Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer—gaunt and with close-cropped hair, as if the accumulated weight of his frought past was all the baggage his frame could bear—returns from the (presumed) dead in season five of the hit "clock" series 24 to take on ruthless "Central Asian" (read "Chechen") terrorists (aided by cross-plotting highly-placed Americans) bent on thwarting an anti-terror pact between Russia and the U.S., assassinate former president Palmer, blow up Tony and Michelle, menace hostages in an airport siege, and strive to unleash nerve gas on one or more populations of innocents.
A dithering president, his loopy wife, a treacherous aid, a new girlfriend and her son, an old girlfriend, a noble ex-hobbit and his junkie sister, a 15 year-old sex slave—and reportedly—the buxom Run Kim Run, Jack's daughter, who he hasn't seen in a season and a half and still thinks him dead, all figure prominently in the action and intrigue.
Blogcritics are on the trail all season long:
TV Review: 24 Hours 23 and 24: Season Finale
The show has kept us as bound to the television as surely as any poor sap handcuffed in a CTU interrogation room.
Posted to Video by Mary K. Williams on May 23, 2006 06:08 PM
TV Review: 24 Day 5 5:00 AM - 7:00 AM
And now, the end is here, and so we face the final graphic violence warning. My friends, I’ll say it clear, I’ll state my case, though it may be corny. Regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, way too...
Posted to Video by Jeff Kouba on May 23, 2006 01:16 PM
TV Review: 24 Day 5 Finale: A Very Slow Boat to China
We are left with a totally contrived and obviously manipulative ending that will leave many of us grumbling for months to come.
Posted to Video by Victor Lana on May 23, 2006 09:49 AM
Precious Moments From 24: Jack Bauer's Hot Lesbian Terrorists
How could I even try to resist HOT LESBIAN TERRORISTS!? I am but a man.
Posted to Video by Al Barger on May 23, 2006 12:53 AM
TV Review: 24 "Day 5" Season Finale
A Cautionary Tale to be continued. A shark to be jumped?
Posted to Video by Ray Ellis on May 23, 2006 12:26 AM
24 Day 5 Season Finale Tonight - Rumors, Speculation, Preview Clips
Jeff Kouba, Mary Kay Williams, and Victor Lana—our 24 specialists—speculate on rumors, possible endings, and Audrey's white blouse.
Posted to Video by Eric Olsen on May 22, 2006 04:34 PM
MySpace Begins Selling 24
Rupert Murdoch's MySpace is to offer Burger King-sponsored episodes of 24 from May 22.
Posted to Video by TeevBlogger on May 17, 2006 04:48 PM
24 - Hour 22: The Bitch (Slap) is Back!
A reunion! Our old pal Sentox; Aaron Pierce, bloodied but not transferred to Washington; and Henderson, steely as ever. Can Behrooz be far behind?
Posted to Video by Mary K. Williams on May 17, 2006 11:51 AM
TV Review: 24 Day 5: 4:00 AM - 5:00 AM
Featuring The Gong of Time, The Sentox MaxKill VX-1/6 UberDeathCloud, The Hood of Infinite Disguises, and The Cone Of Silence...Oh, wait...
Posted to Video by Jeff Kouba on May 17, 2006 01:55 AM
Article comments
1 - Mary K. Williams
Eric -
Thanks for putting this all together!
2 - Eric Olsen
thanks for doing such great reviews!
3 - Glen Boyd
Seperated At Birth:
President Charles Logan From TV's
And...
President Richard Milhous Nixon
From The World Wide Glen
http://theglenblog.blogspot.com
If the two night, four hour season premiere of Fox TV's hit drama 24 is any indication, this year's weekly cliff hangers promise to be the best yet.
But it won't be just the non-stop twists and turns that face Keifer Sutherland's back from the dead counter terror agent Jack Bauer, that keep me on the edge of my seat this time around.
Nope.
The guy who I'll be keeping my eye on is the character of President Charles Logan. You see, I first noticed it when then Vice President Logan assumed the Presidency on the tightly wound drama last season.
The guy playing President Logan (actor Gregory Itzin for those keeping score) is a dead ringer for Nixon. Seriously, it's uncanny. Check out the two pics I posted above. He's got it all. The jowls. The beady, shifty eyes. The slicked back hair receding from each side of his face. The Drabby Suit...
I fully expect to see beads of sweat dripping from just above his upper lip on future 24 episodes, just as Nixon's so famously did like clockwork in his own televised speeches.
From the debates with JFK all the way to his famous denials of wrongdoing ("I Am Not A Crook"), as the Watergate scandal slowly closed in on his presidency.
Well it seems somebody on the writing staff of 24 has also noticed the resemblance.
Because on this season of 24, the writers have apparently decided to run the Nixon thing right up the ol' flagpole.
The first signs are subtle...things like the fact that the Logan character is keenly mindful of his legacy and his place in history.
He persues his own version of detente with a Russian counterpart (in the form of an anti-terrorist accord) as the ultimate photo-op...even as a former President has just been assassinated and terrorists are publicly executing civilians in an airport on national TV.
"I realize that I'm ambitious", Logan remarks matter of factly, "But I didn't think civilians would be killed." Which immediately brought back memories for me of the Nixon Watergate tapes:
"We could raise the money," Nixon said in one breath, referring to paying hush money to the Watergate burglars. And in the very next, always mindful of covering his steps, came the qualifying statement, "...But it would be wrong."
Speaking of tapes, 24's President Logan keeps not only tapes of all recorded White House conversations, but transcripts as well. Which brings us to the ultimate Nixon tribute (at least so far) the writers of 24 have resurrected from the historical grave of the Nixon/Watergate era.
Thats right, it gets even better.
They've actually decided to resurrect Martha Mitchell herself as a character on 24 this season.
For those either too young, or perhaps even too old to remember, Martha Mitchell was the wife of Nixon's Attorney General John Mitchell, and a perennial thorn in the side of that administration.
Painted by Nixon's goons as delusional and paranoid, Martha Mitchell went to the press (and anyone else who would listen) often and loudly, with stories of government shenanigans branded as "conspiracy theories" at the time.
She was eventually silenced through medication (and worse some have suggested). But perennial "kook" Martha Mitchell was eventually vindicated when the Watergate scandal verified at least some of her louder, wilder claims.
24's First Lady Martha Logan, herself a medicated conspiracy theorist prone to emotional outbursts and wild mood swings is portrayed by actress Jean Smart.
My friends, to quote one of the man himself's most famous campaign slogans, Now More Than Ever.
Richard Nixon is alive and well.
Don't be surprised to see 24's President Logan hitting the bottle and having long, late night conversations with the other Presidents hanging on pictures in the halls of the White House before this season of 24 is over.
Remember, you read it here first.