TV Review: 24 - SEASON EIGHT - '9 a.m. to 10 a.m.'

 

Television:

TV Review: 24 - SEASON EIGHT - '9 a.m. to 10 a.m.'

A very good episode with intense confrontations, a logical Charles Logan and vintage Jack Bauer

Grade: B+
Stars: Kiefer Sutherland, Cherry Jones, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Freddie Prinze Jr., Katee Sackhoff, Gregory Itzin
Director: Michael Klick
Release Date: April 19, 2010

---

By EMERSON PARKER, Contributing Editor
Published 4/20/2010

First off, thanks to Carl Cortez for putting his spicy flavor on 24 for the past few weeks.

 

But I’m back and boy what did I miss. I go away for a few episodes and all hell breaks loose on the show. That’s a good thing since we were so drudged down in lame plotlines for most of Season Eight it was difficult to enjoy given the excellent seasons we have had prior to this one. I won’t go into it any more, because those who have read my reviews know my feelings.

 

What did I miss (but I watched and caught up on)? First off, Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) had sex for maybe the first time in eight plus years and then just as he thought he had found a woman after his own heart, his heart is pulled from his chest once again as Renee (Annie Wersching) bites the dust.

 

But maybe even a bigger plotline is the return of evil former President Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin). While on the surface it looked like he was called in to help, we know more about Logan than perhaps our current President Taylor (Cherry Jones) knows. He’s only after anything for himself and more than likely always has a trick or two up his sleeve – not to the betterment of the country despite what he says. 

 

Why was Logan called in? Because the leader of the fictional Arab state the IRK, President Hassan (Anil Kapoor), decided to sacrifice himself in order to stop the terrorists from using the stolen nuclear fuel rods against the American public. Now, President Taylor is putting Hassan’s wife in the position of power in the IRK, but the Russians don’t want that and have been behind the whole day’s events and they claim they won’t support the move. 

 

Enter Charles Logan. His relationship with the Russians puts him again in a position of power in order to negotiate the Russians back to the table. Of course, Logan doesn’t do it with fancy talk or pleasantries, but with threats. He knows all about what the Russians did this day and threatens to expose it to President Taylor if they don’t comply. Logan not only knows the Russians had a hand in the day’s activities, but he knows about Dana Walsh (Katee Sackhoff) being a mole inside CTU. But Logan is using this information in order to get back in the good graces of the government and the American people in an attempt to somehow redeem himself.

 

But as always with Logan, he’s blinded by his own ego and legacy to realize that had he given this information already to CTU or Taylor, none of this would have happened today. The interesting thing is that this bit of information is revealed as Jack gets hold of information that Walsh knows about the Russian’s role and was actually a spy for the Russians. See if Jack reveals the information, the peace process will be destroyed.

 

And man does Logan make a good argument. He was right on the money with what he said even if Taylor didn’t like it. To bring peace to an area of the world that has not known it in generations is more important than revealing the truth to those that are making the peace. For that, Jack’s desire for justice needs and should be put on hold.

 

How great was the conversation between Taylor and Jack? Intense, confrontational and powerful it was everything that 24 have been over the course of the past eight seasons. It is nice to see them finally getting back to this – over the past few episodes as well – given how badly the first two-thirds of the season was jumbled and lost in lame plotlines.

 

And the end was brilliant with Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) having to turn the tables on Jack after you knew Jack was gonna steal that helicopter in order to seek the truth? Very cool and something frankly I thought we’d never see.

 

Overall, while this set the tables for the last six episodes of the series, it was so much more than the other table setting episodes we’ve seen this season and that’s more than welcome. 

 

Source: iFMagazine.com