The New York Times reviews Sunday’s 24 tele-movie:
The word “Redemption,” on the other hand, is quite apt. The title refers to Bauer’s efforts to expiate past sins with good works, but it also suggests that the writers have embarked on a self-improvement regimen. Set in the middle of a harrowing civil war in the barely fictional African country Sangala, “Redemption” is a more sober, stripped-down version of “24,” and that’s refreshing. It could almost serve as a case study for those economists who argue that the ailing auto industry could be helped best by filing for bankruptcy.
In this case, at least, a myriad of extraneous characters, locations and subplots have been cut, and the result is a more compact and far more satisfying vehicle for action-adventure escapism.
(…)
The Counter Terrorism Unit in Los Angeles has been disbanded, and that alone relieves writers from the strain of pretending, season after season, that Southern California is the No. 1 target of Islamic terrorists — and the fiendish Western capitalists who are so often behind the many veils of conspiracy.
This time, plotters in high places seek to manipulate and exploit tribal wars and civil unrest in Sangala. The villainous mastermind, Jonas Hodges (Jon Voight), is cartoonish, but the depiction of the conflict is highly realistic and compelling. A warlord intent on supplying the rebel army with troops rounds up boys and turns them into child soldiers, training — and drugging — them to be ruthless killers.
Bauer is working at a school in Sangala run by an old friend, Carl Benton (Robert Carlyle), a Special Forces veteran turned missionary. Bauer is also on the lam, running from a subpoena to testify before a Senate committee investigating the illegal use of torture by antiterrorist squads.
(…)
Even in this short-form version there are hints and reminders of what makes “24” simultaneously exhilarating and irritating: exquisitely choreographed violence and suspense come alongside clunky if gratifying caricatures. The United Nations peacekeeper with a foreign accent is an appeaser and a coward; a State Department envoy is officious and sadistic.
Rick Moran, meanwhile, hopes that the show sticks with the theme that has held it together through six sometimes difficult to fathom seasons:
[I]f the show concentrates on “redeeming” Jack Bauer, there are also definite possibilities for an emotional and dramatic success. I still think the only ending possible is the death of Bauer – the only ending that would make sense given what has transpired in his life previously. But if he could face his end with the knowledge that the rivers of blood he has had to navigate these last years was but a prologue to his selfless demise, it may prove to be some of the most captivating drama in the history of the tube. Not relief at his own death but a simple act of giving – without remorse – would put a emotional coda on the series and send all of us fans away satisfied.
Is this too much to ask? Probably yes. But like you, I will be watching every minute and cheering Bauer on as he battles both the enemy and his own personal demons, willing him to win out in the end.
I’ll be there too, and back in January when Season 7 starts.
