After an immensely strong first season, 24 returns for another round of The Jack Bauer Power Hour.
It has been one year since Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) saved Now-President David Palmer's life from an assasination attempt. Mourning the death of his wife Teri, Jack is no longer at CTU and has become estranged from
his daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert). He is then called back in to CTU to help stop a nuclear bomb from being detonated within Los Angeles. In a side plot, new character Marie Warner (Sarah Wynter) suspects her sisters fiancee is working with a terrorist.
It is astounding to see how far Jack has come since last season, he has become more hardened man, not afraid to use brutal force this time around. Example? One of his first acts when back in CTU is to shoot an informant, followed by the line "I'm gonna need a hacksaw"
It seems like this season the writers don't know what to do with Kim, so they keep inventing ridiculous situations for her to get in. She starts off with her wifebeating employee, who you only watch in hopes that you'll see the asshole get killed. Then she encounters a cougar, yes you read that right, a freakin' cougar and gets locked in some loners basement. Follow that up with some ridiculous hostage situation at a convenience store, and you have just about the whole seasons storyline for Kim Bauer. Last season she was kidnapped, they knew what to do with her, but here her story is all over the place. Her only good moments are her moments with on-screen dad Jack, these moments hold such emotion which you believe, and it's a shame there are such few moments in the season.
The Warner storyline only seems to get good after you find out who it really is working with the terrorists, as from there the plot seems to move forward to the bomb plot and how it's all going to play out. And it doesn't help that everytime Tobin Bell talks, I keep waiting for him to say "I want to play a game" in his Jigsaw voice
Overall, this season really knows how to ramp up the action and tension throughout the season, working to the shows advantage, but the Kim Bauer portion of things really dilutes this with it's increasingly convulted storylines. Luckily, Jack Bauer's terrorist hunt is there to keep you hooked to this show.
I'm going to list here my order of 24's seasons, from best to worst after each review
Season 1 - 100%
Season 2 - 80%
April 19, 2011
