It’s always a new day when “24” fires up for another season, but this time the changes are more dramatic than ever.
| Sunday night’s season premiere of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” features a family from Kingston, whose house burned down in March.
Roseanne Dore, a widowed mother of three daughters – Jessica, 21, Sarah, 17, and Aariel, 13 – discovered that her home insurance lapsed after her insurance agent retired. The family was living in a utility shed in the back yard while trying to figure out what to do when the show’s crew came forward. More than 700 volunteers led by Centex Homes, a Dallas-based company with a division in Seattle, spent seven days building the Dores a new home. You can watch it unfold at 8 p.m. Sunday on KOMO-TV, Channel 4, and on the series premiere of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition – How’d They Do That,” at 8 p.m. Monday on KOMO-TV, which gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the previous night’s work. |
The fourth season of Fox’s real-time drama starts with a pair of two-hour events, starting at 8 p.m. Sunday and Monday on KCPQ, Channel 13 – getting fans started with the first four hours of this season’s ride within the first two days.
In our first glimpse of Jack Bauer – our favorite gun-slingin’, interrogatin’ counter-terrorism agent embodied by Kiefer Sutherland – he’s putting on a suit and tie, smiling and kissing a new love interest.
Suit and tie?
Smiling?
Kissing?
This can’t last long.
It doesn’t.
It has been 18 months in fake real time since the end of last season, which saw Jack spiral into a heroin addiction while trying to save the world from a viral terrorism attack.
The new Counter Terrorist Unit director, Erin Driscoll (Alberta Watson), fired him. She’s still running the show.
Jack is now working for the secretary of the Defense Department and hooking up with the secretary’s daughter on the down-low. After a train blows up in a rural area north of Los Angeles, he just happens to be at the CTU headquarters, his old stomping grounds.
When Jack strolls into the office for a budget meeting with Driscoll, he hardly knows anyone – and we feel pretty much the same way.
Old favorite characters including Dennis Haysbert’s now-former President David Palmer and Carlos Bernard’s Tony Almeida are gone, but could make appearances later this season, according to TV Guide. Jack’s daughter, Kim – played by Elisha Cuthbert – appears to be gone for good, though, as there’s been no talk of bringing her back.
In the office, Jack is introduced quickly to the guy who took over his old job, and has an icy chat with Driscoll over CTU’s budget.
This scene-setting is a little slow to get started, but the payoff is as good as ever and “24” sucks you in with its almost entirely new cast of characters.
Soon all hell breaks loose and before you can say, “Why isn’t Jack yelling and pointing a gun yet?” Jack is yelling and pointing a gun.
It sounds tried and true, but it’s so effective, why mess with it?
Sutherland’s Jack Bauer, with his rogue action and uncanny instincts, continues to instill the suspense that keeps “24” riveting and makes it a weekly must-see.
Unfortunately, the second hour of Sunday’s season premiere goes up against a new episode of “Desperate Housewives.”
Yes, Jack Bauer can take out any band of terrorists that comes his way, but a batch of suburban housewives is a whole other animal.
The train wreck that starts the new season is only a tease, part of a bigger scheme that we can’t quite put together but seems like it could be really, really bad.
It involves a takeover of the Internet, and the delivery of a briefcase handcuffed to a guy on the train moments before the explosion.
The new set of terrorists includes the Araz family, masterfully played by Nestor Serrano as Navi, the father, and the mother-and-son team of Dina and Behrooz, played by Shoreh Aghdashloo and Jonathan Ahdout, who also worked beautifully together in the 2003 film “The House of Sand and Fog.”
The portrayal of the Muslim family has upset the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which fears it reinforces stereotypes and casts suspicion over all Muslim families.
The point is well taken, but we should all remember this is still the fantasy land of TV, where a single man can save the world and a government agency can stop a terrorist attack before it happens.
We’ll be with Jack every high-flying step of the way.
Columnist Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.
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