11:00 PM - 12:00 PM

24: Legacy wound to a close this week. Whether it served up a season finale or a series finale remains to be seen, but as with the week before, the quality actually was a bit higher than it was in the silly depths of the middle of the season.

But I'm already in snark mode, so I have to note:

That pantry the little girl is hiding in must be bulletproof.

You don't install glass doors and not go crashing through them during a fight.

Naseri never changed his phone number in more than a year as an operating terrorist?

And now, Arbor Talk with your host, Ara Naseri.

Did Mullins stash that guy he choked out somewhere safe before he headed out on this little helicopter jaunt?

When there's just half an hour left in the season, the avenues of trust between the heroes and the villains suddenly open wide.

Among the perks of being a U.S. Senator: after holding someone hostage inside the Pentagon for an hour-and-a-half, you can just walk out unchallenged.

Rebecca took a bullet for Eric so that he could have a season two. Extra bummer for her if there's no season two.

According to the latest polls, Rebecca's new nickname is "Nine Point Spike."

Nicole wants "no more secrets" between her and Eric. Presumably, the "national security" type secrets will be okay, though.

Sure. Eric is going into room 420 for a "debrief."

...And we'll find out if he ever comes out when FOX announces their renewals in a few weeks. Frankly, if the writers can't serve up a consistently entertaining half season of 24, I'm fine if that renewal doesn't come.

10:00 PM - 11:00 PM

To be fair, last night's episode of 24: Legacy was actually a good deal more entertaining (and of noticeably higher quality) than anything the series has served up in weeks. I suspect it's a combination of the writers now rushing to a known ending and the jettisoning of long-played-out subplots (Nicole and Isaac, Daddy Donovan). Still, I'd already resolved to switch over to quip mode in "reviewing" the show, so...

What does Stiles mean, "what does she mean Bin-Khalid is alive?"? Seems pretty unambiguous.

Remote erasing looks so camera friendly.

CTU has a new Peng in the ass.

Before they zipped up Jadalla's body bag, did they make sure he's dead? Because these days, you apparently never know.

Carter thinks there's still time to save Rebecca. Yeah, about an hour and 50 minutes.

Why are the terrorists always talking to each other in English?

John says Rebecca's work is in her blood. Which is now all over the floor of the terrorists' van.

Carter knows the thigh-shooting threat is the go-to play on 24.

Lots of quick and dirty Photoshop work in the photos of Naseri's daughter.

Everybody knows how much time it takes to mask your trail by spreading bandwidth through multiple sockets.

This rural farmhouse is surprisingly close to the Pentagon.

Closer even than DC SWAT, in fact.

Andy didn't see Tony's strike team coming because he was too zoomed in. That's what too much "enhance" will get you.

Tony sure spends a long time hanging outside the house waiting for the end of the episode to come around.

So, next week is the finale. In which presumably will see a calm and rational hostage trade after which everyone will go home happy. Or possibly instead, a hail of gunfire. Only way to know is to tune in and see this thing through.

8:00 PM - 9:00 PM and 9:00 PM - 10:00 PM

24: Legacy aired last week while I was out of town, so last night was a double header of action and complete insanity. It all sort of blurred together, so here are some scattered thoughts on both episodes.

Everyone in this season of 24 has either been coerced into being a mole, been held prisoner by terrorists, or has returned from the dead. Sometimes more than one of those.

Things took on a bit of a soap opera vibe as the writers leaned in big time to the Eric-Nicole-Isaac love triangle, continued to harp on the jealousy of Tony's assistant (about Rebecca), wedged and then de-wedged the relationship between Rebecca and John, and brought Jadalla's father back from the dead for a heart-to-heart.

Rather than give than give something interesting to Stiles or Director Mullins, who've been living scenery basically all season, the writers invented some schlubby, two-timing security guard to be pressured into helping the break-in at CTU.

Eric decides that 20 minutes is just too long to wait for a professional to come defuse a bomb... and then proceeds to wait 20 minutes before beginning to defuse the bomb. And takes another 20 minutes doing it. I know nothing on the subject, of course, but we see how long it takes him to "cut the first wire." At that pace, he must go on to cut like 47 more wires off screen before the bomb is disarmed.

Tony Almeida has two weeks left to do something interesting, or his whole return this season will amount to a big nothing burger.

Eric is sitting in the basement of the house at the end of one episode, and waltzes into CTU three minutes into the next episode. Maybe the chopper that must have brought him should be out looking for Naseri?

The moment Senator Donovan is abducted, they should be monitoring Rebecca's movements. You know, just in case the terrorists try to contact her and make her act against.... oh, see, there you go.

Not only did someone say perimeter, we got to actually see one. That's like two drinks at least. We also got to see why they've been so ineffective in the past, as the terrorists have little hassle blasting their way through it.

Daddy Donovan is awfully quick to believe without evidence that his son has been abducted, and then he just spills everything to Rebecca. Apparently, this is the interrogation technique they should have tried on him a few hours ago.

Why is Isaac, a known criminal, allowed anywhere inside the CTU building? Especially after it was just the target of a raid by terrorists?

How is that bandage on the outside of Andy's pants doing anything for his wound?

Just two more hours until this insanity wraps up.

7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

24: Legacy has become the show that interrupts my attempts to say "wait, but..." by purring, "shhhh, shhhh, shhhh." 24 has always been ridiculous, demanding more suspension of disbelief than just about any show on television. I know this on an intellectual level. But somehow, on a gut level, this season feels to me like it's demanding more and delivering less -- a situation that might be growing with each new episode.

Why doesn't Jadalla just immediately kill Carter? He only needs Andy, and was planning to use torture instead of coercion to force cooperation anyway. Is Jadalla so stimulated by debate over the nature of religion and justice that he keeps Carter around for conversation? (I'm gonna say no.)

What exactly explains the turn for Isaac from "we gotta get the hell out of here" to "I gotta call up my crew and go in guns blazing"? Why has Mariana suddenly gone all Chloe and started sniping at Director Mullins? Is Tony going to get to do anything meaningful, or was he really just brought it to twirl the torture mustache for a couple of installments?

Can we really believe that a drone strike would be ordered on U.S. soil? And in a situation where there would be known collateral casualties? Are we really doing the "villain trade up" cliche again?

And is the fact that none of those questions have good answers forgiven by the fact that we got some fun action? This packed hour included car chases, fist fights, shoot-outs, and missile launches. Plus there was some truly awkward spousal drama between Rebecca Ingram and John Donovan. I mean, when I stopped "struggling" and just let 24 "hold me," it was oddly comforting/fun. But at the same time, so silly!

Perhaps I need to stop doing these more thoughtful write-ups of 24 and instead go back to just the parade of quippy thoughts I used to offer in response to a 24 episode. Well, actually, perhaps I need to stop watching altogether. But I've come so far already, and this is a benefit to the format: I'm that close to finding out how this crazy "day" ends. Gotta see it through to the finish, right?

Let's dispense with the grades, at least. At this point you're either trapped on this ride like me or you're not, right?

6:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Things continued to grow ever more ridiculous on 24: Legacy this week... though this time at least, there was an effort made to mine character drama from the insanity. And the episode was better than the last couple for it.

For example, setting up a situation where Andy has to hold a gun on and then tie up his ex is pretty far out there. But it did all sort of bizarrely work in the moment -- at least, once you got on board with the notion that Andy would agree to a suicide mission in the first place. Then there were the exchanges between Isaac and Nicole -- totally heightened, but a place you kind of have to go when the characters really think they might be at death's door.

But the craziest moment with an ex in the hour had to be Rebecca, who called up her ex to torture her current father-in-law. I'm not sure that you can make a past relationship between Rebecca and Tony Almeida fit in in any way -- not by the timeline, and not for how it would probably have been a suspect item on her record when applying to run CTU. Still, it made for a fairly entertaining nest of potential drama. Rebecca is choosing duty and country over her husband, and heading down a very misguided and dark road in the name of that duty. Plus, we get Tony back in the mix.

I'm going to be interested to see if the writers actually go through with the torture in next week's episode. Many elements this season seem to have been calibrated as a response to changes in perception since 24's heyday. They've been a bit ham-fisted at times, but the efforts to show "good Muslims," "coping with racism," and more diversity have been there. So will they go and puncture the big torture myth?

Maybe, maybe not. But first they've teed up a big car chase involving Isaac and Nicole, and big jeopardy for Eric (why didn't the bad guys just shoot him?) and Andy. Tune in next week! As for this week, I give it a B.

5:00 PM - 6:00 PM

24 has never been a series grounded in realism or rock-solid logic, and I wasn't truly expecting 24: Legacy to be any different. Still, this week's installment seemed to strain credibility with the sheer number of unexplained (and unexplainable?) things needed to grease the plot.

How, after stealing top secret information from CTU, was Eric Carter not immediately taken into custody after the raid on Gabriel's place? (Never mind ending up on the team raiding Jadalla's place?)

Or was it Jadalla's place? I have so much confusion surrounding this raid and the terrorists' escape. With mere seconds of warning, they were able to slip away without being observed? Because of some tree cover or something? (How far do the trees go? Why wasn't a "satellite retasked" -- to use 24 lingo -- to monitor the location overhead until the team could get there?) Was that compound even the right place? I don't think I ever saw Carter or the CTU team standing in the big room where we saw all of Jadalla's men hanging out these last few hours, so did they bait-and-switch us or something?

Did I miss some explanation of how Jadalla's goons located Nicole and Isaac? I mean, that made no sense at all.

I suppose the question is, did all of this implausible nonsense at least serve to bring us fun stuff? Sort of, I guess. We've wrapped up the story line of Amira the Reluctant Terrorist, which felt stretched thin weeks ago and became positively silly when her father entered the mix. They at least sent her out with a bang (ha!), with an attack on the George Washington Bridge. But even in that there seemed like a missed opportunity. Why did they go to all the trouble explaining the volatility of the explosives, about how the contact could detonate them, if that wasn't going to be a thing. Why not supplement the pro-Muslim PSA with an anti-cell phone PSA and a testament to a father's love? Dad calls Amira to talk her down, and she listens to him... but then gets distracted and crashes the truck anyway. Boom!

I so want 24 to be bigger than just Kiefer Sutherland, because I think the real time gimmick is still great even after all these years. Unfortunately, all the other gimmicks 24 routinely traffics in haven't exactly been swapped out along with the old characters.

We're halfway through the season now, and my interest is slipping quickly. Having come this far, I might be in it to the finish at this point. Still, I'm hoping things pick up considerably here in the back half. I give this episode a C.

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

24: Legacy slid a bit off the tracks for me this week, allocating time to the different story lines in a bizarre and less-than-compelling way.

With Carter having just broken out of CTU and a big hunt for him presumably underway, the first order of business... was for Rebecca to have a heart-to-heart with Nilaa and apologize for calling her a terrorist. And assuming you count this as a terrorist plot thread, it was still only the third silliest one of the night.

After episodes of hand-wringing about whether or not to be a terrorist, Amira was literally confronted this week with Daddy issues. After an hour of ridiculousness involving soup and duct tape and diabetes, I'm kind of over that whole story line. The writers cougared this one. Perhaps seeing this terror cell actually pressed into action will generate new interest?

Then there was the hour long argument between Jadalla and his number one goon, whether one attack was good enough, or there would have to be fifteen simultaneous attacks. It felt like an argument from the 24 writers' room dramatized on screen. "We've set off a nuclear bomb outside Los Angeles before! Do you really think one terror cell is interesting enough?" "We can't keep topping ourselves all the time, there's nowhere up left to go!" Presumably, this argument didn't end with a bullet in the head as it did on the show.

Speaking of crazy ways to kill time, we actually had a character spend time shaving this week. Grimes somehow convinced Carter that he just had to shave before meeting Gabriel, which just sets up so many questions for me -- none of them within the confines of the story itself. Did the actor get another job he had to shave for? Could that not just wait until he finished his one or two last days filming on this episode before they killed his character? Could they really think of no better way to delay those Grimes and Carter for 10 or 15 minutes of "real time?"

In yet another uninteresting subplot, we got to see Isaac go full Sean Spicer and demand everyone's cell phones so he could get to the bottom of who leaked on him. Nicole was already feeling uncertain about being there, and then Eric told her point blank to go somewhere else. The fact that she still hung around anyway strongly suggests that things between Nicole and Eric really aren't in the best shape; maybe there's still something between Nicole and Isaac after all. "Save the day, lose the girl" for Eric Carter?

Spicer-ing was on display for Daddy Donovan too, who looked Rebecca right in the eye and claimed that the things he said to his son were never said. Where did all of those lie detector sensors CTU hooks people up to go? (Well, I know where they went, we saw him wearing them. The question is, why do they suddenly not work? He can't be that practiced a liar.)

Gabriel turned out not to be a returning 24 character from the past after all. He also turned out not to be anyone of consequence, as he was introduced and killed off in less than half an episode -- yet another development that smacked of killing time to put off bigger developments until next week.

At least, I hope for bigger developments next week. This week was a bit of a snooze. Sorry, 24, you get a C this episode. Try harder next time.

3:00 - 4:00 PM

This week's episode of 24: Legacy was rather light on the action. Yet in classic form, everybody sank farther into a mess than where they'd begun the hour.

Starting with the big action sequence that was there, Nicole came back into the spotlight this week with a whole act dedicated to her escape from Aisha and her goon. After stunt falls, some cat-and-mouse, and an oddly cathartic crow bar to the head, Nicole came out out on top and managed to save Isaac life's too. It was another strong showing for the character (after she helped out during the home invasion that started it all in the first episode). Indeed, it was strong enough maybe even to forgive the writers then tangling her up in police custody to put her on the sidelines for the rest of the hour.

The other, more abbreviated action sequence closed out the hour, in which Carter once again channeled Jack Bauer with a crazy plan to go rogue. Stealing from CTU and breaking out of it (though granted, neither of those things looked that hard) to now go off on an unauthorized op with only one person for backup -- a person who can't really be trusted? Yup, that's the brand of nuts we expect from our 24 protagonist. (Side note: I do wish they hadn't so widely advertised that a returning 24 character would be showing up at some point this season, because now I can't help but anticipate that the "Gabriel" they're going to see will turn out to be that character.)

The rest of the episode seemed to be taking us through a series of PSAs, but it managed to weave enough intriguing drama around them to not feel too forced. Donovan learned that his own father was behind the leak that set this season's plot in motion. (On the PSA side, the show used maligned Nilaa to show an innocent, non-terrorist Muslim. No doubt there are some in the 24 audience who think this is the most outlandish plot development of the season. Sigh.) Papa Donovan's motivations in all this don't quite track for me, but then I suppose that he is old enough to remember older days of politics, where it was easier to convince yourself that you could keep a scandal hidden indefinitely.

Another PSA in the making may be brewing about the reasons why CTU director Mullins has it out for analyst Andy. If it turns out to be because Andy is gay, cue the "More You Know" music. Then again, maybe it won't unfold that way. I don't usually get too invested in the office politics subplots of 24, but I'm interested to see if they can avoid stepping in cliche here.

Oh, I almost forgot Amira and the saga of the dead/not-dead/now-definitely-dead Drew. Until we see how this all connects with broader elements of the story, it's hard to say whether it's been worth the time tracking it all in isolation. So.... hold that thought?

I'd say this episode adds up to around a B. The show continues to fall shy of great, but then, 24 in any incarnation hasn't really been great since the early years. At least this reboot has kept on being reasonably entertaining.

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

The ride continues, with our new 24 hero Eric Carter continuing his real time adventures. It was, as 24 so often has been, a mix of "that was cool"s and "oh come on"s, but I think the balance generally tipped in the right direction.


Mostly it did so thanks to some fun and intense action scenes this week. Watching Carter literally blast his way out of the police station (and nearly get all the way out of the building) was entertaining. (Though I'm not sure if I'm disappointed that CTU got all back together on the same page before things could go full Jack Bauer crazy.) Later in the episode, the cloak and dagger business of the train served up some good moments of tension. And the final foot race actually made me jump a bit in my seat with some great photography and editing as Carter ran over cars and eventually got hit by one.

I also enjoyed some of the quieter character moments sprinkled throughout the episode, something 24 has had mixed success with in the past. Rebecca's willingness to come into the interrogation of her husband's aide with at least a tiny bit of an open mind softened her edges, and felt true for someone who'd actually know her interrogatee for a long time. The loyalty between Carter and Grimes, despite the situation, was a nice 180 from the ruthlessness of later 24 seasons. And while the CTU office romance subplot was a bit of a distraction, I appreciate a bit of LGBT inclusiveness that's far away from the stereotypes.

On the other hand, I was rolling my eyes a bit at another "secretly evil Dad" (though it will be fun to watch Gerald McRaney play him). And the whole "he's not dead yet" revelation in the school terrorist cell subplot was a silly reveal in an already silly story line; that element of the season is feeling like a parody of 24 more than the real thing. The far-reaching surveillance powers of CTU were a bit laughable too. Or maybe alarming. Probably both.

I'd give the episode a B+. Three episodes in, and this new season has built up enough momentum to (gently) hook me.

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Two hours into the new 24, and I am enjoying it, mostly. Still, I want to enjoy it more, and I feel like maybe the real world is making it hard to enjoy the schtick the series trades in.

Two hours in, and we have Islamic terrorists popping up everywhere. Highly organized hit squads chasing down our hero. Sleeper cells in our high schools. The most trusted advisor to a candidate for President of the United States. It's patently ridiculous. It's patently ridiculous in a way that should be fun and escapist for being so implausible. Yet our actual president is trumpeting exactly this sort of "Islamic terror" conspiracy as a completely real thing. So the experience is contaminated; watching 24 both is not the escape from reality it should be, and is laughable for trying to depict something insane with a straight face.

But in brief flashes, if you can somehow forget about all that, there are some good thrills. In the spirit of a taser as a first solution, our new hero Eric Carter leaps to breaking into a police station evidence room as his best option. This is a big "hold my drink" to even Jack Bauer's more ridiculous escapades (like infiltrating the Russian consulate.) Just so over-the-top that it's kind of awesome. Plus, it included a not-subtle dig at racial stereotyping to almost make you forgive that the story line surrounding Eric's brother Isaac is sort of non-stop racial stereotyping.

That's seems to be kind of the whole season in a nutshell, actually -- inclusivity as cover for stereotyping. We have a black protagonist, a Latino presidential candidate with a white father, and (if I read the hints right near the end of the episode) a pair of gay CTU agents. When the writing digs behind these facades to show us the character, as with Carter trying his best to one-up Jack Bauer's boldness, things start to work. But, being only two hours in, we haven't got there for most of the characters.

I think I'm still entrenched around a B- for now. I'm engaged enough to come back next week... though I can't say there's not maybe a ghoulish "watch the train wreck" element to that. I hope it will get better, I fear it will get worse.

A New 'Day" Dawns... (12:00 PM - 1:00 PM)

For the second time since its series finale, 24 is back -- this time in the form of spin-off 24: Legacy. Kiefer Sutherland is busy presidenting on another network, so Jack Bauer will have to remain indefinitely in Russian captivity. If whispered/shouted "dammits!" is what kept you tuning in, you're out of luck. But otherwise, just about everything else about 24 seems to be back.

I'm a bit nervous right at the outset about how similar this new 24 is, how quickly it settled straight back into some of the old series' more laughable patterns. CTU is back, complete with a possible mole inside the organization. Torture is the go-to threat and Islamic villains the go-to bad guys, moral reckoning over all that be damne.

That said, there are also some reconstituted parts to this 24, and I think they hold some promise for changing up the familiar old roller coaster. Our new hero, Eric Carter, is not a CTU agent. Instead, he's pressed into the "longest day of his life" by being a target of a terrorist organization. Perhaps more interesting still would have been if he weren't an elite trained soldier like Jack Bauer, but I suppose 24 does need a protagonist who can plausibly wreck shop. Actor Corey Hawkins brings the required intensity to the role.

I'm not sure how to feel about "tried to get out, but they pull me back in" CTU director Rebecca Ingram. She's really not much of a political operator if, even knowing that her husband is trying to run for president, her quick think option is to taser a government employee. She couldn't think of any other person she could reach out to for help in her situation? The Lord of the Rings fan in me is happy to see Miranda Otto here in the mix, but her character is starting with an uphill climb.

Speaking of running for president, Jimmy Smits is now back in my life doing that, a decade or so after The West Wing. 24 is never going to be that kind of political show, of course, so we'll see how they wind up using his character. The show hasn't had a presidential candidate in the mix since season one, and then he (David Palmer) was a target.

And that might be about all I have to say about 24: Legacy for the moment. My thoughts aren't fully formed yet. That's in part because we have another installment tonight, but it's also because 24 has never been "thinking" entertainment. (I never used to do long form reviews of it; instead, just doing Dave Barry-esque hot takes because it seemed more fitting.) I'm willing to be entertained here, but I'm also needing to be sold a bit more. I guess I'd grade the premiere a B-.

Day 9: 10:00 PM - 11:00 AM

Last week, I wondered if this revitalized half season of 24 would manage to stick the landing. Now I know the answer is yes, definitely. (And along the way, it delivered us three or four drinks in the form of "perimeters," the exact count depending on whether you counted the on-screen appearance of the word or not.)

If my memory serves, 24 hasn't really put a big character death in the season finale since all the way back in the very beginning, when Jack lost his wife Teri in the final minutes of season one. But arguably, the lost of Audrey here was even more potent. Make no mistake, I wasn't Audrey's biggest fan as a character. And it was awfully (in)convenient to put her out in the open right at the end just to kill her off. Yet what made all the difference here was the context and the consequences.

Actress Kim Raver really did a hell of a job in her final scenes as Audrey. Unable to actually acknowledge her situation out loud with dialogue, you could nevertheless tell that the realization Cheng was still alive -- and that she was once again in his power -- had an effect on her that shook her to her very core. And then later, 24's first ever time jump allowed us to see the aftermath of a major character death, in a way we'd never seen it before. It didn't matter that I didn't care for Audrey as a character; I still felt President Heller's pain as he mourned not only for his daughter, but for the fact that in a few short months or years, he wouldn't even remember his daughter. It was a powerful performance from William Devane, his best ever on the show.

The episode didn't just deliver on the emotion, it delivered on the action too. The triad of Jack, Chloe, and Belchek, working together in the assault on the ship, was certainly the most satisfying action sequence of the season, and probably one of the best of the series as well. Nor did the writers skimp on the blood lust of Jack and the audience, allowing our hero to behead the villainous Cheng with a freaking sword!

It's the nature of 24 that even when the world is saved, you can't really have a happy ending. So it all ended on an appropriately sour note. Kate had the death of the president's daughter on her hands, to add to her recent misery of having learned her husband was innocent. Mark Boudreau was going away for treason, knowing his wife had also been murdered. And Jack, in acknowledging Chloe as his only friend in the world, was going away for imprisonment/torture in Russia.

When 24 ended as a regular series, it had been years since they'd pulled off such a satisfying finale. I'm glad they came back to end the show right. Assuming it's actually ended now, I suppose. Things are certainly set up for another future continuation, should FOX and the writers wish to do so. They might even go the spinoff route, having clearly set up the adventures of Kate Morgan, should they bravely (foolishly?) decide to have Jack Bauer sit out the next incarnation.

In any case, if taking a few years off and cutting the season in half yields this overall level of quality, then I would welcome 24's return some future summer. But at the same time, if this wonderful "epilogue" is all we get, I can be satisfied with that too. I'd rate the finale an A-, and probably give the same mark to the season overall.

Day 9: 9:00 - 10:00 PM

It took me a few days this week before I was able to get around to the adventures of Jack Bauer, but they proved worth the wait. Though a stubbornly dry affair (Jack favored "son of a bitch" this week over his customary "dammit"), there was plenty of fun adventure, packed in so tightly that the hour flew by.

As we come down the home stretch here, we no longer have much time for the season's new characters. Kate was there storming the castle in all of Jack's ops, but had very little to do otherwise. (But hey, she did get to drive for a bit! Jack's been reserving that for himself all season.) Similarly, the people at the new "CTU (ish)" pushed buttons from afar and provided reassuring comm voices.

Weaselly Mark Boudreau fared better in terms of screen time, caught in his lies and now forced (though quite willingly) to try to clean up. 24 so often puts Jack (or someone equally capable, like Kate) into the action that it's refreshing here to have Mark be the operative. He did much better than the poor techie Jordan, whom Navarro sent into the field to be killed earlier this season.

And speaking of characters not normally in the crosshairs, Chloe was great this week. She pulled a bait-and-switch on the audience a bit at first, getting caught with the cell phone in what we thought might have been the beginnings of an escape plan, only to turn around and use it to leave Jack a pivotal clue. Then she had her most kickass moment since the long-ago season where she got James Bond background music, managing to beat up several of Cheng's thugs before making an escape. Okay, so her awesomeness was undermined a bit by her getting knocked out by a tree, but still, a neat showing for Chloe.

Audrey got the emotional material this week, as we saw her reaction to learning her tormentor Cheng is still alive. (Jack, as per usual, strangled his own feelings on the matter, after shooting them in the thigh.) Of course, you knew from the moment that Audrey announced her plans to leave the hotel that she was going to wind up in jeopardy, as surely as Kim Bauer announcing plans for a cougar hunt. Still, it's nice to get Audrey out into the thick of the action one time before this season wraps up.

It maybe seems a little too convenient to me that this season's Russian villain and the returning Cheng were somehow in cahoots, but we have only one episode left, dammit! It's funny, but for the first time in a long time, I feel like 24 had enough story to tell that they maybe could have gone 13 more episodes. Somehow, they expect to cram it all next week into a mere 42 minutes without commercials. Perhaps it's that immediacy and urgency that has made the show better this season, and thus I should not complain.

In any case, I'd give this week's hour a B+. We'll see next time if they can stick the landing.

Day 9: 7:00 - 8:00 PM and 8:00 - 9:00 PM

I'm going to take brief interruption from the Yellowstone stories so that I don't fall even farther behind on 24 than I had already. Last night, I caught up with the episode I'd missed last (a one-drink "perimeter"), then double-headered it straight into this week's episode (a two-drink "dammit" and "perimeter," with a bonus for a bullet to the thigh).

It turns out that these may have been the two perfect episodes to go back-to-back on, because they essentially covered the transition from one major storyline to another. This is a tradition from past seasons of 24, wrapping up one plot to open another; it happened at least once or twice a season, a product of needing to keep the story going for 24 episodes. Usually, these handoffs were handled rather awkwardly, smacking of desperation and/or boredom with the outgoing story. And given the unstoppable grind of a 24-episode television season, they probably were.

Here, in a more cable-like 12 episode format, the writers had a chance to plan for their plot transition, and the result was probably the smoothest the series has ever managed. The plot threads of the new angle felt like they'd been in play well before the old angle came to a close. What's more, the new direction felt like it had increased stakes and an urgency that will really propel the final two hours.

First episode first. After chastising the writers for doing the predictable 24 thing and killing the president, I was pleasantly surprised to learn they in fact hadn't done that. Because the convention was reversed on 24, what would have been a cop-out for another show came off like a breath of fresh air.

Things then vaulted into an extended action sequence that saw an assault on Margot al-Harazi's base of operations, and culminated in Jack throwing both her and her son out the window. Crazy fun. But in short order, the mole reared his head and put the tech Macguffin device back in play.

In hour two, the foot chase between Jack and Navarro offered a different kind of action for the show. The show delivered well on a dramatic level too, as we learned that Kate's husband had committed suicide when she abandoned him.

Then, just when I was thinking that I wasn't buying into the weird relationship between Chloe and Adrian, it didn't matter! Cheng, the Chinese baddie from seasons past, emerged as presumably the final Big Bad of the season. And then it all hit the fan. The hour ended with Jack and Kate in a shootout with the Russians, Chloe facing imminent death (or perhaps worse, captivity), and an American sub taking out a Chinese carrier in what will surely be seen as an act of war. Insanity!

In short, I can't remember the last time I had this much fun with 24. I give the 7:00 hour an A-, and the 8:00 hour an A. Now if they can just stick the landing, I think this Live Another Day special event season could turn out to be the true finale I wished the show had managed four years ago.

Day 9: 6:00 - 7:00 PM

Last night's 24 was a drinking hat trick (Jack gave us a "dammit," a "within the hour," and a "perimeter"). I also thought it was the best hour of this new season.

It's not that it was especially shocking. On any other show, the idea that the writers would go through with killing the President of the United States would be the unthinkable plot twist no one would see coming. On 24, the twist would have been if they had weaseled their way out of it. Still, it wouldn't have been 24 if they had. The key was in how they got there.

On that front, the episode was terrific. In a move sure to give Audrey trust issues with men for the rest of her life, her ex-boyfriend and her husband teamed up to essentially assist her father's suicide. And the show found a way to really explore the ramifications of this despite a need to keep the action rolling, despite the ticking clock. We got to see Mark's reluctance, Jack's unwavering devotion to duty despite his objections, Heller's "goodbye that I can't say out loud" scene with Audrey, and Audrey's discovery of her father's letter. All of it was a pretty solid emotional throughline of the sort that 24 doesn't always manage to present strongly in the midst of the action.

It seemed like it wasn't the only dramatic thread in play, either. For narrative necessity, I presume, we began to see a fracture between Margot al-Harazi and her son. Presumably, this is how the menace will continue for another four episodes: she will stay true to her word and stand down her drones, but her son will defy her.

But the more subtle and provocative thread was hinted at between Jack and Kate. Jack pushed her hard this week, and Kate went there like the good soldier she's been this season, putting Simone's life in jeopardy to get information from her. But what I found interesting was the way Jack pushed: "Wake the bitch up." A fun Bauer style line, sure, but it also felt like a step beyond for him. Combined with his actions against Simone last week, and the way that there too it was contrasted with Kate, it feels like maybe the writers are inching toward a big, perhaps even irredeemable "go too far" moment with Jack by the end of the season.

I was even fairly entertained by the misadventures of Jordan Reed. Sure, he fell for one of the oldest cliches in the book ("is your safety on or off?"), but I forgive it. For one, he's really a desk jockey out of his element; and two, it's not like the hitman hadn't been colossally stupid throughout the sequence too. At least Reed first managed to figure out who had set him up. Sure looks like he's dead now, though, so it may fall to a snooping Kate to avenge him and unmask Navarro's moley moleness.

My one gripe, though. Traditionally, the major deaths on 24 have been punctuated by a silent clock to end the act. Indeed, the fact that the clock wasn't silent when Tony Almeida died in season 5 was the writers' bullshit retcon justification to bring him back from the dead in season 7. So does the lack of silent clock tonight for Heller's death mean we should somehow be expecting charred zombie Heller next week? Come on, guys. He's the president. Show a little respect.

Still, I can't remember the last time I had this much fun with a 24 episode. Good drama. A clever "reverse stealth shooter" style escape for Jack and the President. Blowing up half the field at Wembley Stadium. Good stuff. I give it an A-.

Day 9: 5:00 - 6:00 PM

This week's installment of 24 was a whopping four-and-a-half drink hour (four Jack "dammits" and one drink-adjacent "in less than an hour") that really brought the fun back after the previous lackluster episode.

Okay, so Margot al-Harazi has definitely left ruthless for crazy, but the sheer idea of a villain using drone missiles to kill her own daughter is just so wildly different that I have to give props to the writers for going there. And that choice led in turn to perhaps the best extended action sequence the series delivered in its last several seasons. Sure, 24 has had its share of car chases over the years, but Jack Bauer trying to outrun drone missiles? That's pure awesome.

I also have to give some grudging respect to the idea that we don't just have one mole this season, we have two, each in a different organization! And they're working together! It's kind of nuts, but in a way -- like the drone chase -- it's just the sort of over the top nuts that brings the fun back. It's the sort of zaniness you could never top if you were having to worry about doing another season after this one, but just the sort of thing you can do when your show is having a limited run, coming back from the dead.

I also enjoyed how the show, having now firmly established Agent Morgan as "the female Jack," is now in some ways making her better than Jack. Call that sacrilege if you like, but Kate endured torture with the best of them last week, and then this week was shifting into a softer gear to get valuable information from a little girl. Meanwhile, in this very episode, you saw what happens when Jack tries to be tender and doesn't get instant results: he grabs hold of the stub of your severed finger and squeezes.

Not that you didn't have to overlook some less fun ridiculousness along the way. The idea that Simone can be carried from a hospital even slightly under her own power, minutes after being hit by a bus? Come on, "I feel like I've been hit by a bus" is actually the go-to metaphor for "I can't function."

For sheer audacity, I might have to call this episode an A-, even acknowledging the silly, sugary calories of it all. It's hard to believe, but we have only five episodes left. Perhaps even more interesting, we have not yet had any jump ahead in time, as the interviews published when the season began told us to expect. We'll see what's in store next week.

Day 9: 4:00 - 5:00 PM

Where 24 was concerned, absence did make the heart grow fonder. But now I fear that familiarity breeds contempt. I wasn't thrilled by this week's new episode, that backslid into an awful lot of 24's old tricks. I could talk about Jack's big play to get undercover with a criminal organization in a matter of minutes, or having to watch one of our heroes endure a torture session, or about the reemergence of the boring Russian subplot from the final seasons of the show. But let's instead go straight to the most cliche, most tired element from the 24 writers' handbook: a mole.

Why does there always have to be a mole? Do the writers think it has to be this way? Do they think we like the formula always, always, always including this? Surely they don't think there's actually any suspense associated with this in any way, not when it plays out the same damn way every time. Early in the episode, when the plucky tech analyst started dredging up Kate's back story and Navarro pushed him off it, my friend watching the episode with us bellowed "MOLE!" and pointed to the screen like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And of course, 45 minutes later, the "shocking" end of the episode revealed that to be exactly the case. Yawn.

Other aspects of the episode were perhaps not as typical, but were just as silly and/or predictable. This season's villain, Margot, has been fun so far due to her extreme psychosis. But now she's picked up a healthy dose of "dumb," and that isn't fun. How delusional do you have to be to cut off your daughter's finger and kill her husband all in the span of an hour-and-a-half, and then send her out to run errands for you? Yes, Margot, I double-guess you. Slap me.

We might have gotten some decent tension out of Jack's attempts to work his cover and get information, but that was fairly well deflated by the knowledge that the MI-5 team was moving in. The moment the Prime Minister dispatched them, you knew they would show up just in time to simultaneously save the day and ruin the plan.

We didn't even get any drinks out of the hour to lighten the mood. British tactical teams apparently don't set up "perimeters," Jack opted for "son of a bitch" as his curse of the hour, and the only person who talked about doing something in "less than an hour" stubbornly refused to use the approved phrasing. Apparently, avoiding the buzz words is what passes for "shaking things up" among the writing staff.

I was bored and disappointed for the first time this season. I'd give the episode a C. Here's hoping this is just a dip in the road and not the beginning of a slide into more of the same.

Day 9: 3:00 - 4:00 PM

This week brought a drink-light installment of 24 (bringing us but one "within an hour"), in large part due to it also being a Jack Bauer-light installment of 24. It was actually a relatively Chloe-light hour as well, meaning the story had to be carried along in large measure by the new characters established this season.

Fortunately, Agent Kate Morgan continues to be interesting. Hearing every single week about her traitor husband has gotten old of course (though it may be worth adding to the drinking game this season), but watching her bend rules and stay ahead of everyone else remains great entertainment. In this episode in particular, she really was the substitute for Jack Bauer, given his low presence in the episode, but she carried things well.

The writing indulged several of 24's tried (and tired) traditions, but thankfully managed to avoid others. Terrorist Margot baiting our heroes into a trap seemed an example of the former, but managed to transform more into the latter. Traditionally, this felt like the moment 24 would bring us a Shocking Death™, all the more so for the fact that we're now almost halfway done with this abbreviated 12-episode season and could conceivably do without a character or two for what remains. But it seems instead that the people whose names we know (though I admit I don't always remember) managed to survive the bombing of the decoy villa. (Terrorism apparently pays well enough to buy two different lavish villas in England.)

I'm not disappointed to see the end of Naveed. His case of dumb turned out to be terminal, as Margot coldly executed him at the end of the hour. (Without a silent final countdown clock, telling us we're not meant to be broken up about it.)

What I was interested to see, somewhat to my surprise, was the softening of Chief of Staff Boudreau, who actually did the right thing by bring Jack in to see the President, as opposed to renditioning him into a dark hole somewhere. I think I would have also liked the reunion scene between Jack and Audrey, but the sad fact is that between the crying and the whisper talking, I think I only understood about one-third of the dialogue.

Mostly, I'm continuing to enjoy the ride. But I do think we're right about at the point where past seasons of 24 that started out good began to turn bad -- that point where, after having planned out the first few hours, the writers had to start improvising to fill the rest. Here's where we'll see if cutting the season in half helps them avoid any British cougars. I give this episode a B+.

Day 9: 2:00 - 3:00 PM

Last night's 24 was a drink-light affair (they set up one "perimeter"), but was still a pretty fun episode throughout. It was a rather clever construct by the writers to slow the plot without making it look like the plot was being slowed, locking Jack up in a room for most of the hour. Where past episodes have given us a lot of action, this episode served up tension instead, and was one of the best so far.

If there was a weak part of Jack's storyline, it was that the military people were rather dumbed down in order to make Jack seem smarter by comparison. Still, that's hardly a new conceit for 24, and at least this time Kate got to be lifted up by it as well. It's unthinkable that no one would be guarding an air duct leading into the sealed room, if for no other reason than the possibility (however remote) that Jack might have used that method to escape. Still, it was fun to see Kate (have we reminded you lately that she didn't know that her husband was a mole?) put all the pieces together and make a big move to trust Jack.

For his part, it was fun to watch Jack whiplash back and forth from menacing to comforting, as he'd threaten people on the phone and then moments later assure his captives that he had no intention of harming them. Also, the so hilarious, so awesome, so Jack way in which he declared that he'd only grazed people because he shot them. I have to say, I like the show universe acknowledging that Jack's a badass in the way the audience knows he is.

President Heller found out what his weaselly chief of staff Boudreau had been keeping from him for the past three hours, but the weasel maneuvered it all in such a way that it didn't matter. Even though Heller spoke directly to Jack on the phone, in the end Boudreau got want he wanted and convinced Heller to give the kill order. This is also rather good writing, because it all seems genuine. Even though we the audience are all rooting for Jack, of course, Boudreau's hatred for Jack seems rational, given his back story. He's trying to protect Audrey (and maybe, not-so-deep down, personally threatened). Heller's dementia might provide the justification for why he trusts Boudreau's analysis more than his own personal history. In short, it's nice to have "direct line to the president" not be the answer to everything on 24 this time.

But the surprise fun came in the villain story line. At first, I was just as bored with it this week as I was last week, with silly Naveed blathering on about not wanting to go through with the evil plan and stupidly trying to get his wife to run off with him. But things took an awesome turn when we got to see just how villainous Margot is. You won't do what I want? I'll start chopping off my own daughter's fingers! It certainly rockets Margot into another league among 24's long history of villains.

I say this episode gets a B+. It was great to see 24 shift gears a bit. Perhaps they'll show us yet another next time.

Day 9: 1:00 - 2:00 PM

Jack Bauer was back in action again last night for a two-drink episode ("Dammit!", "Dammit!") that kept some of the momentum generated by the promising premiere last week. But it also slid back into a few of 24's bad habits.

We spent a great deal of time fleshing out the villains this week. And while I'm certainly all for avoiding cartoonish, one-dimensional villains, these were by far the weakest scenes of the episode. Lots of ham-fisted exposition awkwardly clued us in on the family relationships (brother, husband) before leading into more awkward storylines. He's upset she slept with another man. Except he's really upset because he no longer wants to kill people. And creepy Mom wants to watch their makeup sex (talk about a quickie, by the way) on NannyCam. I say the brother needs to convert the non-standard bus or whatever ASAP, because this just wasn't interesting.

Meanwhile, the hacker lair, for all its built-in feeling of being "not CTU," certainly began to feel a lot like CTU this week. The leader's petulant efforts to screw Jack over felt like many of the office politics squabbles we saw over the years. (Some mole-driven, some not.)

But the rest of the episode held more promise. Agent Morgan is quickly shaping up to be one of the better "new characters" the series has ever introduced. She's definitely cast in the mold of a female Jack Bauer, but has a little nuance to keep it from being just that simple. For one thing, she comes to us pre-damaged, where we the audience basically saw every bit of the abuse over the years that made Jack who he is. For another, Morgan still doesn't seem quite ready to do literally anything to get the job done... though she still certainly blurs the lines.

The best scene of the hour was the quiet and close moment between Chloe and Jack, an all too infrequent kind of scene on 24. While the series does sometimes include emotion and pathos to cut up the action, it's invariably one character suffering in solitude. Rarely is another character there to share the moment and comfort, and even more rarely is that character Jack Bauer. Both Mary Lynn Rajskub and Kiefer Sutherland did an excellent job in the scene where Chloe reveals the loss of her husband and child, and Jack relates to the loss from very personal experience.

Some fun action bookended the hour, making good use of the fact that this was actually filmed in London. (Though the major train station underground stops are going to be a lot busier at 1:00 in the afternoon on a weekday.) Still, I'd call it a slower hour overall, worth about a B.