I have watched every season of 24 the same way: wait for it to come out on DVD, start it on Friday night, and finish all 24 episodes by Sunday night. I end up exhausted, sore, and somewhat addled, having missed -- like Jack -- a few critical phone calls, several meals, and almost all emotional connection with my fellow human beings . . . but with at least some sense of how poor Jack must feel when he punches out at the end of a workday only a superhero can handle. It's really the only way to do it.
Season 7 was a rollicking good time, restarting the adrenaline drip that ran somewhat dry last season. I'm a big fan of Cherry Jones and am still grousing about how she lost the movie role in "Doubt" that she so sublimely played on stage. With the shadow of Mother Aloysius hanging over things, I spent the first few hours wondering whether Ms. Jones was miscast as Madame President. Where was the edge, the certainty, the petulance? But after a couple of terrorist attacks the cussing started, she was in her groove, and we were finally treated to a President whose grim grit even a testy nun could respect.
It's hard actually to discuss the story arc of a season of 24 without running into the spoiler alert problem. Suffice it to say that season 7 is in a new town with some new characters and some returning friends and foes. But the grander messages carry on from earlier seasons. Terrorists never sleep, so neither may heroes. There are many good people in government, but they just can't seem to keep the hatches battened down on their security systems, their classified information, and the whereabouts or plottings of their families and friends. Moral dilemmas will never be resolved, as the need to protect our way of life and our system of laws can only be served by violating our way of life and our system of laws. The people who opt to abide by the law are a lot more frustrating - and more boring - than the heroes who throw the law out the window to save our ability to have law. Terrorists never, ever display compassion. Heroes pick and choose. There is a conspiracy behind everything, and no matter how far up the chain you go, there is always someone higher and nastier and better dressed. Jack may seem easy to fathom, but he's complex. Very complex.
Lordy, I love this show.
The big flaw to me in season 7 was Jack's little problem with his nervous system and the magic hypodermic. Since everyone knows that Kiefer Sutherland is under contract for at least one more season, just how are we expected to get on the edges of our seats wondering if he's going to make it? SPOILER ALERT: He's going to make it.
But one thing 24 proves is that with enough well-designed and well-photographed bombings, conspiracies, chases, shootouts, car wrecks, whizbang technology gadgets, and dramatic confrontations both loud and soft, the audience will hang in through any amount of untenable doings.
Did I say how much I love this show?