Jack Bauer has uttered a lot of memorable sentences during the past five seasons of “24,” most of them ending in exclamation points: “Now!”; “It’s our only option!”; “I need you to trust me!”; and of course, “Tell me what I need to know!”
Here’s one sentence that fans of the show, which returns with its sixth season premiere 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday and 7 to 9 p.m. Monday on WFLD-Ch. 32, probably never thought Bauer would utter: “I don’t know how to do this anymore.”
Whaaaat?! Bauer is supposed to be a modern-day, post-9/11 superhero. The fact that “24” spins our darkest nightmares about terrorism and national (in)security has always been mitigated by the notion that Bauer, the best operative Los Angeles’ Counter Terrorism Unit has ever had, would be on hand to save the day. He’d rescue us from the big, bad, scary things that lurked in the dark.
But this season, the show’s writers appear determined to flip that notion. What if it’s Jack who needs rescuing? Emotional rescue, that is.
You see, a different Jack Bauer returns from China, where he’d been taken at the end of last season. This Jack, who returns to the U.S. as part of a plan to end a wave of terrorist attacks, is not only scarred over nearly every inch of his body after two years in Chinese custody, his spirit appears to be broken as well.
Jack, ever the dutiful agent, ends up participating in a series of operations intended to stop the relentless attacks. “I’ll do my best, sir,” he tells the desperate president, Wayne Palmer (D.B. Woodside), but Jack’s heart is not really in it. Far from taking anything away from the pulse-pounding show, thanks to Kiefer Sutherland’s magnetic performance, Bauer’s subtle psychological anguish may be the most interesting surprise of “24’s” new season.
As for the rest of the cast, the wily ex-president, Charles Logan, and his twitchy wife, Martha, are missed, as are many of Jack’s late, lamented CTU colleagues, but no doubt that aspect of the show will become more engrossing as the crises pile up (especially because Gregory Itzin and Jean Smart, who played the Logans to such sensational effect last season, will return in the middle of the season).
A story line about a hostage situation and several of Jack’s narrow escapes feel familiar, if not downright recycled, but “24’s” writers are so expert at taut pacing that such deja vu moments slip by fairly painlessly.
In any case, “24’s” secret weapon — the thing that makes the show’s fan positively antsy for Monday nights — is in the fact that the show isn’t just an action thriller: There are many other layers to get lost in.
There’s the tense workplace drama at CTU, where, this season, Chloe O’Brian (the delightful Mary Lynn Rajskub) is trying to rein in her snarky ex-husband, Morris (Carlo Rota). He’s now part of the CTU staff and feuding constantly with his boss, returning analyst Milo Pressman (Eric Balfour).
Then there’s also the fact that this addictive thriller provides one of the most cogent public discussions of newsworthy topics more frequently discussed in weighty opinion pieces and in Page 1 stories.
As the nation reels from the wave of bombings, one presidential aide, Tom Lennox (Peter MacNicol), advocates setting up detention centers for Arab-Americans, while security adviser Karen Hayes pointedly remarks that such measures are designed to make people feel safer, as opposed to actually making them safer.
In Hayes’ view, Lennox “treats the Constitution like a list of suggestions,” while Lennox dismisses her arguments by telling her that “security has its price. Just get used to it.”
Whatever side you come down on in that discussion, there’s no doubt that “24” provides a vivid backdrop for what could be an op-ed page debate. It’s hard to say what’s more frightening, scenes of the show’s fictional terrorists killing hundreds of Americans in seemingly unstoppable attacks, or the sight of men not charged with any crimes shuffling in long, defeated lines at a detention center — in the heart of Washington, D.C., no less.
“24” is pop-culture entertainment, but it’s also a reminder that it’s a scary, brutal, confusing and complicated world out there. As Jack Bauer says of one of the president’s decisions, “I’m glad that’s a call I didn’t have to make.”
But after six seasons of chasing bad guys, Jack’s living in his own gray area. To stem the tide of attacks, he ends up working with a former terrorist (well played by Alexander Siddig of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”), and he has to make yet more heartbreaking judgments that make him feel less than human. This season, Jack begins to wonder if the price he’s paying for his actions is just too much.
And as the jaw-dropping end of the first four hours of another very bad day approaches, it’s not difficult to see why.
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moryan@tribune.com
