Below The Beltway

Let the countdown begin. One week from tonight, the sixth season of 24 begins. Fresh off a double Emmy win — for the show itself and star Kiefer Sutherland, it will be interesting to see what the writers come up with this time. Some plot details have leaked out, but I am avoiding the spoiler sites that I used to visit on a regular basis. This year, unlike last year, I want to experience 24 the way I did in the first season. Without having any freaking idea what’s going to happen next.

To start the countdown off, Stephen King writes in Entertainment Weekly that 24 is so good, it’s scary:

Most viewers of 24 will want to know one thing above all others: Is the upcoming season of Fox’s groundbreaking experiment in serial TV (father of Lost, grandpappy of Heroes and Jericho) as good as last year? Let me put it to you this way: There are more thrills and suspense in the first four hours than most series can pack into a single season. Or an entire run of show, for that matter. I got those four episodes from EW Central Command and planned to dole them out over the course of maybe a week. Instead I ended up watching all of them that same night. Day 6 (at least so far) is like a book you can’t put down…even though there are times when you may want to.

The reason is simple enough. This time the story spun out by Joel Surnow, Howard Gordon, and their co-conspirators seems, if not real, then dismayingly possible. Season 5, distinguished by Gregory Itzin as President Slimeball (and let’s not forget Jean Smart as his long-suffering, screw-loosey wife), was almost extinguished by the creaking plot. Sentox? Really? It doesn’t sound like nerve gas; it sounds like something you buy at the drugstore to combat athlete’s foot or hide those embarrassing facial blemishes.

This time the threat ? and no, I’m not going to tell you what it is ? seems too plausible. When I got to the shocker that ends episode 4, I could understand Jack Bauer’s expression of disbelief; it’s a perfectly human reaction to what has just happened. And yet at the same time I’m sitting in my office chair and thinking, This could really happen. And at some point, it probably will. I suppose my reaction was intensified by having just finished Nelson DeMille’s excellent novel Wild Fire, which deals with a similar scenario, but mostly it was that clear and persuasive sense of plausibility. 24 doesn’t always achieve that, but when it does, it’s the best thing on TV. Really, no one does the old ”We’re surrounded by enemies!” bit better than Fox. Bill O’Reilly’s going to love this baby.

Is it January 15th yet ?