24 Countdown – Day Six – 6 A.M. Hour and 7 A.M. Hour Review

Features, Shows

Time to be honest here. I have never really watched this show before. I’ve seen some episodes here and there, but have never sat down and watched an entire season unfold. That being said, I’m not the biggest 24 fan around. I wouldn’t even consider myself as a fan. However, I was asked to watch this season of 24 and that’s what I did. So keep that in mind as you won’t be seeing me comparing this season to past seasons. I’m taking this season all by itself and reviewing it, at least during the two-night premiere.

This new day starts off at 6 a.m. There have been a series of terrorist attacks in the United States. First Atlanta, then San Antonio, and now Los Angeles. Everyone thinks the man behind it is a Muslim by the name of Hamri Al-Assad. Every American is suspicious of any Muslim or Arab-American person, but as the Los Angeles attack proves, it can be any one at any time. They can look like anything.

The new president of the United States is Wayne Palmer, who is the brother of the popular former president, David Palmer. I said I wouldn’t compare seasons here, but I like this president more than I did last season’s president. Only one man can save America now. So President Palmer calls in some favors to the Chinese, who then release Jack Bauer from prison. Jack is going to lead them to Assad, that’s the plan at least.

Actually, there is one of Assad’s men named Abu Fayed that is angry at Jack from the past. Jack apparently killed Fayed’s brother. Fayed will lead the United States to Assad, IF they will give him Jack. He wants Jack dead.

Bill Buchanan informs Jack of the reason he is out of a Chinese prison. Jack says he didn’t want to die for nothing, he wanted to die for something. And if he has to be sacrificed to save the U.S. from future attacks, then so be it. He will die for something. So Buchanan has to handcuff Jack to a sewer grate and leave him.

Meanwhile, Chloe is the lone survivor at CTU that is closest to Jack. Some girl in charge named Nadia tells her the truth about Jack. Chloe is upset, of course, but there is nothing she can do about it. She apparently has a boyfriend named Morris O’Brian, who works at CTU as well. He comforts her.

We also have a sub-plot here involving Ahmed Amar, played by Kal Penn a.k.a. Kumar from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle a.k.a. Tas from Van Wilder. His father gets taken away by the police. They think he’s a terrorist. It seems that is not true and just another case of Americans being scared of any foreign looking American. But then we get the twist of Fayed calling Amar on the phone. He appears to be with them after all. He has to deliver a “package” to Fayed.

Once Fayed gets his hands on Jack, he tortures him. But the real torture is when Fayed tells Jack what is really going on. Fayed is the real guy behind all of te attacks. Assad is not the one behind them. He came to America to STOP them. So Jack will die for nothing after all. That is UNTIL Jack bites the living hell out of one of the terrorists and goes into hiding in the enemy location. That ends the first hour.

The next hour begins at 7 a.m. and Jack is on the run from the terrorists. They eventually give up on finding Jack as they have a mission to accomplish. That will come back to bite them in the butt, but it happens. Jack is back and a FREE MAN!

Back at CTU, they finally figure out that Fayed was lying to them. Besides Nadia and Morris, there is also a guy named Milo there. They form the new team. I wouldn’t get a job there myself as most of the people who work there end up dying. Anyways Jack calls CTU and tells them that they are targeting the wrong guy. They don’t believe him.

Neither does the White House. Besides the President Wayne Palmer, you have Karen Hayes and Thomas Lennox. Lennox will be playing the jerk of the presidential staff this season. He will be the guy that you loathe and will probably become a traitor. Karen is somewhat the voice of reason, but she doesn’t believe Jack either. Jack tells Palmer to not take out Assad. It would be a fatal mistake. He can lead them to Fayed, who is the real enemy. Palmer thinks otherwise.

Jack decides to take matters into his own hands. He goes and warns Assad about the military attack. He then realizes that one of Assad’s men must be on Fayed’s side and they find out that is true. Jack and Assad then go on a mission to hunt Fayed down.

Meanwhile, Sandra Palmer is trying to be the real voice of reason for her brother, the President. But she ends up shredding evidence and gets arrested. While that is going on, Ahmed kills a guy that is beating him up. He is going to deliver the package to Fayed, but Scott, his neighbor and the one who protected him earlier, gets in his way. Now he must take Scott along with him.

Assad and Jack end up tracking down two of Fayed’s men. One man is getting on a subway with a bomb strapped to him. Jack is going after that man. Assad is going to track down the other guy, who will lead them to Fayed. Jack stops the bomber right before the bomb goes off and kicks the guy off the train as the bomb explodes. That bombing was prevented, but there were others in Chicago and Baltimore.

Finally, the White House finds out that Jack was telling the truth. Fayed is the man in charge of all of the bombings. Palmer feels bad as he didn’t trust Jack and this day has only just begun…

Overall this was a pretty good way to suck people in and make them watch this season. My only complaint is that Wayne Palmer knows Jack Bauer. He knows what he has done in the past. He has saved America from terrorists countless times before. So why in the world when anyone not believe Jack. If Jack says something, it’s the truth. Why would Jack lie about something? So I thought the whole thing where everyone in the White House didn’t believe Jack was a little unbelievable. Sure, it would make sense if it was some random guy on the streets or if this was season 1 or 2. But this is Jack Bauer. This is the sixth season. I think you should trust the guy by now. Of course, they needed that to set up things for the future, so there you go. It just didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Other than that, a good way to start off the season. See you tomorrow…

Sir Linksalot: 24

I'm not embarrassed to say that my favorite television show of all-time is The O.C. I live by the motto "you can't fight fate!" More importantly, I watch WAY too much television, but I do so for the benefit of everyone reading this now. So to my mom and my wife, I say thanks for reading! To everyone else that might stumble across this, remember TiVo should be your best friend!