[24H] Redemption

TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: (Prequel)
Date I watched this episode: 05/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 year, 1 month, 28 days.

Well, 24 is back! While it's taken me a long time to get around to watching "Redemption", the length of time since I last watched 24 is mainly due to the fact that it was off the air during the 2007-2008 television season (as I'm sure you know, this was due to the WGA strike). The last "episode" I watched was [24H] "Debrief", which was first released as a series of mobisodes in May/June 2007, but also as a single episode of roughly 10 minutes. Whereas "Redemption" was not released until November 23, 2008. So the level of hype surrounding this could not be higher.

On top of this, my expectations for "Redemption" were actually quite low. I had been told by my friend Paul that it was a bit rubbish, and he even went so far as to tell me not to waste my money on the DVD (but by this time I had already bought it). I knew that "Redemption" would set the story for 24's Day 7 (as do all the 24 prequels), so for that reason in itself it was worth watching. But all in all I was rather ambivalent before watching it.

I must admit to start with that this is a very different 24 from how we are used to. Usually, it is fast-paced, action-packed and doesn't leave any time to pause for thought. Remember the season 6 premiere, which had a bomb blast less than 3 minutes into the episode? That's the kind of thing I'm meaning here. "Redemption" is reflective, and explores other elements of a drama show that 24 doesn't usually have time to touch on. Now I know I've been recently going on about how reflective Damages has been becoming, and I stand by that. But once in a while, you need that kind of episode, and I can't remember the last time 24 paused for thought.

Let's talk about the beginning then - it was interesting to have the intertitle there, something which 24 can't usually do. The teaser was hard-hitting and shocking. In fact I was pretty amazed at how far they went with that, but they were trying to drive a point home. 24 doesn't often make "points" the same way as other shows (such as The West Wing) although it has done in the past (the detention facilities of season 6, for example). The child soldiers thing was an interesting take, something I didn't know much about, and I'm sure it helped raise awareness of the issue in general. They didn't go too far with pushing it down your throat though - that one scene at the beginning was enough to get you thinking for the rest of the episode. And the end scene, where it wasn't exactly a happy ending for most of those people, was both realistic and reinforced the message.

Following that there were a few more scenes with characters we'd never met before. This is usually the case with 24 - introduce Jack Bauer dramatically a little bit into the episode. Remember for example season 2, where Jack was first shown with a beard, or season 3 where he was shown on a picture as he gained access to the prison. Here the moment of entry was Jack standing in a doorway, surrounded by sunlight. In the scene which followed it set up the character for the season and how he has changed in the last couple of years. He's found somewhere he can make a difference. And really the entire feature was about how he was forced to give up that solitude and come back to the life he had lived before. Hence the title "Redemption" (previously it was called "Exile", but I think this is much more fitting).

As for characters in general, Jack was pretty much left to carry the episode. There were very few familiar faces, although we did have Tom Lennox and Noah Daniels, making what will probably be their final appearances on 24 (having said that, there seemed to be some unexplained animosity between Henry Taylor and Tom, and some mysteries around Noah, so maybe these two will be revisiting at some point). We also got our chance to see the new President (and First Gentleman Henry Taylor). Every president on 24 is completely different in the way they handle things (apart from Wayne Palmer but he didn't last very long!) I'm sure Allison will handle things very differently from how Noah did, and the speech she gave at the inauguration was both touching and impressive.

Carl Benton was obviously another key character in this episode who won't be returning in season 7! One thing which struck me about Carl was that he seemed to be too nice. He was meant to be this really tough soldier, even a torturer as implied in the episode. But he didn't come across like this, and this was rather a flaw in his character. This aside, his death scene was brilliantly done, and was quite emotional.

The cinematography in this episode was outstanding. It was largely filmed on location in South Africa (Sangala is not a real country) and the use of natural lighting (as mentioned earlier), wide angles, and panning (especially in the abduction scene) were particularly impressive.

Most of the problems with this episode arose from it being a TV film. In fact, it often seemed not be able to make up its mind if it was a double episode of a primetime TV series, or a feature film. For example, the scene between Noah and Allison. This tension seemed to spill out beyond a single scene, but was confined to that one scene due to time constraints. On the other hand, other storylines were tied up well, like the journey to the helicopter.

Most 24 prequels are about 10 minutes in length (incidentally I only really like the one for season 5, the ones for seasons 4 and 6 are a bit rubbish). Due to the long running time of "Redemption", it had to serve a dual purpose as kind of a season premiere, setting up the storylines. Because of this dual purpose, a lot of the side storylines came off as being a bit disjointed from the rest of the piece, although there clearly were links there. I suppose that because a lot of this wasn't resolved and will continue into the next season, this is only to be expected. But again it's about the struggle between the episode and the film.

The climax to the whole episode found similar problems. There was a very short gunfight in the streets, probably less than a minute in length. In the end, Jack just seemed to give up, as if they had run out of time to show the episode. This provided rather an anticlimax to the whole "redemption of Jack Bauer" arc.

A lot of critics have said that this episode was assembled like (to use a phrase from a review in the Chicago Tribune) a "laundry list" of 24 elements. This was true to some extent - and 24 often does repeat itself with different characters in the same situations. Even multiple times within the same episode - like Willie running off countless times. Things like Jack almost leaving and then being forced to stay because of the imminent danger, are pretty standard for 24 and I think the writers sometimes underestimate the viewers intelligence.

On the same note, there were pretty much no twists in this episodes. It is one of the things 24 is renowned for, having lots of twists and turns in the plot, and again this says to me that the writers feel they can use the same devices over and over again, without introducing new twists. I hope they realise this for season 7 proper. (However I would re-iterate that this was in an entirely different setting from normal 24, and so that does make for some variety).

A couple of scenes also stood out as being badly thought out. This whole "Jack vs an entire army" thing is getting a bit ridiculous. Nearly every season has an episode where Jack goes alone against about 100 people and wins. Here it was when the People's Freedom Army stormed the school. He did get captured eventually, but it took way too long. Aside from that, this was one of the best battles of "Redemption" though.

The other bad scene was Tramell's reluctance to let all the children through. This seemed a bit pointless as they were all let through in the end, and seemed like a device they wanted to explore further but didn't have the time (if this had been an episode of a series they could have held some children back and freed them a few episodes later). This sequence should have been left out altogether.

Anyway this is probably the longest review of anything I have ever written. Soon (after watching Redemption's special features, and an official video documentary called "Dossier" summarising the events leading up to Bauer's subpoena) I will start watching season 7 proper. It takes place 65 days after Redemption. A lot can happen in 65 days! I imagine Jack has been back in the states for most of those. I wonder what he has been up to. I wonder how the conflict in Sangala is going, and how Allison is coping. It won't be long til I find out!!

In summary I think this was actually a pretty good episode despite my initial expectations. Although it struggled between being a film and an episode, it was an interesting and primarily well-executed excursion for the show.