24: Season 7 (2009)

Spoilers for 24: Season 7 ("11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.")

After the two-hour taster that was 24: Redemption, the world's best (and only) real-time thriller series is back in all its day-long glory.

Having been subpoenaed from the fictional African nation of Sangala, Jack Bauer is facing trial as part of the now-disbanded CTU. Within minutes of the trial beginning, he's summoned by the FBI who are investigating a number of technology thefts, seemingly orchestrated by none other than Tony Almeida, Jack's long-dead colleague.

It's been two years since 24's sixth season performed one of television's finest ever displays of shark-jumping, but its creators promised a major overhaul this year. Have we got it?

Four hours in, my answer is: yes and no. The shift of location from Los Angeles to Washington is a welcome move and the show's directors unafraid to show it off with lingering shots of various Washington landmarks. In scrapping CTU, 24's creators have also ditched most of the sixth season cast (wise move: they were mostly insipid).

There are still a few familiar faces; most notably, Carlos Bernard's Tony Almeida has been resurrected as a bad guy only to have his alliance clarified within the first few episodes – he's actually undercover, despite dabbling with the villains for a couple of years after his alleged death (I'm still not convinced that it was always intended to bring Tony back from the dead, but as it looks like we're stuck with him and his annoying facial hair, I'll move swiftly on). Almeida's working with his former CTU colleagues Chloe O'Brian and Bill Buchanan who are operating outside the government in order to topple a far-reaching conspiracy within it.

It's a step in the right direction, but I wish 24's producers had gone further in shaking up the show. Having Jack work outside a government organisation is a neat idea, but he's been disobeying orders for so many years that it's basically the same thing. The FBI, meanwhile, is little more than a stripped-down CTU complete with bickering employees, large quantities of meaningless technobabble, scurrying extras and you guessed it: moles.

Meanwhile, in the White House, President Allison Taylor (played by a slightly-too-grandmotherly Cherry Jones) is faced with the difficult decision of withdrawing US troops from Sangala after being threatened by the terrorist group Tony has been undercover with. Her husband has been investigating the death of their son (last seen alive in 24: Redemption), which was officially ruled a suicide. Oh, and yep: the White House apparently has its fair share of hidden traitors, too.

Season five gave us a brilliant conspiracy story, which was a great culmination of 24's staple plot device of moles. But given we're stuck with it this season, I'd like to see our heroes unearth a slippery organisation (kind of like Quantum in the new Bond films) that are the real driving force behind the copious numbers of traitors found within the government over the past six seasons; something to something to tie this overdone plot device together and prove that the US government's screening process is actually mildly effective.

In any case, it's great to see 24 prove it has a bit more life left in its old ticker.