- 24
A quick look at the temperatures recorded and predicted for this week makes it hard to tell which season we’re in: fall, spring, or summer. A quick look at the movie premiere schedule, however, indicates we are already in blockbuster season. So it makes sense that Fox would roll out 24: Live Another Day, the latest “worst day ever” in the life of Jack Bauer, a CIA agent-cum-fugitive. The new miniseries (at 12 episodes, it’s half the length of a regular season) has all the blustering action and great cinematography of its previous iterations, as well as a (possibly) controversial take on a hot-button issue.
Longtime fans of the show will be happy to see that Jack is very much back for the proverbial kicking of ass and taking of names, though there hasn’t yet been a single utterance of “Don’t fight it.” But old and new viewers should be engrossed by the show’s treatment of drone attacks—not only do we see protestors decrying the use of drones, but we also see how it can go wrong (there is a friendly fire incident that quickly turns into an international incident). In the past, 24 was criticized for what was perceived as tacit approval of torture as a reliable interrogation method, so this more nuanced look at modern warfare ushers in a new day indeed.
