DVDfever.co.uk - 24 Season 8 Episode 14 review by Dan OwenDVDfever.co.uk - Charts, News and Reviews of Blu-rays, DVDs, Games, CDs, Hardware, Laserdiscs, Cinema Films & more
24 Season 8 Blu-ray:
24 Season 8 DVD:
Season 1-7 Boxset + Redemption:
24 Season 7 Blu-ray:
Director:
Milan Cheylov
Writer:
Alex Gansa
Cast:
Jack Bauer: Kiefer Sutherland
Chloe O'Brien: Mary Lynn Rajskub
Dana Walsh: Katee Sackhoff
President Omar Hassan: Anil Kapoor
Renee Walker: Annie Wersching
Ethan Kanin: Bob Gunton
Chief Of Staff Rob Weiss: Chris Diamantopoulos
Cole Ortiz: Freddie Prinze Jr.
Brian Hastings: Mykelti Williamson
General Bruckner: Michael Gaston
President Allison Taylor: Cherry Jones
Beware spoilers.
Have we turned a corner? I've found the last batch of episodes more agreeable to me, even if they're essentially falling back on some old gambits (crippling CTU, a mole) and it's still ultimately about chasing foreign terrorists around a city before they detonate a bomb. That's the problem with 24 these days; where once it was a compelling and exciting thriller, now it's just entertaining in its own familiarity.
To briefly recap: CTU lost track of Samir's men in traffic after Dana (Katee Sackhoff) sabotages the aerial video-feed; President Taylor (Cherry Jones) reassigns Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) to evacuate President Hassan (Anil Kapoor) from danger, with the help of Renee (Annie Wersching); Samir contacts the President to demand the government hand over Hassan to prevent the bomb being detonated; Chief of Staff Rob Weiss (Chris Diamantopoulos) and General Bruckner (Michael Gaston) disagree with the President's decision not to negotiate, so conspire to have a secret team abduct Hassan during his evac to end the nuclear threat; Secretary of State Ethan Kanin (Bob Gunton) learned of this treacherous plan, but suffered a heart attack seconds after trying to alert Jack to the danger on his phone; and once Jack managed to defeat the team sent to kidnap Hassan, Samir ordered Tarin (T.J Ramin) to go through with their threat and arm the radiological weapon.
I feel like I'm being kind to 24 just now, perhaps because I know the show's coming to an end, or maybe because recent episodes have at least been more enjoyable to watch than earlier ones from this season. This episode wasn't great, and everything it did echoed situations we've seen many times before (even the return of some government machinations, where people disagree with the President so do their own thing), but it was at least fun in a ridiculous way.
Why would President Taylor take Jack off the terrorists trail to help get Hassan to safety? Oh, because it was getting tedious seeing Jack chase Samir's men around NYC, and it was too difficult to maintain plausibility that he wouldn't have found them by now. Would someone like General Bruckner risk losing his job by bringing such a crazy plan to the Chief of Staff's attention? Do we really believe Dana's been in contact with Samir from the very start, as his contact in CTU? No. And they even trotted out the cliché of someone having a heart attack, to drizzle some lazy tension over everything.
Overall, you could rip 24 to shreds right now, but I guess residual effection for the show, an increase in action, and the fact no one subplot is an unmitigated stinker just about salvages things. It also helps that 24's still a very competent and entertaining series when it comed to choreographing action and gunfights, which this hour contained plenty of. I just hope the writers have something that feels fresh and interesting up their sleeves, because I'd hate for the final hours of 24 to end on a languid, dry, comfortable note.
Asides:
Finally, President Taylor's back after a three-episode absense, to make cheesy speeches to her staff.
Nice to see Christina Cox on the show, having recently appeared on Dexter and Defying Gravity.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
24 Season 8 Blu-ray:
