24, 8.14 - "5:00AM - 6:00AM"

WRITER: Alex Gansa (story by Evan Katz)
DIRECTOR: Milan Cheylov
GUEST CAST: Bob Gunton, Christina Cox, Michael Gaston, Chris Diamantopoulos, Nazneen Contractor, T.J Ramini, Mido Hamada & Frank John Hughes

[SPOILERS] Have we turned a corner? I've found the last batch of episodes more agreeable to me, even if they're essentially falling back on some old gambits (crippling CTU, a mole) and it's still ultimately about chasing foreign terrorists around a city before they detonate a bomb. That's the problem with 24 these days; where once it was a compelling and exciting thriller, now it's just entertaining in its own familiarity.

To briefly recap: CTU lost track of Samir's men in traffic after Dana (Katee Sackhoff) sabotages the aerial video-feed; President Taylor (Cherry Jones) reassigns Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) to evacuate President Hassan (Anil Kapoor) from danger, with the help of Renee (Annie Wersching); Samir contacts the President to demand the government hand over Hassan to prevent the bomb being detonated; Chief of Staff Rob Weiss (Chris Diamantopoulos) and General Bruckner (Michael Gaston) disagree with the President's decision not to negotiate, so conspire to have a secret team abduct Hassan during his evac to end the nuclear threat; Secretary of State Ethan Kanin (Bob Gunton) learned of this treacherous plan, but suffered a heart attack seconds after trying to alert Jack to the danger on his phone; and once Jack managed to defeat the team sent to kidnap Hassan, Samir ordered Tarin (T.J Ramin) to go through with their threat and arm the radiological weapon.

I feel like I'm being kind to 24 just now, perhaps because I know the show's coming to an end, or maybe because recent episodes have at least been more enjoyable to watch than earlier ones from this season. This episode wasn't great, and everything it did echoed situations we've seen many times before (even the return of some government machinations, where people disagree with the President so do their own thing), but it was at least fun in a ridiculous way.

Why would President Taylor take Jack off the terrorists trail to help get Hassan to safety? Oh, because it was getting tedious seeing Jack chase Samir's men around NYC, and it was too difficult to maintain plausibility that he wouldn't have found them by now. Would someone like General Bruckner risk losing his job by bringing such a crazy plan to the Chief of Staff's attention? Do we really believe Dana's been in contact with Samir from the very start, as his contact in CTU? No. And they even trotted out the cliché of someone having a heart attack, to drizzle some lazy tension over everything.

Overall, you could rip 24 to shreds right now, but I guess residual effection for the show, an increase in action, and the fact no one subplot is an unmitigated stinker just about salvages things. It also helps that 24's still a very competent and entertaining series when it comed to choreographing action and gunfights, which this hour contained plenty of. I just hope the writers have something that feels fresh and interesting up their sleeves, because I'd hate for the final hours of 24 to end on a languid, dry, comfortable note.

Asides

• Finally, President Taylor's back after a three-episode absense, to make cheesy speeches to her staff.


• Nice to see Christina Cox on the show, having recently appeared on Dexter and Defying Gravity.

4 APRIL 2010: SKY1 (HD), 9PM