24, 8.1 & 8.2 - "4:00PM - 5:00PM" & "5:00PM - 6:00PM"

WRITERS: Howard Gordon & Evan Katz (8.1) & Manny Coto & Brannon Braga (story by Howard Gordon) (8.2)
DIRECTOR: Brad Turner
GUEST CAST: Bob Gunton, Doug Hutchison, Benito Martinez, Jennifer Westfeldt, Paul Wesley & Akbar Kurtha

[SPOILERS] Some days, don't you wish you'd just stayed in bed? Jack Bauer's (Kiefer Sutherland) back for another day of familiar action and nail-biting tension. Now retired from the government, the only "mission" Jack has is to babysit his granddaughter Teri (Claire Geare) while daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) and her husband Stephen (Paul Wesley) go about their day; the Bauer family now living in New York City but debating a move back to Los Angeles. Of course, familial bliss lasts all of fifteen minutes, as Jack once again becomes embroiled in an assassination plot...

President Omar Hassan (Anil Kapoor), of the fictional Islamic Republic of Kamistan (read "Iran"), has come to the United Nations Building in New York to sign a treaty that will result inn the disarmament of his country's nuclear program, with President Alison Taylor (Cherry Jones) hoping to make history by securing this deal with an Islamic state. Unfortunately, Hassan's intentions have made him the target for a group of assassins, apparently led by a Russian man called Davros (Doug Hutchison), who are currently tying off "loose ends" by killing the collaborators who helped get them into the country. One such associate, Victor Aruz (Benito Martinez), manages to escape with his life after an attack on his colleagues, fleeing to Jack's apartment to request immunity and protection in exchange for detailed information on how Hassan's going to be killed today.

After seven seasons across nine years, totalling nearly 200 episodes, it's little wonder that 24 feels more comfortably predictable than gripping and volatile nowadays. Most of its game-changing tropes for television thrillers (the real-time format, the use of split-screen) have now become so inured to fans that a certain amount of edge has been lost. Some of its celebrated ideas have actually become shackles, as the writers have to somehow fool an audience that are generally too knowledgeable to wrong-foot that often.

We all know that the villains presented here probably aren't the "real" bad guys pulling the strings, that Jack's safety is assured until (possibly) the last few hours, and that the assassination plot itself is probably just one element of a storyline that will feel irrelevant by mid-season. We know all this because we've seen 24 before, many times. All the show can do to combatant its audience's wealth of experience is to try and make us forget to think ahead -- by cranking up the pace, delivering new characters to chew on, and dropping us into a different location so it all feels as fresh as a nine-year-old show possibly can... while ultimately doing much the same as it always does.

Setting the show in NYC this year a great move, mainly because it's a more plausible target for terrorists (as 9/11 taught us in reality), and also one of the more security-conscious places on the planet. The new-look Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) -- which resembles a high-tech perfume counter of a department store, if you ask me[*] -- also means we have one of the core backdrops of 24 back after its absence last season. Of course, this could mean we'll quickly find ourselves playing "guess the mole" and being asked to care about various worker's personal lives, or secret "office romances".

Indeed, Senior Data Analyst Dana Walsh (Katee Sackhoff) already appears to be living under an assume identity (her real name's Jenny), with her working class family roots returning to bite her, and she's in a relationship with young CTU Head Of Field Ops hotshot Cole Ortiz (Freddie Prinze Jr.), so there's bound to be some drama there. Rather unconvincingly, ubergeek Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) is back as a series regular – complete with her expression of someone who's permanently three inches away from a plate of dog turds -- but for some strange reason she's having problems coping with nu-CTU's computer infrastructure. And I think it's more complicated than the fact they've gone from Dell PCs to Mac's.

As 24 double-bill premieres go, Day 8's was pretty restrained: Jack had to escort injured informant Victor to a helicopter landing pad, pursued by gun-toting terrorists; President Hassan was revealed to have a sham marriage, and has been seeing beautiful American reporter Meredith Reed (Jennifer Westfeldt) behind his wife's back; Hassan's brother Farhad (Akbar Kurtha) appears to be involved in the plot to kill his sibling; Taylor's new Chief Of Staff Rob Weiss (Chris Diamantopoulos) is displeased that the President won't tell Hassan the full facts about the threat to his life, in order to push the treaty through smoothly; and CTU's Director Brian Hastings (Mykelti Williamson) is going to be one of those frustrating idiots who rarely believes good intel presented to him if it goes against his own gut instincts.

It was a confident, if uninspired start to the new season. There's a basic level of interest in how some of the new characters are going to play out, and they've certainly put together an interesting cast this year. Anil Kapoor's a Bollywood legend who should prove very interesting as the flawed statesman that needs protecting; the reliably creepy Doug Hutchison (The Green Mile) is the current villain-with-a-foreign-accent to boo at; Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) is sidestepping her "tomboy" image to play a more feminine, sophisticated computer expert; and Freddie Prinze Jr. is likewise trying to expunge memories of Wing Commander and Scooby Doo by playing against type as a man of action. And, like Renee Walker last season, he has a soft spot for the legendary Jack Bauer.

Overall, I get the impression season 8 might feel like a Greatest Hits album; you know all the tracks off-by-heart, you wish the band would come up with something original (or just call it a day), but you can't help dancing to the tunes because the music is familiar, it hits your pleasure spot, and you're entertained while it's playing.

24 JANUARY 2010: SKY1 / SKY1 HD, 9PM

[*] Okay, sure, a really cool perfumery with snazzy flatscreens and bright, lit panelling.