“24: Redemption” Review
If ever a TV movie was so rightfully titled, it’s this one. Following the embarrassing spectacle of 24’s oft-and-deservedly-maligned sixth season, many acolytes of the series–few as committed as yours truly–reluctantly came to the realization that maybe this series has issued its last meaningful KER-CHUNK KER-CHUNK.
Season Six’s recycling of weathered 24 cliches–moles in CTU, shady Beltway power players pulling the strings of terrorists, excruciating non-Jack-Bauer-centric storylines, clumsy political sermonizing–certainly pointed to a writers’ room that was devoid of ideas.
So now we have the first original 24 content since May 2007, the seventh season teased briefly (zombie Tony?!!!) then shuttled away thanks to the writer’s strike. To further complicate things, creator Joel Surnow left the show and there have been rumblings of creative dysfunction on the Season 7 set.
But there’s always Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), still the most engrossing action hero on television. In this two-hour, real-time telemovie, he’s got significantly more on his shoulders than a looming geopolitical crisis or a rogue nuke–can he salvage this once-great show?
Here’s the short version: @#$% yes. 24: Redemption is exactly the kind of thing we should have seen in the series at least two seasons ago. Maybe three. The milieu shift from L.A. (hey, you think the terrorists would learn to steer clear of California since all their schemes are consistently thwarted) to Africa does wonders for the storytelling, and breathes exciting, new life into the mythology.
Here’s the deal (without getting terribly spoilery): after the bottom fell out on Jack’s life at the end of Season 6, he ran to the fictional African country of Sangala, where he met up with an old special forces pal named Carl Benton (Robert Carlyle).
To make up for whatever black-bag zaniness he once had partaken in, Benton has started an orphanage and school for Sangala boys and Jack has been helping around the place, keeping a low profile, and a rebuffing the stream of subpoenas demanding he return to America to answer for his killin’ and torturin’.
Sangala is a politically unstable place, however. A local warlord has been scooping up boys, brainwashing them and turning them into child soldiers, preparing for a full-scale coup. With American nationals clearing out the embassy, and the last helicopter leaving within the hour (remember this movie takes place in real time) Jack and Benton will have to bring the boys to safety, while rebels hunt them down. Needless to say, fools will be getting their balls ventilated by Jack Bauer.
Meanwhile, stateside, President-Elect Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones) is about to be sworn in, much to the consternation of recently ousted Noah Daniels (Powers Boothe) and his squirrelly sidekick Tom. Little does Taylor know, that Jon Voight has his hands in the impending Sangala civil war and anyone that tries to peel back the scheme will likely end up expired. All of this will act as a lead-in to Season 7, telling the story of how Jack ends up back in America and what wondrous shady conspiracies await him.
And with that, the showrunners have grabbed my attention once more. Redemption has bought much goodwill. It’s a taut, exciting, emotionally impacting two hours, packed full of iconic Bauer moments–my favorite, when he’s talking trash to the useless UN worker and says “Why don’t you go hide in the shelter with the rest of the children.”–and moves effortlessly into the new season.
The change in setting is a winner and is something I had been looking forward to for several seasons. The real-time formula and the Jack character are TV gold, and by detaching them from the over-used textbook plays of compromised CTU buildings and fiddling Washington bureaucrats, they score new points. I love how Jack had to get the boys to safety within an hour; there was real danger and tension as the rebels closed in.
And these villains are truly villainous. The opening scene where we see the indoctrination of the child soldiers is brutal. When their eventual comeuppance comes at the hands of Bauer–and it does come–it is rewarding. It’s also nice to see the writers pushing the envelope again; one scene in particular will have you saying “Oh no they didn’t.”
The action is fierce as well. Two big firefights can be found as well as a neck stabbing, a one-on-two Bauer smackdown, some torturing, a leg-powered neck snap and the old favorite Leaping Out of the Way of an Exploding Out-Building.
Carlyle and Sutherland are great, and though we’ve only seen them together for a short time, their bond feels real. I’m not sold yet on the players in Washington–the new President could go either way and her jock son, who plays a large role in the plot, has done little other than present himself as an Abercombie model. Jon Voight, on the other hand, has the potential to be a legendary 24 douchebag
As is the case, the Jack stuff is the most compelling and the D.C. back-and-forth didn’t grab me. It’s not weak–rather, Jacks’ adventures in Africa were just so awesome any time away from them was down time.
One big complaint: there was Final Bad Guy Fight Scene hinted at, and I was saddened to be denied what could have been an epic throw-down.
Overall, a great slice of slam-bang Bauer action, and a luxurious salve for ill-tempered 24 fans and anyone cruising for a kick-ass way to spend two broadcast hours.
24 Redemption airs on November 23 at 8:00 p.m. on Fox.
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Would that be Sunday November 23, 2008 on Fox @ 8:00 Standard No-Matter-What-You-Say-Its-Wrong Time, or Daylight Savings No-Matter-What-You-Say-Its-Wrong Time? Eastern, Mountain, or Pacific No-Matter-What-You-Say-Its-Wrong Time?
Comcast goes, “what?” Plenty of 24s and plenty of redemptions, but no 24: Redemption.
That would be “the cable companies and even tvguide.com can’t look past their pre-programmed listings more than 2 or 3 days in advance.” Here’s the official Fox promo page… http://www.fox.com/24/trailer/
Dont watch the trailer. It’s more spoiler than trailer and gives far too much away!!!
Don’t watch the trailer? Don’t waste your time watching this bucket of slop. There was no redemption here – this was a made-for-TV movie reminiscent of the junk I remember from the ’70s. There aren’t very many likable characters here and the next season promises to be “kinder and gentler” as the series continues on its slide into a soap opera with a few bangs and explosions thrown in. As they say, fool me once…
Yep, after an hour of watching this, I deleted it from the DVR and cancelled the future recordings. More nonsense about white people saving blacks from themselves again, and bringing the refugees to America. And of course, always an evil white man (Jon Voight) behind it all.
What a load of crap, all the hype for nothing. It lacked any real storyline any depth that we normally see (apart from season six that is) someone off the street could have written a better plot or maybe the producers did just that during the strike and saved a few quid. Lets hope day seven puts this poor offering to shame.
This ain’t Shakespearean theater, after all. It’s escapist action hero stuff as everyone knows, well directed and with a strong good v evil theme. If it’s not your cup of tea, fine. What tv drama is better constructed, anyway?
Welcome Back, Jack! Loved Redemption and can’t wait for season 7 to begin. We missed you!
This review makes no sense. The whole thing lacked any bravery and was so dumbed down.
You know what would’ve been powerful? Jack shooting and killing a child soldier. I’m not saying I want to see a guy kill kids or that he should do it in cold blood. But let’s say he sees a gun firing near the children he’s trying to protect and instinctively fires on the shooter only to see that the shooter was in fact one of the child soldiers.
It’s dark and it’s wrong, but that’s the way it would be.
Instead he’s just confronted by ONE child soldier late in the movie and talks him down with some ease.
All the other characters were entirely two dimensional and Robert Carlisle was wasted.
It wasn’t terrible, but I’d say it was barely better than season six.
Man,
You are all missin’ the big picture here. I finally watch an episode of the show everybody talks about. “24.” Seems it takes place in Africa, too. A place I have spent A LOT of time in. What a pathetic waste of time.
What I couldn’t believe was how the whole thing was lifted (NO, MAKE THAT STOLEN) from two distinct sources.
1. “Blood Diamond.” The scene where the menacing para military leader is indoctrinating the boy soldiers is practically stolen word for word from a similar scene in “Diamond.”
2. The above mentioned scumbag uses the word “cockroach” through the same speech, the unflattering term used by Hutus when they decimated the Tutsis in Rwanda back in 1994.
Thus, the entire theme that the ridiculous show was based on was not even original.
How much do these writers get paid for this tripe???
Its. A. TV. Show.
If you want sweet internationalist love, go watch the West Wing on DVD. If you want American-centric action and melodramatic intrigue, watch 24.
I watch it for just Jack. His character arc, despite the bad season plots, has been fantastic.
This promised us a 24 movie and all we got was an advanced two hour premiere for season seven. I call shenangins on the whole venture. Shame on you Jack!
Just watched it and couldn’t catch a message from it. lets all wait for the season 7 by Jan, and see what Jack has to offer the entire world. JACK U NEED TO IMPRESS YJE VIEWERS IN SEASON 7 COS WE CANT FIGURE OUT THE MESSAGE IN RESEMPTION.
Okay, I’m hooked now. The real question is, should I wait till all the episodes are aired and marathon it one weekend, or should I watch them week-by-week?
It was very entertaining and that’s what 24 is about. People are expecting wayyy too much. I dug it. Although I will admit that Keifer signing on for 3(!) more seasons is crazy. Are they going to drag this show on forever? Look at season six!! So formulaic. I am stoked on the new season, though, as they have had alot of time to come up with new material.
I’ve only watched most of one season of 24 – can’t make that kind of commitment – but I thought this movie was very good, especially considering the crap being offered on most of broadcast TV. The child soldier thing’s already been done? Yeah, over and over, all over Africa, unfortunately.
I give it a thumbs up and liked it well enough to at least attempt to watch the show this season.
I liked it. I never expected an Oscar-worthy movie, everyone who complains and pretends to have expected otherwise is either a hypocrite or simply doesn’t even know what 24 is all about and expected something totally different. Well, that’s too bad!
I say “welcome back, Jack!”
Okay, Jack seemed unbelievable: first, he’s too damn old to be convincing in the action sequences that remind me more of a 3rd rate sitcom a la Chuck Norris. Climbing into trees and pouncing on guys; starting a compound fire fight with a 38 cal. and several sticks of TNT (all perfectly lobbed to kill 1 or more guys); a contrived and silly torture scene; etc… Oh, he also thwarted the terrorist plot in this “real time” series of events…yea, okay. Furthermore, every character with the one exception of his friend was a complete cartoon character.
Maybe I just don’t understand what 24 is all about, kind of like understanding what a Phish concert is all about…I like the concept of 24, but this just failed to deliver in a gigantic way. I remember the cop show, “The Shield”, probably the type of TV dram that a 24 demographic would appreciate. The shield – at least the 5 or so episodes I tuned in to- was far and away better on so many levels.
24 would seem to be terribly overrated. Of course, I’ll probably rent the DVD for some of the earlier years to see what maybe some of the justified hype was about.
Just tried to watch Redemption in Australia last night. I was a big fan of the earlier seasons, even liked S6.
This, however, was boring as hell. The whole real-time concept did not work since there were no parallel story lines that depended on real time ticking.
I agree with most of the negative things that were said above: 2D characters, bad fire fights, stolen plot lines, reminiscent of 70’s junk, …
Also, had to watch in on free TV – could not believe the length of the commercials. I doubt I’ll ever watch it, but if I do it will be on DVD.
Bring it on!