[24H] Day 7: 8:00am - 9:00am

TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 1
Date I watched this episode: 09/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 4 days.

After Redemption, it clearly wouldn't be long before I would be starting the seventh season of 24. I'm already 7 episodes behind, and am keen to catch up, since this is the first standard-format episode for almost 18 months, and has been hyped beyond belief. In the last few days I've watched the Making Of documentary for Redemption, and an official web series called "24: Dossier" which describes the crimes Jack Bauer is being charged with (mostly made up of archive footage from previous seasons, but still good to watch as I hadn't seen most of thos episodes for years).

As I've previously mentioned, season 7 is set just 65 days after "Redemption". Because of this, the premiere perhaps didn't have the scope for such shocks as there have been in previous season premieres (to name a few: Bill having got married to Karen, Kim having a job at CTU, and best of all Jack having a beard!!) Nevertheless this episode worked quite nicely, and set up the characters, storyline and setting for this season.

That's not to say it wasn't an action-packed episode. Not 2 minutes into the episode were two car crashes (starring John Billingsley, of Star Trek: Enterprise fame, no less), and it was quite an original stunt to have the car on top of another car, so this short-and-sweet action sequence worked quite well, grabbing you right from the beginning.

Perhaps they thought you'd miss it, but Carlos Bernard's name was on the main credits at the beginning. This is surprising since most "shock re-introductions" of characters don't receive an opening credit (being instead credited at the end of the episode, like with Nina in season 2 or Tony in season 4). But to be honest, I think you would be hard-pushed not to know that Tony is in season 7. It's pretty much the worst kept secret of all time, and even trailers released in early 2008 were showing Tony Almeida on them. But anyway, Carlos is obviously a very versatile actor, and his portrayal of "Tony the Terrorist" (yes, I made that one up myself) was really quite believable.

Obviously there were a lot more new cast members this season than there are usually, mostly due to the new setting. The new main characters are Renee, Larry, Janis and Sean. (There are also Allison, Henry and Ethan whom we've seen before, if only in Redemption). I think all these characters have some potential and were really well-developed in this episode. Renee is a professional who obviously has a bit of a dark side. Larry is a by-the-book, lead-from-the-front kind of guy, who has ethical issues. Janis...well, Janis is played by Janeane Garofalo, who played Lou Thornton on The West Wing. She obviously plays a very different character, again a professional lady but a bit quirky, in (might I say) a much sexier way than Chloe. And Sean, well he is the least well-defined at this stage. Sean clearly has a very dry and distinctive sense of humour, but that's about all we know about him. I do think these characters play off each other very well, and it's interesting to see the same writers doing scripts in a completely different context.

The entire theme of this episode (and possibly the season) seemed to be "rules vs results". This was apparent in Jack's Senate hearings, Larry's moral struggle and Allison Taylor's war decisions. Well I suppose this broad theme could be taken across much of 24's past seasons, but it will be brought out more starkly now due to the setting within a fully-audited government department. I do hope we see that senator again because the way Jack stood up to him was pretty cool. Also I think the whole way Jack and Larry play off each other works here. It'll be interesting to see what method Jack uses to speak to Larry once the stakes have been raised.

One thing I've realised recently (mainly from watching special features) is how much more emphasis 24 puts on set construction than other shows. Obviously, due to the setting across a single day, the look and feel of certain sets is crucial. The major sets in each season are very carefully constructed: think back to Logan's retreat in season 5, the bunker in season 6, CTU sets, and so on. Here I think we only got a glimpse of the FBI Washington Field Office, but the open-plan part didn't seem as exciting as CTU, especially from a lighting perspective without all those dark blue colours. But we'll see about that, and there are some good features to the set, such as the large meeting room.

Most of the storyline had been revealed extensively in trailers dating back months and months and so there wasn't a lot added here. (The court scene was a bit longer than in the trailers, but only a bit). However I don't think it was just because of this that I found the aeroplane storyline rather boring. It can be summed up in a couple of sentences, and this episode basically revolved around the terrorists getting control of the firewall, losing it again and gaining it again, and similar off-then-on problems occuring for the air traffic control guys. Not particularly thrilling story in there.

I have tried to avoid spoilers for this season even more than previous ones (last season was a particularly bad one for me, I knew weeks in advance about the whole Audrey thing). However one thing I did know was that Roger Taylor had died. I'm glad to see that this was revealed in the first episode and wasn't a particularly big twist later on. I'm sure that that businessman from Redemption would have had him killed, but in any case this entire thing was kind of played down during the episode. The point at which it was announced first, there wasn't any kind of spooky sound effects, it was just pitched like an everyday conversation, and this seemed a bit off to me.

This episode really did set things up going forward though. I'm fairly sure that Tony isn't really a terrorist, and is involved in some kind of deep cover operation; certainly there is more than meets the eye. Writers very rarely destroy their own characters into something completely different with no rational explanation. The viewing audience just wouldn't accept it (and you have your proof right here in this review!) So I'll be interested to see what happens next.

24 season 7 really does look set to be as thrilling a season as the programme has ever seen.