Another day, another plot to destabilise the planet. Early scenes in the eighth series of 24 show us a mellow, semi-retired agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) playing grandad to his daughter Kim's child, and planning to return with them from New York to LA to re-establish his family ties. With his career in the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) behind him, Jack is thinking of taking up an offer of some private security work.
Then, as he's about to leave, a wounded informant hammers desperately on his door. He blurts out a tale of foreign assassins planning to shoot President Hassan of Kamistan (played by Slumdog Millionaire's Anil Kapoor) in order to scupper his proposed treaty with the United States. Looks like Jack's going to miss his plane.
It isn't easy to find fresh twists in the conspiracy/thriller genre, and several aspects of the new series seem to have been hastily rescued from the dumper and revived with a splash of paint. The theme of the veteran warrior called out of retirement for one last mission was probably already a cliche when Homer was writing The Odyssey. Just about every series of 24 seems to have involved an American president striving to conclude a historic treaty with some rogue state or other (here, President Allison Taylor is on the brink of nailing down a deal that will curb nuclear proliferation in the Middle East) while battling a horrifying terrorist threat. And the scene where Jack's informant Victor Aruz (Benito Martinez, formerly the slippery David Aceveda in The Shield) died just as he was trying to gasp the name of the traitor inside President Hassan's entourage was so absurd that you were almost deafened by the ticking of rusty clockwork.
Even 24's once-revolutionary real-time format has begun to feel antique, yet once the famous digital clock starts plink-plinking away, it's like a Pavlovian trigger for that familiar adrenaline rush. 24 still works because of its climate of mounting paranoia and the ruthless efficiency of its action sequences - car chases reeking of burnt rubber, the thump of bullets punching through metal - while Sutherland's older, grizzlier Bauer is still the guy you'd want at your back if you found yourself under attack by maniacs carrying rocket-launchers and nerve gas. And when real-life fanatics are trying to bring down airliners with exploding underpants, suddenly 24 feels that little bit less implausible.
first two episodes repeat on Monday January 25 at 10pm and 11pm on Sky1 and Sky1 HD and on Thursday January 28 at 10pm and 11pm on Sky2
