24
Fox
Tuesday, 9 p.m / 8 p.m. CST

Here's a note for those who read Flak's "24" recaps last season.

On the strength of its season opener, it's a safe bet that "24" will have a better second season than its first. That's the sort of thing that's hard to interpolate from an hour of TV, but there has to be a pretty steep learning curve when it comes to learning something as unconventional as real-time TV drama. While season one was pretty good, its many stutters showed that its makers were behind that curve.

Season two's first hour, which takes place more than a year after the events of season one, suggests they're on top of it. The distinct story threads establish themselves slowly, contemplatively dispersing their goods: Former counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) is brought back in by newly minted President David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) to try to find a loose nuke in Los Angeles that's supposed to go off within (ta da!) 24 hours; Jack's daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert), still broken up by the death of her mother, has a new job as a nanny for a violently unstable family; sister of the bride Kate Warner (Sarah Wynter) performs a background check on her future brother-in-law Reza Naiyeer (Phillip Rhys), only to discover that he has connections with a terrorist that we, the viewers, know is associated with the terrorist cell handling the bomb.

Last season, a maniacal warlord/terrorist family wanted to bring Jack and then-candidate Palmer together for mutual disgrace and destruction, and the series stumbled forward, with Jack's wife and daughter being independently kidnapped while Jack was coerced into lackeyship; meanwhile, a totally unrelated group was also trying to disgrace Palmer, although that action was coincident with the attempted terrorist infiltration of Palmer's campaign. Oh, and there was a plan-A terrorist cell and a plan-B terrorist cell, both of which had infiltrated the LA counterterrorism office without knowledge of one another. The show moved in fits and starts like this very often — the writers acknolwedged that they didn't know how the story threads were going to resolve themselves over the course of the season, and the show more than occasionally seemed like it was being made up as it went along.

This was justifiable, to a certain extent — "24" was at perpetual risk of being cancelled last year, meaning that the story might have to suddenly resolve itself, and so its patchwork, tiered structure made some sense. But the show was such a critical success, including a passel of award nominations and some wins, that it vouchsafed itself a second season even though the show's ratings flagged. Rather than shuck "24" and move on to less costly, more pandering programming, Fox has done the stand-up thing — they've put much more money into promoting the show, including a very strong advertising blitz that did what everyone wants movie trailers to do: set up mood (angst, action, angst) and character without divulging any plot.

With that safety net in place, it would seem natural that producers Robert Cochran and Joel Surnow took the time to set up a more intricate, rationally digestible web of events for their second season. There's evidence of this in the first hour; for instance, there's no connection between Kim's nanny job and the threat, and instead it's Jack that draws her into the main story by, when he learns about the bomb, telling her to get out of town. That's good story design, with events flowing forward due to character actions as opposed to being thrown together by happenstance (or incredible mastermindedness). Similarly, it doesn't seem like a stretch that Warner finds out about Reza's possible terrorist link the day that the bomb might go off — this action is so far removed from what's "important" in the story that such developments seem organic.

And the sense of assuredness extends beyond the story design. The actors from last season seem especially comfortable in their roles, probably because this season they have the characters they established last season (as opposed to ill-defined character traits and ever-shifting allegiances such that a coherent character couldn't be built; see Nina, for instance). The exception might be Carlos Bernard as Tony Almeida — Tony's significant other from last season turned out to have joined his unit so she could have an affair with Jack, making her relationship with Tony seem extra perfunctory and manipulative, but never in this episode does Tony suggest someone who's had to deal with that kind of emotional catastrophe — he's a real blank.

As to which actor makes the best showing, it's a dead heat between Sutherland and Haysbert. Having Haysbert portray TV's first black president is solid gold, and with the plot revolving around Arab terrorists plotting domestic destruction, he'll give President Bartlet a run for his ripped-from-the-headlines money. Sutherland is equally on his game, however, and while this hour gives him little to do but glower, he delivers on the moments he's handed — the look he makes upon receiving a call from Palmer is a mix of friendship and citizenship that suggests real patriotism, and his tinderbox scenes (particularly the gun-firing one) with old colleague George Mason (Xander Berkeley) are electric.

New characters abound, including "Roseanne's" Sara Gilbert as a counterterrorism computer nerd, but the best is Timothy Carhart as NSA work Eric Rayburn. He seems like a CGI simulation of every bland, well-scrubbed political subordinate ever, but with an almost Ralph Fiennes air. Carhart gives off so little beyond his character's rote dimensions that he seems dull, but there's a precision to his line readings that's intriguing and suggests more potential than you'd get from a central-casting type.

It's also great for "24" to be dealing with a domestic terrorism theme, and one that will likely turn out to have Muslim roots. Even when presented in a pop context like a Fox action show, the dramatization of events like this gives that drama a vibrance that's much more than exploitative. (For contrast, consider The Sum of All Fears.) If the storytellers give the terrorists dimensions beyond what we got last season from the snoozesome Eurotrash, then it might be exciting to see some of the dynamics of world politics played out before us. (The telephone conversation this hour between the president and the prime minister of an unnamed Arab country suspected of funding the terrorists caught some of this spark.)

Interestingly, there hasn't been a clear evolution in visual style from last season, which may very well be due to the departure of director Stephen Hokpins, who directed the vast majority of last season. Hopkins has proven himself to be OK in film and pretty savvy (based on "24") in small-screen drama and action. We'll see what kind of directors replace him, but it was Hopkins who brought elements like split-screen to the table, and it's an open question as to whether his replacements have the flavor for it that he did. One bad sign: I don't remember nearly so many shock zooms last season — for instance, when Palmer says to the prime minister, "It will destroy you," the camera crowds the PM's face on the word "you;" similarly, when Jack hears that someone from Palmer's office is on his answering machine, the camera jumps at Sutherland. This is clunky, and these bad moments are not redeemed by countervaling smart style like they often were last season. (One great moment, though: A head-on shot of Palmer, who we know is looking at projected fatality numbers, is continued via split screen into the next scene and lasts far longer than you might suspect, thereby underscoring the magnitude of the moment.)

What it comes down to is that this season "24" has come out of the gate very strongly. While the resolution of events last season was ultimately less than satisfying, its clincher moment — seeing that Jack's pregnant wife had been shot "right in the baby" (as a friend said) by his ex-mistress — was such a melodramatic twist that it gave the story an almost Greek-drama import that it hadn't had previously. That bleak moment has proved to be an ideal lead-in for our disillusioned "24" characters this season, giving them a tangible internal morass to fight against while they try to save the world. The show has potential by the truckload, and I'm uncharacteristically excited to see how it'll all develop.

— Sean Weitner (sean@flakmag.com)