24, 8.11 - "2:00AM - 3:00AM"

WRITERS: Evan Katz & David Fury
DIRECTOR: Nelson McCormick
GUEST CAST: Stephen Root, Nazneen Contractor, Rami Malek, Anthony Martins, Julian Morris, Ethan Rains, T.J. Ramini, Mare Winningham, Necar Zadegan & John Boyd

[SPOILERS] This time last season we were embroiled in an exciting siege at the White House. This season we're trying to negotiate with a suicide bomber who's locked himself inside a hospital's pressure chamber. While perhaps unfair to judge specific episodes against equivalents from the past, I think the comparison is a neat way to remind us of how Day 8 has failed to build itself a compelling and thrilling storyline. As is typical of 24, there were a few strong moments that narrowly salvaged a very average episode, but with strong rumours that Fox are primed to axe 24 and start the countdown to a movie franchise, I'm disappointed this once excellent TV series may go out with a whimper...

This week: Dalia returned to help her husband President Hassan (Anil Kapoor) trace their missing daughter Kayla (Nazneen Contractor), who's eloped with her lover Tarin (T.J Ramini) to seek asylum, unaware that Tarin's actually involved with the terrorist plot after all; Cole (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and Dana (Katee Sackhoff) returned to work after disposing of Wade's body, to faced a reprimand from Hastings (Mykelti Williamson), before Dana received a call from Wade's parole officer Bill Prady (Stephen Root), wanting to discuss Wade's disappearance; and Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) tried desperately to convince extremist Marcos (Rami Malek) not to re-arm and detonate his explosive vest, before bringing his mother (Mare Winningham) down to try and reason with her son.

The situation with Jack was the glue holding hour 11 together, mainly because it was a bizarre situation I can't remember being done before (a rarity for 24 these days), and resolved with a grisly moment that released pentup tension. Sadly, it was ultimately 15-minutes of a good storyline dissected and dispersed throughout an hour that felt otherwise uninvolving. In particular, while I've defended elements of Dana's storyline (at least the threat in her subplot had a human face with some mystery), this storyline doesn't seem to want to die, despite the fact it has no vital signs. The arrival of a parole officer asking difficult questions about Wade's disappearance felt unnecessary and maddening -- not to mention ridiculous that he believes his need to find Wade is greater than letting a CTU operative stay at work during a crisis he's himself aware of. Wade was hardly Public Enemy Number One, so why can't this all wait till morning? Maybe we'll get an answer to that question soon, but right now it feels like a terrible waste of time and bad use of a good character actor like Root.

14 MARCH 2010: SKY1 (HD), 9PM