Suicide bombers? Check.
Elevated threat level? Check.
Horrific physical torture? Check.
Tonight’s return of “24” references the requisite signposts of our terror- plagued times, making it the most culturally relevant and anxiety-producing serial drama on television. Showtime’s “Sleeper Cell” does the same on cable, but Fox’s “24” is endlessly topical and frightening on broadcast TV.
The sixth season’s two-hour opener premieres at 7 tonight on KDVR-Channel 31, with another two hours beginning at 7 p.m. Monday.
As the clock starts on “Day Six,” the action treads almost too close to reality.
Via this supposed fiction, pictures of terrorist attacks in U.S. cities throughout the heartland appear on the newscasts and images of methodical torture burst into public consciousness. Oval Office conversations concerning security crackdowns on civil liberties as “the price of freedom” are fully imagined here. The sight of bureaucrats responding to meticulously planned attacks with guesswork summons our worst fears.
The violence is particularly vicious and graphic – not warehouses exploding at a distance, but close-up bloodletting depicted with unnerving clarity.
The saving grace and crucial draw in the realm of dramatic fiction, naturally, is the presence of a dependable hero. Tonight, our long-awaited, wish-fulfilling protagonist returns.
No spoilers here, but as the story opens, the U.S. has been subject to a series of terrorist bombings and Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) has been held captive in China for 20 months. He bears scars attesting to his months of torture. He has not spoken in ages; we assume he’s only screamed.
Clearly, he’s in bad shape physically and emotionally. This is a Jack we haven’t seen before.
Soon (too soon, frankly), he emerges cleanshaven and looking like he’s stepped up his workout and spa treatments, agreeing to serve President Wayne Palmer, brother of the late President David Palmer.
It’s clear that while Jack may not have cracked, per se, his focus is less than sure. How much violence can an agent – or a nation – endure or inflict? As he is forced to end more lives, Jack has had enough. He lacks the confidence and, what’s most dangerous, the sense of righteousness he’ll need to persevere.
Increasingly, the audience must be unnerved by the fact that this flawed hero has blood on his hands. He is an American tragedy.
The stakes are higher than ever – a rogue nuclear device is unaccounted for and may be used against a major American city – and Jack has never been so marginalized. Even when he intentionally got himself hooked on heroin in season three, he wasn’t this wasted.
But our belief in heroism is what this thriller is all about. And our collective desire to put our faith in a human hero has never been more urgent. On “24,” we never sense that the jig is up. We only wonder how the hero will beat the odds this time.
In a telephone news conference, “24” executive producer Howard Gordon assured critics that Martha and Charles Logan (the deposed first couple, played by Jean Smart and Gregory Itzen) will return midway through this season and Rick Schroder will join the cast in episode 13.
Gordon acknowledged that the realism of “24” and the treatment of torture is a concern at a time when it is a political issue.
“Torture seems to have become a much more meaningful and topical subject,” he said. “We’re sensitive to its implications politically, with Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.”
Real-world torture experts have cited the TV series. Gordon quoted a dean at the U.S. Military Academy as saying “24” has an influence on military interrogators; newspaper op-ed pieces have noted the show’s reliance on torture.
“We don’t want to be a handmaid to torture,” Gordon said. However, “in this rare ticking time-bomb context of ’24,’ coercive interrogation is sometimes called for. That said, Jack Bauer pays a terrible price. We see the cumulative wear on his soul, never more than this season, for the things he’s done.”
Through it all, Gordon claims the series is politically neutral. “This show’s a bit of a Rorschach test,” he said. “Barbra Streisand is as big a fan as Rush Limbaugh.”
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
