24 Season 8 Episodes 3-4 6:00PM-8:00PM – review

The second day of the premiere finally turns up the volume for a reasonable episode of 24, shaking off much of the bad taste from the first two hours.  24 commemorates MLK Day by having a group of black guys playing basketball threaten Jack, who then shows them his gun and bribes them for information.  Still, the show is an equal opportunity stereotyping machine, as a corrupt white cop then beats Jack to a pulp, in one of the show’s classic worst outcome possible events.  The reason these episodes are so much better is the focus on Jack’s prowling detective work and sure-fire chair-crushing escape routine.  There is plenty wrong with these two hours, so the quality falls on the lower side of the median 24 episode. 

The biggest problem with this is shoddy character work.  Dana Walsh (Katee Sackhoff) is playing a very weak (stereotypical) abused woman routine.  Her redneck boyfriend, fresh out of prison, drives right up to CTU’s entrance (a retrofitted public restroom?) in his beat-up van.  Security is apparently pretty light if you can drive right up to the CTU helipad and elevator entrance with nary a question, but Walsh doesn’t tell security to send him away, and gives him a key to her apartment.  Her “secret” is dangled in front of the audience, but what redneck secret could be so bad?  There is no reason a woman with her kind of power and connections should be strung along by her idiot ex-boyfriend, except to play out this connection to a shady acquaintance (a familiar 24 subplot, the cause of Samwise’s downfall in Season 5). 

Chloe’s character has been taken off the sidelines (Seasons 6 and 7 didn’t give her much material, what a waste), and she gets back some of her old magic.  Watching her pinball dialogue with perpetually hunched-over Brian Hastings is a good light touch.  The interrogation of Meredith Reed, in which we are asked to believe a major journalist could be illegally detained without consequence, ends with the revelation of her inexplicable affair with President Omar.  Luckily we are spared any family drama with Omar, but the writers try way too hard for Shakespearean throwbacks with his traitorous brothers’ assassination attempt.  The dialogue about trust and family tries to sound important, but they aren’t fooling anybody.  President Omar Hassan has such crazy Elvis hair that he could hide treasures or weapons in its oily black confines.  Reed’s expression of love for Omar seems a bit naïve for a famous globe-trotting reporter.

Freddie Prinze, Jr. keeps shocking me by being a competent Cole Ortiz.  It is hard for me to take the actor seriously in this role, but he hits all of the right notes.  The last-minute save by Ortiz is the action centerpiece, which is a little weak if we are going to be honest.  CTU continues to make the wrong call in every situation, leading to this near disaster.  Of course, the Russian mob is tied into the whole fiasco, and soon the hunt is on for enriched uranium, which Omar’s brother hopes to buy whilst taking his brother’s place as president.  President Taylor is largely mum this episode, though her Chief of Staff Rob Weiss (Chris Diamantopoulos) has more believable firepower as a cutthroat political operative, making crazy threats to everyone about everything. 

The show is back in familiar territory, as a last-minute hunt for nukes becomes the overriding force driving the story forward.  Renee Walker (Annie Wersching) is back, and looking a lot better in her new Goth threads and bad attitude.  This is another poorly written character, as we are asked to believe that ultra-professional, bland-as-cardboard Agent Walker from last season (who didn’t really do much in the way of violence or moral ambiguity last time around) has left the FBI, had a mental breakdown, attempted suicide, and oh, by the way, was undercover with the Russian mob beforehand and sleeping with gangsters.  Still, the writers seem eager to use her new bad-ass methods as a way to out-Jack Jack and shock him with his own brand of do-whatever-it-takes violence.  There is a little bit of “kids these days” shock on Jack’s face when Walker slices a goon’s hand off, but at least the show did something memorable to save these meager offerings.

These episodes would be a lot better if Jack was given more terrorists to chew through.  He should have been hunting down a whole squad of guys with that axe in the first episode, and he didn’t even kill anyone tonight.  The action is left to the supporting cast.  They tried the same thing in Season 3 when Chase was doing a little Lethal Weapon style buddy cop storyline, but I don’t think Freddie Prinze can fill those shoes.  Jack needs to be slaughtering wave after wave of Russians pretty soon if this season is going to get anywhere.  Tony also must make his inevitable appearance, probably because he is the only person who can get to the right bad guy at the very last minute.  Things are not looking up, as the preview points to a bunch of talking heads next week, with zero action.  It almost makes you wistful for last season, which was no great shakes, but at least had a since of camaraderie and nostalgia.