24: New Jack City

For a while now, this show’s alternate title really could’ve been, “Same S---, Different Day” — and we longtime fans of the show are actually ok with that.

The fact that “24” is closer to its end than its beginning is no secret. In eight seasons, the show has seemingly alternated between nuclear/bioweapon and political assassination plots with varying degrees of success, and put its hero in almost every conceivable impossible situation (before coming up with a way for the hero to triumph).

Sure, the setting has changed the last few years (Washington D.C. last season, New York City this year), but the circumstances are the same – there’s some sort of serious threat to our country and Jack Bauer is the only man who REALLY knows what the hell is going on.

Of course, what makes for a successful season of “24” these days are fast-paced plots that don’t insult our intelligence and engaging new characters/actors slotted into the familiar roles (like “knucklehead boss”, “Jack Jr.”, and the “two CTU employees who you will go back and forth on when deciding if they’re a mole.)

What the latest season of “24” also appears to have is a lighter sense of self-awareness.

My favorite moment of the two-night, four-hour premiere (other than Jack burying that axe into that unfortunate Russian henchman’s stomach) was CTU New York techie Arlo asking aloud “Who’s Jack Bauer?” only to have his colleagues simultaneously turn their heads and look his way in disbelief. Even the characters on this show (besides Arlo) know that Jack is the man!

Since last season dealt largely with a bioweapon threat, the show was due for a good old-fashioned assassination plot. It appears a group of Russians — led (so far) by a creep named Davros (played by Doug Hutchison of “The Green Mile”, who specializes in playing creeps) — is intent on taking out Omar Hassan, the charismatic president of the fictional Republic of Kamistan. (It seems the made-up people of Kamistan are easily swayed.)

Hassan (Anil Kapoor, my favorite thing in “Slumdog Millionaire”) is in New York to negotiate a nuclear disarmament deal with President Taylor (Cherry Jones).

Jack learns of the assassination plot from Victor Aruz (Benito Martinez of “The Shield”), a former scumbag informant of Jack’s who had helped get the hitmen into the country. Unfortunately, Jack is retired and content to watch cartoons with his bear-obsessed granddaughter Teri.

Look, we all knew it was inevitable that Jack would jump back into the fray (otherwise, the title for this season would’ve been “2”), but I actually think the writers (and Sutherland) did a nice job of conveying that Jack REALLY didn’t want to get involved this time and would’ve been content to live in L.A. with his daughter Kim, little Teri and the dude from “The Vampire Diaries.” The show also used the often-embattled Kim character perfectly – Elisha Cuthbert’s appearance was brief and it was Kim who firmly convinced her dad that the Hassan assassination plot was something he needed to see through to the end.

(It also appears as if Jack’s life-threatening exposure to last year’s bioweapon has mostly passed – from the way it was referenced in passing last night, it’s almost as if Jack had simply gotten over a REALLY bad cold.)

Fortunately, Jack is jumping back into a familiar world with very entertaining tweaks.

I mean, what kind of a world do we live in where Chloe struggles mightily to keep up with her CTU colleagues? Chloe’s mild social disorder has always been tolerated because she was the best at her job, so it’s interesting (and painful) to see her struggle at CTU New York. Happily, the character still has her in-your-face biting wit and she should settle back into a groove with Jack back in the building. Chloe is the only one who believed that CTU captured the traitor in Hassan’s inner circle a little too easily, and convinced Jack to follow through on the lead.

Chloe’s getting the hardest time from her new boss, Brian Hastings (Mykelti Williamson), who we know is a douche bag because he wears his Bluetooth earpiece even when he’s not on the phone. At first, I was disappointed that Hastings would simply be the latest idiot that never listens to Jack (which he is), but I’m also liking the micromanaging boss from hell tweak.

When Hastings sent Cole Ortiz/Jack Jr. (played by Freddie Prinze Jr.) to pick up Jack and his informant, Cole requested more men for the operation. Hastings didn’t listen and Cole’s helicopter got blown up and Jack’s informant got dead. Hastings bullied Cole to prevent him from reporting Hastings’ mistake, a conversation that Jack was fortunate enough to witness. Basically, Hastings was SO scared of looking bad in his bosses’ eyes that he allowed Jack to grab a weapon from the armory and explore Chloe’s hunch. Hastings isn’t just a moron – he’s an unbelievably vain moron.

Cole clearly looks up to Jack (think Chase or Mike Doyle from previous seasons) and is engaged to Dana Walsh (Katee Sackoff) a fellow CTU employee with a secret, scandalous (possibly redneck) past. She got a call from a man calling her a different name and threatening to ruin her new life. With everything else in the premiere, it’s too early for me to care what she’s hiding, since we just met Dana.

Over on the political side of things, President Taylor’s (weak) husband Henry is out of the picture, but right-hand man Ethan Kanin (apparently suffering from some sort of serious disease he’s concealing from the president) is still her right-hand man. I also like Chris Diamantopoulus as new Chief of Staff Rob Weiss, who aggressively (and correctly) disagreed with President Taylor’s decision to keep Hassan in the dark about the assassination plot.

However, I’m most interested in the Omar Hassan character, who appears to be a bizarro version of David Palmer (in a good way). Usually, the foreign heads of state on this show are not portrayed very flatteringly, but Hassan (so far) has been positioned as an earnest, charming and able leader who genuinely wants peace.

And, like Palmer, Hassan needs to keep an eye on those closest to him. He has a seemingly venomous wife (not quite as aggressively evil as Sherri Palmer) who only holds his hand in public and a younger brother who turned out to be the one that was REALLY plotting with the assassins. (I believed that it was the blonde journalist until they caught her WAY too easily.) I should’ve seen it coming – Farhad Hassan openly disapproves of Omar’s peacekeeping efforts with the U.S. and his “relationship” with the journalist. Methinks he’s just jealous of Omar’s hair.

So what’d you think of this episode? Did anyone else get flashes of Jack shooting Christopher Henderson’s wife in the knee a few years ago when Davros shot that Noo Yawk cop’s wife in the leg to get him to switch shifts and allow Davros on the Hassan security detail at the United Nations? What do you think Dana’s secret is? Finally, how do you think Renee Walker (she was in the previews for Monday night’s episode) will figure into this season’s storyline?