24 is back!

In 1986 after an 18 month hiatus, Doctor Who returned with a season of adventures tied together by a court case, the Doctor on trial for meddling in the affairs of other planets. The subtext was, of course, far from subtle, the country had fallen out of love with the show, with the character and everyone was quite literally on trial.

I think we now know what Colin Baker did in that 18 month hiatus!

Returning this week after what was probably longer than an 18 month hiatus is 24 which also opens with our protagonist on trial. After the spectacularly disappointing sixth season and the criticisms over the portrayal of torture within the show, it's no real surprise to find Jack Bauer on trial for human rights abuses. Again, a none too subtle subtext.


Thankfully, unlike the Trial of a Timelord season, the show dispenses with this plot strand rather quickly and again, unlike that season of Who, Day 7 of 24 is well on the way to being one of the best seasons in recent memory.

Building on events in the recent Redemption TV Movie, the action shifts from CTU in L.A (Where it's been firmly rooted for 6 years.) to the F.B.I in Washington and it's a refreshing change, sure all the cliches are the same (There's a mole, Jack isn't trusted by his superiors, one character will have a personal issue to deal with in a soapy subplot, a witness will be killed before imparting any information....) but there is a renewed energy about the whole series so far primarily down to the large number of new characters kicking about. No real favourites as yet, though Renee, the sultry FBI agent Jack is partnered with until...well, I wont spoil that for my SKY viewing friends. Although I'm convinced she'll be the one who's revealed to be sleeping with/has slept with their boss which would explain why Agent Moss keeps giving the pair of them suspicious looks.

I think he's gonna fuck her....

Also making for a refreshing change is that the threat and the villains are relatively low key, sure they're threatening to drop planes from the sky but that's small potatoes in relation to chemical weapons and detonating a nuke in the centre of L.A. The villains from Redemption rear their heads again as the villains of this series invoking a refreshing political and personal angle which was missing from last seasons extremely messy Chinese/Muslim/American/Russian villains. It's almost like going back to the Serbian revenge plot from the seminal Day 1. And is Tony Almeida really a terrorist? Having seen episodes 3 and 4, I know the answer but I wont tell you. What I will say is that I like the angle they're playing in these first few episodes that Jack himself could've very well gone this way too, they tried that in Day 3, but at least this time they have the sense to play him off a character who we know, who we loved, whose death reduced us to blubbering wrecks.

Anyway, the 24 team seem to have learned from their mistakes, so let's hope they don't mess up with the other 20 episodes. But isn't it absolutely great to have real, proper, wonderfully daft 24 back for the first time in years?