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24 is an interesting little beast. I fell in love with the first season, but was then disappointed by the second. I gave up on the third, mainly due to the considerable time commitment required to watch a 24 part TV show. BUt then I started watching it on DVD. This should have been great because the format allows me to set the pace and watch as much or as little as I want. Alas, it seemed like Jack Bauer had lost his mojo, 24 just wasn’t kicking it like it used to, but with Season 7 being called The Final Season, I figured they’d be pulling out all the stops.

I’ll cut to the chase and let you know that 24 does re-gain it’s glory in it’s final season. It’s a high octane thrill ride that will make you almost wish this wasn’t the end of an era. For all it does right, 24 isn’t able to escape the curse of it’s own brilliance: there are only so many ways to write a story line that runs over a 24 hour period in real time. It’s blazingly obvious at times that the writers are recycling old plot elements, just to keep the pace going for the prerequisite 24 episodes.

Add to this the unbelievable inclusion of some old characters and you will be scratching your head from time to time.

Amongst all that this season does do right however, is moving the location from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. This allows for a lot more political intrigue and back room deals, lending a freshness to the series. 

Jack is of course back, but this time he’s a solo operator for the most part, being retired and about to leave town when the preverbal crap hits the fan. Being more of an independent operator allows Jack’s character to delve down deep within his soul and discover that he has a very dark side. What this dark side means or does, I’m not going to say – you’ll just have to watch the final season to find out for your self. It’ll be worth the effort.

FILMGUIDE rating:

Reviewed by: Jonathan