Here He Comes to Save the Day

In the opening episodes of the highly anticipated new season of Fox's "24," super secret agent Jack Bauer's release from a Chinese prison is negotiated by the American government, and the battered hero is asked to make a sacrifice for his country, that sacrifice being … well, I can't tell you, lest the public relations department of Los Angeles's Counterterrorism Unit cut off my reviewing fingers. What I can divulge is this: "24" returns with all the heart-pounding, anxiety-inducing urgency of the previous five seasons.

The networks unleashed a small legion of serialized dramas this past fall, and nearly all of them have been cancelled. Fox's "Vanished," NBC's "Kidnapped," and CBS's "Smith" are a few of the new shows that promised the same kind of hurtling narrative thrust that has made "24" one of the few network megahits, and each has died unceremoniously. There are a multitude of reasons for why these wannabe serials have failed, but a lot of credit has to be given to Fox, which has taken the time and money to nurture the formula for "24" over the course of six seasons (each of which tells the story of one 24-hour period). This commitment almost seems decadent compared to the other networks, which foolishly thought they could flood the market with shows that require nothing short of total commitment. And to those who have never given "24" a chance, that's a warning — the show is not a fling, it's a full-blown television relationship. Each episode thunders into the next, and you will feel cheated if you make the mistake of missing even one absurd twist or turn.

"Sacrifice" is the theme of this arc of "24," and you quickly realize that fact, as the word is uttered in every other scene. More important, though, all of the characters this season are tasked with the burden of asking themselves the question, "What's worth dying for?" For the record, "24" has always been about terror pornography, the thrill of the spectacle of our own demise at the hands of barbarian invaders. Of the many hallmarks that have defined this country during the past five years, one of them is the mass impotence that has seized the greater culture. While the world's greatest military slogs it's way through a war in a faraway land, her citizens sweat with fear at home.

Enter Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), a guy who looks like a NASCAR dad, a lone individual who protects the homeland while the government dawdles. In season after season, viewers have swooned to a good man doing bad things in the name of our safety. But this season, Jack is weary, America is being terrorized by suicide bombings, and it becomes clear that wars cannot be won without … sacrifice. Wars are won by the side that refuses to scream "Uncle." Has America lost her edge? Does she have the spine to stand up to Hollywood-shampooed evil? It's up to Jack to save us all, seeing as even our president and his entire administration cannot; he's a hero after Milton Friedman's own heart.

In keeping with our troubled reality, even the value of torture is revisited; past episodes of "24" have luxuriated in the empowering concept of beating the truth out of the bad guys. Jack Bauer returns from China a near broken man, his body a tapestry of chemical burns and scars. His captors assure his counterterrorist unit boss that he never spoke a word, and endured terrible pain. In many ways, "24" was the answer to critics who savaged the Bush Administration's tacit, and sometimes classified, endorsement of unconventional interrogation techniques. Critics argued that such tactics as sensory deprivation or "waterboarding" only encourages a prisoner to say whatever it is he thinks he's supposed to say. But defenders of these techniques always pose a "24"-style scenario: If a bad guy knows where a nuke is, and the clock is running down, you have to consider all options, including ripping off fingernails. In past seasons, "24" answered such ethical dilemmas as only a rip-roaring action serial can — it satisfied a bloodlust so many of us hide. In the current season, this satisfaction is dulled, even questioned. It is a noticeable nuance that adds a new layer of complexity to a show that, at its worst, is just a power-fulfillment cartoon.

The cast of "24" is forgettable, and that's not necessarily a harsh criticism because the ensemble aptly serves the plot points it delivers with gritty, terse aplomb. The heavy lifting is rightly left to Mr. Sutherland's Bauer, a gravelvoiced everyman who is very much America's answer to James Bond. Bond symbolized unflappable British resolve in the face of the Cold War — a cool, calm warrior navigating the shadowy labyrinths of a more polite conflict with nary a spot of blood on his tux. Both characters are patriotic sociopaths who employ terrible violence in service of Queen and Uncle Sam. The primary difference is that Jack is our nut job, a dressed-down nut job of few words who is at home drop kicking a suicide bomber on a train or mowing a lawn deep in the heart of suburbia. It cannot be stressed enough how Mr. Sutherland's prime time Clint Eastwood impersonation is one of television's greatest performances. I'd watch him play golf on one of his off days.

This new season of "24" taught me many things. Firstly, in the world of "24," Muslims have it pretty bad, as they're either terrorists or borderline Uncle Toms. But on the bright side, African-Americans have it pretty good on the racial ladder. Secondly, I learned that the entire national security apparatus talks in intense whispers, even when ordering takeout. And thirdly, regardless of whether you care to see a reflection of our nation in the mirror of one of its most popular dramas, explosions remain, as always, extremely cool. Will Jack Bauer deliver us from Armageddon? Or will the Republic fall into terrorist-inspired anarchy? Tune in, prepare to tune in again and again, and ask yourself: What have you done in the past 24 hours?