WRITERS: Howard Gordon & Manny Coto DIRECTOR: Brad Turner
CAST: Kiefer Sutherland (Jack Bauer), James Morrison (Bill Buchanan), Peter MacNicol (Thomas Lennox), Powers Boothe (Noah Daniels), Carlo Rota (Morris O'Brian), Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe O'Brian), Marisol Nichols (Nadia Yassir), Rade Serbedzija (Dmitri Gredenko), Eric Balfour (Milo Pressman), Jayne Atkinson (Karen Hayes), D.B Woodside (Wayne Palmer), Dylan Kenin (Victor), Rick Schroder (Mike Doyle), Regina King (Sandra Palmer), Adoni Maropis (Fayed), Francisco Viana (EMT #1), K.T Thangavelu (Nurse), J.R Bourne (Connell Johnson), Kari Matchett (Lisa Miller), Jim Holmes (Dr Welton), Ryan Cutrona (Admiral), Devon Gummersall (Mark Hauser), Scott Michael Campbell (Brady Hauser), Lex Cassar (CTU Agent Ryan) & Eric Cazenave (Medic)
Jack gets a lead on Gredenko's location and organizes a trap, Doyle is given evidence of Nadia's innocence and Sandra decides to bring Wayne out of his coma to overide Daniels' decision...A few highs and many lows is how I'd describe season 6 right now. The quality of the production remains exemplory and the actors are as engaging as usual, but the writers are having serious problems with their story. Put simply; everything is too much like season 2, mixed with aspects of seasons 4 and 5.
There's nothing to set season 6 apart from its predecessors and there's nothing that improves on past successes. On the positive side, CTU has become more entertaining thanks to the recent addition of maverick Doyle, the debate over Nadia's involvement with the terrorists and Connell Johnson (J.R Bourne), who has just been added to the mix to antagonize Doyle.
The treatment of Chloe O'Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) has been terrible this season, perhaps indicating it's time she went. As a character she's reached a narrative deadend. The attempt to revitalize her using ex-husband Morris has failed. Unfortunately, if Chloe wasn't around there isn't anybody in CTU who has earned enough audience respect to replace her, beyond Morris. They need stronger characters than ineffectual Nadia and slack Milo.
Kiefer Sutherland is really going through the motions now. He's on autopilot. Episode 15 involves another of Jack's schemes to drag a terrorist into the open (this time using an autistic savant called Brady, who unwittingly helped Gredenko for his brother). It also means Kiefer has to show the softer side of Jack when dealing with Brady, which basically means speaking softly and smirking.
It's adequate stuff, but nothing new, and it eventually leads to another overused staple of 24 when Gredenko requests asylum and a pardon for his crimes. It's a wonder any terrorists ever get prosecuted in the world of 24 -- they're forever dishing out pardons for the greater good! The body count is high whenever Jack's about, but the jails are empty.
The sole moment of originality comes with Karen Hayes and Sandra Palmer, who agree to bring Wayne out of his coma so he can stop Daniels' plot to retaliate with the nuclear option. While every hour of 24 used to be essential stuff, it's now increasingly apparent that the tried-and-trusted methods the writers use to "pad" the season are just too overused and predictable. There's nothing particularly bad about this episode, or others like it, unless you've been watching 24 from day one. If you have, season 6 is playing like a remix of greatest hits.
It's a shame, because the opening hours suggested we'd have a different Jack following his imprisonment and a scenario that exaggerates our culture of mistrust and suspicion post-9/11. But that hasn't happened and the show quickly settles into old routines after episode 6.
I'm sure 24 still has a few more tricks up its sleeve that will shake things up in the hours to come, but it's clearly far too late to call season 6 a success. I haven't been this disappointed in 24 since the first half of season 3.
And are we to assume Logan's pushing up the daisies after two hours without any confirmation? Or is his ambulance just stuck in one of those infamous L.A traffic jams Jack always manages to avoids?
