24 avoids the sophomore slump with consistently clever plotting and good writing. Oddly, it takes a while to get going – after the hijackings and explosions of season one you’d think they would be able to come up with a decent way to introduce the atomic bomb threat, but it’s relatively low key here. But once it gets into its stride it is very entertaining – even if it is an endorsement of torture. (“We haven’t got any time!” I wonder if in military history there has ever been a race against time in which torture has been useful.) Also it’s maddening that they don’t evacuate LA.
Keifer Sutherland is effective as Jack Bauer, his voice being a particularly powerful instrument. Elisa Cuthbert once again acts as if she’s strolled off the set of Party of Five, which is entertaining in its own way. It’s also great fun to see Johnny Drama aka Kevin Dillon pop up.
The series stretches the “real time” factor a fair bit and sometimes the writers can’t think of really good ways to get out of the corners they paint themselves into, but sometimes they do and who cares when they’re such good corners.
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