24: Redemption (2008)

After its nearly flawless Emmy award-winning fifth year, real-time thriller 24 returned for the 2007 season with an opening quartet of episodes that culminated in a nuclear bomb being detonated in Los Angeles. What a setup! Tragically, within hours, 24 proceeded to jump the shark in spectacular style. For a show where contrivances are frequent but often excusable, this was no mean feat.

Having squandered a terrific premise, 24 went on to deliver a preposterous storyline about Jack Bauer's heretofore unmentioned father and brother being in kahootz with terrorists. Like a devoted fanboy, I refused to leave 24's side, optimistic that the show would make a recovery. I watched hopefully as big-name veteran actors like Powers Boothe and James Cromwell were brought in and swiftly wasted. 24's condition worsened and the sixth season's final moments saw Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer mournfully looking downwards over the edge of a cliff. Hmm. Perhaps it was time.

Rather than slipping away, 24 – plot threads dangling – entered a coma, becoming one of the major casualties of the 2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Soon after the strike's commencement, 24's producers announced that the seventh season would be postponed until 2009.

Instead of denying us any real-time action in 2008, Fox announced 24: Exile (later retitled, rather appropriately, 24: Redemption), a two-hour telemovie to bridge the gap between the show's sixth and seventh seasons.

Having been served a subpoena by the American government for torture, Jack Bauer is lying low in the fictional African nation of Sangala, helping long-time friend Carl Benton (Robert Carlyle) with missionary work at a school. When the school is raided by militia from a rogue general who is plotting a coup, Bauer springs into action.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the United States is preparing to swear in its first female president, played by Cherry Jones (24 famously ticked the first black president box in its early years). A childhood friend of her son's has just stumbled across evidence that someone within the American government might be bankrolling the coup in Sangala.

I watched an extended cut on DVD, so I'm not sure what was broadcast and what wasn't, but a plot based around child soldiers is fairly dark stuff for American commercial television. Mind you, this is offset by the film's Washington cast who are so ridiculously good-looking, it makes you feel nauseatingly repulsive in comparison. Speaking of attractive things, 24: Redemption makes great use of its fresh locations (South Africa doubles for Sangala), which is promising for the show's Washington-based seventh season.

That said, the Washington-set stuff in this telemovie was probably the only bum note for me (with the exceptions of Powers Boothe and Peter MacNicol briefly reprising their sixth season roles). I have no doubt Cherry Jones will be given something useful to do in the show's seventh year, but her appearance here was primarily to establish her presidency. The subplot involving her son was fairly unengaging, despite Jon Voight popping up occasionally to look all menacing and mysterious.

On the upside, Kiefer Sutherland's devotion to the character refuses to waver (his performance remained the strongest element of the rubbish sixth season). It was fantastic to see Bauer in a location other than the United States. Carlyle gives a similarly enthusiastic turn, as do Tony Todd and Hakeem Kae-Kazim as the telemovie's villains.

Long-time 24 helmer Jon Cassar's direction is adequate, while Sean Callery's score is suitably exotic. Unfortunately, if you're aware of the cast and storyline of the seventh season, it's all a bit predictable. Nevertheless, 24: Redemption fits in the upper tier of Jack Bauer's adventures and points to a brighter future for the show.

Having seen the opening 17 minutes of the season seven premiere (which airs tomorrow), I'm pleased to say the show appears to be back on track. Despite an implausible return from a long-dead character and some extraneous FBI bickering that replaces the extraneous CTU bickering of past seasons, Jack Bauer's seventh day from hell looks to be a return to form for the groundbreaking action series, which is just as well: 24's eighth season begins shooting in April for broadcast in 2010.