In this series, we offer a wide variety of events. When Graemes demands money for the list he seized from a safe box at the Ben Khaled complex, Carter must return to his roots to help get the money. On the other hand, Carter must put his trust in CTU while planning to meet Grimes to do the exchange. Rebecca and Donovan try to isolate the leak. Amira and Harris deal with a simple problem in their plan.
Fox's real-time thriller 24 is back without Jack Bauer, but with a compelling new combatant in the war against terror in former Army Ranger Eric Gardner (Corey Hawkins from Straight Outta Compton).
It's pacy and gripping and certainly knows how to keep the tension going. I might have been scoffing at the improbabilities, but I was suckered in by the relentless pace. Is that going to be enough to hook us in for 24 episodes? I guess time will tell.
Maybe this isn't the time for stereotypes and gunfire. The original 24 came along at precisely the right time, in late 2001. Maybe this 24 should try again later.
The new 24 benefits greatly from three veteran actors: Miranda Otto ("Homeland") as a risk-taking intelligence officer, Jimmy Smits as her politician husband and Gerald McRaney as the politician's affluent father.
Rebecca gets some random tech guy to follow Ben with hacked security cameras while saying things like "We need geospatial trackers on a burner phone". Every time someone says something like this on 24, I shout "America!" and punch the air.
Hawkins is so far looking like a very credible and in fact rather more athletic hero, energetically communicating the urgency of the situation without careering into melodrama.
