Afghanistan proves, killing four soldiers. The drone pilot at the switch, Chris Tanner (John Boyega from ‘Attack the Block’ and, eventually, ‘Star Wars Episode VII’), has been framed for this action and is attempting to prove his innocence in the face of damning evidence. Meanwhile, in addition to the rotten day he’s sure to have ahead of him, Heller is also suffering from early onset dementia, and struggles to keep his facts straight in the face of a crisis.
‘Live Another Day’ gets things off to a strong start. But then, ‘24’ always started strong before inevitably losing its way as each season progressed and ideas ran out. Fortunately, since this “event series” is only running 12 episodes instead of the usual (duh) 24, we might reasonably expect more wheat than chaff this time out. What’s notable here is how much this feels like old-school ‘24’, a feeling that proves welcome after such a prolonged absence, in a way that this very same material wouldn’t have felt had it aired in January 2011 as a proper Season 9. Perhaps watching NBC’s pitiful ‘24’ wannabe ‘Crisis’ has made me more receptive to the genuine article, or maybe it’s just nostalgia getting the better of me, but at this moment in time, I’m pleased that ‘24’ is living another day.
Discuss this review with fellow SJF fans on Facebook. On Twitter, follow us at @SandwichJFilms, and follow author Brandon Wolfe on Twitter at @ChiusanoWolfe.
Please Leave A Comment-
Comments