'24,' entering a darker day

'24,' entering
a darker day

In which our hero Bauer becomes an anti-hero

By Ethan Alter

     If there's one image that stands out from the pulse-pounding season premiere of "24," which airs tonight without commercial interruption on Fox at 9 p.m., it's Kiefer Sutherland's haunted visage.
Sporting a scruffy beard, unkempt hair, and a world-weary expression, the show's star is the very picture of a man who has essentially given up on life.
    That perfectly sums up the current status of his character, counter-terrorism expert Jack Bauer.
   It's been more than a year since the fateful day chronicled last season, when Bauer successfully thwarted an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate. But his victory came with a price: In the finale's closing moments, Jack discovered that his wife, Teri (Leslie Hope), had been murdered by his former lover and trusted partner, Nina (Sarah Clarke), who turned out to be a double agent for an as-of-yet unknown organization.
   In the time since, Bauer has taken a leave of absence from CTU. He spends his days driving aimlessly around Los Angeles, working up the nerve to speak with his estranged daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert).
    Meanwhile, the man whose life he saved, Senator David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) has gone on to become President Palmer. As the premiere opens at 8 a.m. on the day of our new season, Palmer is enjoying an early morning fishing trip with his son, Keith.
    Not more than five minutes later, however, the new president is summoned to an urgent meeting where he receives some frightening news: A terrorist group known as "Second Wave" has planted a nuclear bomb somewhere in Los Angeles and it's scheduled to go off later that day. While his advisers insist that Palmer consider a military response, the President instead decides to turn to his old friend Jack, who has a connection to "Second Wave" from a previous mission.
    But will Bauer allow himself to be forced back onto the job, even by the President?
   And if he does, will his new nihilistic attitude help or harm the investigation?
    The answer to the first question is obviously yes. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a show.
   The second one, meanwhile, is what's going to be fueling much of the drama this season, and so far it's been executed brilliantly.
   If nothing else, the first two episodes prove that the writers did the right thing in killing off Teri, a decision they caught a lot of flack for when the finale aired back in May.
    After all, had Bauer saved the day and been successfully reunited with his wife and daughter, there would be nowhere for the character to go.
   Now, however, Bauer is precisely the kind of loose cannon he always resisted becoming, and that tension between who he was and who he is results in some excellent drama. When Jack goes undercover in the second episode, you don't know whom to fear for more, him or the gang he's infiltrating.
    For now, "24's" main storyline is so gripping that the other subplots can't help but suffer in comparison. Some of them do seem promising, though, particularly Palmer's ongoing conflict with a possibly treacherous aide.
   Next to Sutherland, Haysbert remains the show's ace performer; he endows Palmer with a gravity that helps center some of the more unbelievable plot twists. Also turning in a good performance is "Roseanne" veteran Sarah Gilbert, who joins the CTU staff as Paula, an eager to please but very clumsy computer technician.
    This wouldn't be "24" if there weren't at least one subplot that leaves one rolling his eyes. And again, no surprise, that honor once again goes to daughter Kim.
    After spending last season stumbling upon creative ways of getting captured, Jack's irritating offspring is once again in harm's way. This time, she's taken a job as a live-in nanny for the young daughter of a wealthy L.A. couple.
   But wouldn't you know it, the father turns out to be an abusive psycho, so Kim grabs the girl and goes on the lam. Aside from being poorly written, these sequences feature the series' worst acting, with Cuthbert struggling in vain to make Kim's behavior remotely believable.
    Couldn't she have just been conveniently out of town this season?
   Also of marginal value is a rather odd subplot involving socialite Kate Warner (Sarah Wynter), who begins to suspect that her sister's Middle Eastern fiancée may not be telling the truth about his past.
   No doubt Ms. Warner's story will at some point intersect with Jack's, but for now her scenes slow the show's momentum.
   Whenever Sutherland is onscreen, "24" roars to life. In a way, last season only seemed to be a warm-up for both the character and the actor.
   Here's hoping the writers don't try and set his life straight at the end of this year; in Sutherland's hands, Bauer is actually a better anti-hero than he was a hero.

-Ethan Alter is a New York writer and a frequent contributor to Media Life.

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