This could almost be the kind of 24 that Keith Olbermann would like-
Probably not. But Hillary Clinton probably would, and I certainly did.
Jack's in Africa in a fictional country, Sangala, being taken over by blood thirty rebels, whose specialty seems to be training kids - little boys - as soldiers. Back in Washington, President Daniels, played to despicable but somehow still vulnerable perfection by Powers Booth, is about to turn power over to his successor, the first woman President, Allison Taylor. (24, to its credit, was way ahead of the television curve with David Palmer as the 1st African-American President.) Daniels doesn't want the US to help or get involved in Sangala - that's what I mean by despicable - but Taylor does. Unfortunately, Daniels is still in charge for another hour.
The entire two-hour movie takes places in real time, from 3-5pm - the ticking tableau is as effective as always - and, given our upcoming Inauguration, the timing is just right, too. And, also as always on 24, there's even more danger in the nation's capital, with Jon Voight playing some high-level official who will do just about anything to keep what he's been doing secret. That includes keeping a potentially deadly eye on none other than the President's son - who looks to be maybe in his early 30s, and has a pretty hot and somewhat sharp-tongued girl friend ...
Redemption is a both a good shot of Jack and 24 in itself, as well as prelude to the next season, which begins in January, and brings Jack back to Washington, with Chloe, Tony Almeida (!), and who knows who else...
The clock's ticking.
See also 24 Season 6 Hrs 23-24: Finale
24 Season 6, 1-24 + Redemption
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5 comments:
It has been too long Jack. That 2 hours was pretty sweet. And maybe just woman's intuition but I think the President's son's girlfriend is going to turn out to be involved somehow.
I had the same feeling about the Prez's son's girlfriend... she definitely seems like some kind of trouble...
Dr. Lev, thanks for the post; it summed up a lot of my own feelings by the end of the episode.
I was wondering your opinions about the "Upcoming Scenes" of 24 they displayed at the end of the episode. They seemed to give away A LOT of secrets and surprises (definitely not in the same vein of 'Lost' et al.).
This initially resulted in a good amount of shock... but, later on, disappointment that I know (*spoiler alert*) that Tony Almeda is still alive and, perhaps, a terrorist himself.
I don't know if Fox was abiding by the Free Marketing (which you can read more about here), but I, personally, thought it was a risky... maybe shoddy?... tease on their part.
Otherwise I completely agree with you, this episode/move/whatever was definitely an attention grabber and 'tiffitis' is right, I felt like the 2 hours flew by.
Hey, Brian -
Hard for me to judge the Tony scene, since I'd heard he'd be back months ago ...
But I do think it will be interesting to see how he plays out as a bad guy - my prediction: he'll somehow turn out to be good guy.
But I'm always an optimist when it come to 24...
As for giving things away for free: well, one of things I'm writing about New New Media is the triumph of free things in this age of the Internet....
I'm not sure if that pertains to giving away parts of the plot - but, I remember Hitchcock saying that surprise is often not as powerful an inducement as suspense (in which you know that something is going to happen - or may happen - and the tension is wondering when and how it will happen...)
Late in the day, as always - I'm so rubbish at catching up on Bloglines - but good review!
We liked the movie a lot, but to be honest I felt that it was a little hamstrung by the format, for the first time in 24. There were a couple of moments where I wondered what the point of the "movie" was, because it served too many masters.
It worked ok as a preview of the new season, and ok as a self-contained Jack Bauer movie, but it could have been an awesome Jack Bauer movie, and it would have perfectly wet the palate for more adventure in the new year...
(I reviewed it and say roughly the same when it aired, right here)
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