WRITERS: Evan Katz & Alex Gansa (story by Howard Gordon) (8.5) & Manny Coto & Brannon Braga (8.6)[SPOILERS] As I've said, I really don't have the time to dissect what's going on in Jack Bauer's world every week, so my reviews of 24 season 8 will be reduced to a few paragraphs of brief reactions (perhaps more for particularly significant or shocking episodes.) Firstly, it's been great getting three weeks of double-bills from Sky1, and a shame these will come to an end now Sky's just six days behind Fox's premieres. If it had taken six weeks to get to this point, I think I'd be more critical of Day 8 as a whole, too...
DIRECTOR: Brad Turner
GUEST CAST: David Anders, Eli Goodman, Nazneen Contractor, Navid Negahban, TJ Ramini, Juergen Prochnow, Bob Gunton, Callum Keith Rennie & Tony Curran
These two episodes were principally focused on Renee (Annie Wersching) going undercover using her intact Russian cover story, to rekindle a professional relationship with former lover Vladimir (Callum Keith Rennie). By far the most impressive element of these hours was the fantastic work by Wersching, who has grabbed onto Renee's new "death wish" persona and is running with it. The scene where she's begging Vladimir to kill her was beautifully handled by the actress, and Rennie himself makes for an effectively creepy bad guy. Incidentally, it was argued here a few months ago that I was wrong to claim Rennie is typecast as a villain -- if you take into account his Canadian TV career -- but having played sinister baddies in Battlestar Galactica, The X Files: I Want To Believe, Harper's Island and now 24, can we all agree that his US career has been somewhat one-note? I'm hoping he gets to play more diverse roles, if he's apparently capable.
My tolerance for the two main subplots -- Dana (Katee Sackhoff) dealing with Kevin Wade's demands, and Josef (David Anders) taking his terminally ill brother Olef for radiation poisoning treatment -- was actually a lot stronger than I thought it would be. Accepting the fact that 24 needs a few subplots to fill its time, I think a storyline where a CTU analyst uses her contacts to help criminals from her past steal $120,000 of impounded drug money is far more compelling than the usual "mole" go-to, and Sackhoff's turning in a good performance that's a world away from butch Starbuck. Plus, in the world of 24, I think there's more chance viewers will identify with Dana's situation than going undercover with Russian gangsters to find nuclear material. Or maybe I just mix in very boring circles...
My concerns for Day 8 amount to a few things right now: (1) Jack's role in events has been rather limited, continuing a trend that started during Day 7's latter half, as Jack spent most of these episodes sat in a car. Is Kiefer getting too old for this shit? (2) The storylines in play feel like the kind of thing you'd expect from the back-end of a season, as there's no imminent threat to get the adrenaline pumping now the presidential assassination was foiled. Perhaps that's a good thing, because the show won't run out of steam mid-season (as it always tends to), so now it'll perhaps build into a sprint. Still, I have my concerns that there's not enough high-octane action to keep people gripped in these early episodes (where 24 traditionally sinks its teeth in to get viewers hooked), perhaps reflected in the fallen US ratings.
Asides
-- Having recently praised the honour and commendable qualities of President Hassan (Anil Kapoor) on the show last week, in these episodes he's protecting his position of power by ordering marshal law on the streets of his country. He made a good speech to justify his actions, but it was still a nice reminder that he's not all sweetness and light.
-- Bazhaev (Juergen Prochnow) is quite the clichéd bad guy, isn't he? Delivering two prostitutes to keep an accomplice happy, claiming he's all about family seconds before shooting his youngest son dead. It's all caricatured chest-beating stuff, which can be fun, but I think we've seen too much of that through the years. I'd love 24 to give us a more realistic, clever villain for once. Someone who can scare you with words alone. Sometimes the quest to find a series of regular shocks in every episode just means the writers fallback on old tricks and archetypes.
-- Fun to see British actor Tony Curran as a henchman here, soon to be seen on Doctor Who playing Vincent Van Gogh.
7 FEBRUARY 2010: SKY1 (HD), 9PM
