Review on 24 Season 6

TV Show: 24 season 6

Those who loved last year's season of 24, from the breathtaking surprise of the Palmer assassination to the tension delight of Jean Smart's first lady, should adjust their expectations for a more unsettling start. The new issue at hand this year, a string of terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists is far more closely tied to modern America's worst waking nightmares. The change also is reflected in Jack Bauer, who returns from 20 months of the Chinese prison unsure, shaken and even at times, wrong. Saving the world multiple times has finally taken its toll, and a certain sadness and weariness spreads throughout the opening hours, adding new chills to the series. Jack Bauer has probably realized that luck and time isn't on his side, if stuff like this keeps happening to him.

Last year's assassination shocked everyone that has viewed it, so the show starts out slow to build up a sense of danger for this season. A nationwide rash of bombings has set the country on edge and caused panic in the administration of President Wayne Palmer (D.B. Woodside), the former president's brother. Palmer is ripped between conflicting aides and answers. Karen Hayes (Jayne Atkinson) urges respect for civil rights and Tom Lennox (Peter MacNicol), who "treats the Constitution like a list of suggestions," wants to have enforced laws and regulations on America's Muslim population to root out the bad.

A way out has been offered, and as you probably know from the ads, it involves Jack Bauer. Resigned and skittish, Jack goes along with the plan right up to the moment he doesn't, because he keeps getting second thoughts of what ifs, and am I doing the right thing, goes through his head. A great scene you'll be discussing around the cafeteria or at work with friends, but not for the whole time being due to some misses the show has. Many of 24's best characters are absent, victims of last season's sequence of deaths, but still, some old friends return, including Bill Buchanan (James Morrison), Curtis (Roger Cross) and, of course, (Mary Lynn Rajskub's) Chloe.

Given enough time, even the best series end up repeating themselves, and there are a few tricks you'll see through, subplots you'll find disappointing, and twists you won't believe and will leave you speechless. Yet what's remarkable is that 24 still