The American Spectator

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The Spectacle Blog

I watched the two-night/four-hour '24' season premier, and while it's still entertaining escapism, I have a few issues so far. While "24" by its nature strains credulity, I have found this season especially hard to swallow, particularly the scene when Jack Bauer busts Tony Almeda out of FBI headquarters. I mean, Almeda is a top suspect -- and the only lead -- in a major international terrorism case that  puts the nation's air traffic control system, water supply, and electrical grid at risk and that is being used to coax the President to call off a military invasion aimed at stopping genocide in an African nation. The idea that a single guard would be securing Almeda, was too distractingly absurd, and I wish they could have found a more clever way to pull off the escape.

Also, it's getting to the point where Jack Bauer's actions are even more difficult than ever to justify in terms of preventing terrorism. Working on the same team as the terrorists to break into a State Department safe house
and kidnap a foreign leader is just too far adrift from what the audience can be expected to accept of Bauer, even knowing it's just television.