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Jack is back, and that’s great news for the United States and the entire free world, but it’s even better news for the millions of fans who have been waiting since the end of last season to see what’s coming next on 24, the Fox network’s most popular scripted series.
24 launchers its fifth season with a pulse-pounding, four-hour, two-night event that will run from 8 to 10 p.m. Sunday and Monday. The series’ fifty episode will air in its regular one-hour time slot at 9 p.m. on Jan. 23.

For those unfamiliar with the shoe, 24 employs a frenetic beat-the-clock format in which each episode covers one hour of real time and the whole season encompasses a single day. Its main character is Jack Bauer (played with almost painful intensity by Golden Globe winner Kiefer Sutherland), a tough and resourceful superagent who until last season was an ace field operative for the U.S. government’s Counter Terrorist Unit.

Fans of the show will recall that Season 4 ended with Bauer staging his own death because the Chinese government wanted to imprison him and his own government wanted him dead. He then disappeared into the sunset, alone but alive.

Fast-forward to the Season 5 opener, and we find Bauer 18 months later, living under an assumed name, working as a roustabout in the California oil fields, and falling for a woman whose 15-year-old son thinks he’s up to no good.

Former President David Palmer, who saved Jack’s life, is busy writing his memoirs, having being replaced in the White House by Charles Logan, a lily-livered weasel who sees his sole chance at a legacy in signing a landmark anti-terrorism agreement with the president of Russia. Back at CTU, Bauer’s pals Tony and Michelle, who helped him fake his death, have moved on, and grim-faced Chloe is getting it on with one of her colleagues (Don’t get excited, 24 fans; it’s not Edgar).

Now that you have the set-up, things are about to get murky, and you can blame Fox for that. In sending out preview DVDs of 24’s first few episodes, the network warned TV reviewers in no uncertain terms that they were not to divulge to readers what happens in Episode 1’s first 10 minutes, lest dire consequences – such as no more advance review copies of other show – result.

OK, fine, if that’s the way they want to be about it, but it’s not breaking any rules to tell you this much: You don’t want to miss the first half of the first episode, because it’s probably the best start to a season that 24 had had yet. And That’s saying something.

While previous seasons have featured terrorists trying to poison a U.S. City or blow up the world, this time around the big threat seems a little more pedestrian. Member s of a Russian splinter group have taken over an airport terminal in Los Angeles, threatening to kill their hostages unless the U.S. and Russian presidents repudiate their anti- terrorism accord.

Is that it?
Now, don’t get me wrong. Hostage situations are not a good thing, but jeez, is that the best the writers could come up with suspense in Season 5?

Let’s not be too sure of that. 24 has a way of tossing in all manner of twists and turns over the course of a season, so the landscape – and the terrorist threat – may shift plenty in the weeks ahead.
Several new characters will be added to the mix this season, including Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings) as a CTU agent and Jean Smart (Garden State) as President Logan’s mentally unstable wife.

But as usual, it’s a good bet that it will still come down to Jack Bauer to make sure that things are wrapped up before time runs out.

By MIKE KELLY
Blade Staff Writer

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