The *SoCs Domain

“Tick tock, Mr. Bauer. You’re running out of time.” -Dana Walsh

This was an unexpected twist in the story. Right after Jack and Renee save Hassan from the black ops team sent by the traitorous General and Chief of Staff, he turns on them and gives himself to the terrorists.

Here’s the breakdown.

Characters
Jack is at the top of his game here, doing everything he does best: interrogation, car chases and gun battles. The Dana/Jenny and Cole story arc starts coming to a head as Jenny is discovered to be the mole. The way Cole confronted her in the parking garage was almost identical to Jack in day 1 with Nina, before finding out that she killed Teri. And Jack’s interrogation of her was good. I wish they would have had more time for him to grill her about the people she works for. I was hoping for a bit more of an explosive confrontation with the General and Chief of Staff, but the way it was handled was good. I did like that the President personally saw to taking care of Hassan’s wife and daughter while CTU tried to recover him.

Story
After Hassan gives himself up, the rest of the time in these two episodes was spent trying to find and recover him before the Terrorists could kill him. Along the way, they discover the mole in CTU, discover the treachery in the White House, and find the apartment that the terrorists take Hassan to. Unfortunately, they find that a few minutes too late.

With 8 hours left, this is very bad for the President. Several of the delegates from other countries have said that without Hassan, the peace process is over. There is no way to know who will succeed Hassan in the IRK government so there’s very little hope for another leader that will push for peace like Hassan. It will be interesting to see how the final 8 hours of 24 will unfold.

“I don’t take orders from anyone but the President of the United States.” -Jack Bauer

I have to say that so far, I am really liking Season 8 of 24. They’ve brought a bit more of a personal touch to it with how protective Jack has become of Renee and his goal of surviving the day do he can retire with his daughter and granddaughter. Granted, it’s still unrealistic how much he does. With the time between seasons, the show is about 12 years ahead of us, so Jack is now in his 50s.

Here’s the breakdown.

Characters
Jack is back to his butt-kicking ways. Him and Renee take on a black ops team sent to covertly abduct Hassan. Guess who wins? Dana/Jenny tries to be like Nina from season 1 and seems to have everyone fooled, except maybe Jack. He’s just too busy to actually think about it, what with the bullets flying at him and Hassan. The President shows again that she is the best President on the show since David Palmer with her little “We’re not turning Hassan over to terrorists” speech.

Story
For the story side of things, it is certainly looking like New York is about to be irradiated. And people like the general and Chief of Staff certainly are not helping things.

I really liked this episode. Not only did it move the story along, it also set up an event seen in the preview for next week’s episode and gave us a chance to see why Jack is still the best at what he does.

“You can look the other way once, and it’s no big deal, except it makes it easier for you to compromise the next time, and pretty soon that’s all you’re doing; compromising, because that’s the way you think things are done. You know those guys I busted? You think they were the bad guys? Because they weren’t, they weren’t bad guys, they were just like you and me. Except they compromised… Once.” – Jack Bauer

Having watched every episode of 24 currently available, I can honestly say that the first season is by far my favorite. This episode is a good indicator of why. It introduces a plot that is personal for Jack, personal for David and brings them together later and the national implications are really secondary to their struggles.

Here’s the breakdown.

Characters
At the outset, you can see that there are backstories for everyone that are affecting their judgement. Jack and Teri are coming back together from a separation. Their daughter, Kim, is bitter against Teri for the separation. At CTU, Tony and Nina are together, although Tony is openly wondering whether Nina is still sleeping with Jack (which is the reason for Jack and Teri’s separation). Jack is handed information that there is a mole in CTU, but he doesn’t think he could get close to it because of him turning in three agents for taking bribes recently. On the other side, David Palmer is gearing up for the Presidential primary in California when he gets a call from a reporter that upsets him, though he doesn’t say what it is. And then there’s the couple on the plane and said plane exploding over the desert.

Story
This was mostly covered above along with the characters. This season being very character driven means that the stories will be very intertwined with the characters.

Being a pilot, there are some differences between it and the rest of the show. One being the clock sound. Another is the locations. This episode was filmed at real locations. The rest of the season was filmed on sets, so any differences of locations is due to that.

Overall it is a good episode to start the season and the show on.

This episode was not quite as exciting as the last four. It was more of a plot development episode than a “Jack’s kicking butt” episode.

Jack and Tony succeed in capturing Motobo and Agent Walker as she arrives on the scene. The FBI office is seeing the first repercussions of Walker’s torture of the witness and the President’s husband finds out that his Secret Service Agent isn’t such a good guy.

Not much really happened in this episode other than that. Oh, and Walker was being buried alive by Tony and Jack. Sucks to be her right now.

Until next week.

Part two of the Season premiere brings with it some major twists. The first happens right after Tony tells Jack the phrase “Deep Sky.” My guess is that’s a phone number, since Jack makes a call to… Bill Buchanon?

So Tony’s not a terrorist, now. Makes more sense, I think. Anyway, Jack and Tony then break out of FBI headquarters as only they could. This includes Jack driving a car through a cement railing on the second floor of a parking garage, while he’s laying down in the car. Ouch.

When they all get back together at “CTU”, Bill’s moniker for where they are working from, they explain to Jack what’s really going on. Someone in the government is supplying Dubuku and they don’t know how high up the corruption is. So they are doing what they do best – going undercover and bringing down the bad guys.

Certainly was a good twist, albeit somewhat expected. While it might be fun to see an all-out Jack vs. Tony fight, it makes more sense for Tony to not be a bad guy… at least completely.

So at the end of the episode, Tony and Jack are part of a team trying to abduct the Prime Minister of Sengala, the country where Redemption happened. Agent Walker, the FBI agent who brought Jack in on the Tony Hunt, had just tortured a witness in true Bauer style and was on the way to stop the abduction. The President was deciding whether or not to proceed with the invasion or give in to Dubuku’s demands and her husband was just handed evidence that their son had uncovered a massive conspiracy within her administration.

Until next episode.

Finally 24 is back! Woohoo!

So it starts off with Jack being questioned by Red Foreman… I mean the senate about his activities as a CTU agent. They don’t like how he tortured the terrorists to get the information he needed to save the world each of the six times he’s done it on this show. In the words of Red Foreman, “Dumbasses.”

The FBI intervene because they need Jack’s help locating the newest terrorist threat. Who? Tony Almeida. Yeah… the man who died in Jack’s arms in Season 5 is back, only he’s a bad guy. Understandable, since his wife was killed by a corrupt President and he’d been branded a traitor back between seasons 3 and 4.

Tony apparently has a device that will allow him to access several parts of the nation’s infrastructure. Simply put, he could cripple the country irreparably in a matter of minutes.

Sounds like a job for Jack, eh?

The premise for the season is pretty good and Redemption did a good job setting the stage for it. Although I thought Dubuku was killed by the landmine, I guess his surviving that is more believable than Tony’s death-dodging.

Jack gets to show how much of a badass he is without firing a weapon in these first two episodes. From scaring the crap out of a man with information to the awesome flying punch he landed on Tony at the end of the episode, it’s obvious that he’s not losing his skills anytime soon.

I can’t wait for the rest of the season. This is, by the way, the first season I will have watched as it plays on TV. Seasons 1-6 I watched on DVD.

Watching through this season again reminded me why I am so excited for Day 7: things get personal with Jack. Sure, it’s exciting to watch him save the world, but when it doesn’t come close to home for Jack, it doesn’t have the same impact. Watch Jack’s responses to different situations on this one and watch his responses to similar situations in other seasons. The difference? Huge. Jack actually cries several times throughout this season as things overwhelm him. The next time I remember him crying is the last scene of season 3.

Anyway, this was Ashley’s first time seeing Day 1 and she really enjoyed it. Well…. until the very last scene. I’m sure that a lot of people agree that they could have ended it differently. Oh well, can’t change it now. I think what happens provides some good character development in future seasons.

Honestly, this is one of my favorite seasons of 24. It’s personal, action-packed, and the story has more twists than you can shake a slinky at… though, why you’d be shaking a slinky I don’t know. Anyway, take the time to watch it if you haven’t seen it before. or even if you have.

“…And this is the longest day of my life.” – Jack Bauer

Most of you probably know where that line is from. It’s the last line from the intro to 24 Season 1, spoken by Jack Bauer. I’m a big fan of 24. I love that it’s real-time. I love that none of the characters are perfect, even though it sometimes seems like Jack is. I just love this show. It’s not my favorite overall, but it is my favorite of it’s genre.

This review is for Season 1, or Day 1 as it were. At midnight, the beginning of the show, Jack’s at home hanging with his daughter, Kim, and his wife, Teri, who he has only recently gotten back together with. Him and his wife go in to say goodnight to Kim, only to find she’s missing. Right then, Jack gets called in to CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) because of a credible threat against a presidential candidate’s life. He heads into work, leaving his wife to search for their daughter.

That’s just the opening few minutes. The rest of the day just gets better and better with unexpected twists, betrayals, hidden agendas and an ending that will frustrate most people. One of the reasons I like this show so much is that it deals with issues that most shows shy away from. Maybe not so much in this season, but in later ones. It shows a man willing to do anything, and I do mean anything, necessary to stop a terrorist plot.

Overall the first “Day” of 24 gets a 4.5 of 5. Look forward to reviews of the other 4 “Days” on DVD over the next few weeks. I’m currently 4 hours into the fifth season.

NOTE (2011): Apparently, I forgot I wrote this review in 8 months, because I posted this. Whoops.