Well it's not such a wicked awesome good time

(This post contains spoilers for the first four hours of the new "24")

So far, I'm not loving the new season. Besides the political train wreck I fear it's turning into, and the inevitable descent into formuliac decadance, it occurs to me that perhaps I have another reason for my shifting allegance.

The producers much-vaunted policy of being willing to kill off their supporting characters has had, for me, a perhaps unintentional backlash: I'm no longer willing to invest myself emotionally in them.

Frankly, in retrospect Tony Almeida was what I think of as a "click" moment. It's the moment when a TV series or movie pushes me just that one step too far and seems to be saying to me, "fuck you." After a click moment, it's hard for me to care.

But there's one exception to this emotional disengagement from the characters that I have at the moment and it's Jack Bauer. My breath wasn't taken away when Curtis got killed; I knew he was toast once I saw that Roger Cross was getting "guest star" billing.

Curtis being killed didn't surprise me, the fact that it was Jack who had to do it did. And that they spent some time showing the toll that all of this is taking on him. That worked for, and interested me, more than the big terrorist victory at the end.

This year, I find my mind wandering when Jack's not on the screen. The office politics at CTU? Seen it! Political macinations with the President? Ditto! I don't care, it's just this year's model-right down to Buchanan and Karen Hayes being positioned as the new Tony and Michelle (Not to me, they're not).

But Jack? Jack, I care about. Jack, I want to see what's going to happen to him.

If there is any suspense left in this series for me it is not how he is eventually going to triumph over the terrorist threat. It's what he's going to have to do, and what that's going to do to him, to do it. I hope they're going to continue to explore that.

I always loved the scene at the end of day three (possibly my favorite) where they showed Jack all but breaking down from the events of the day. I think one of the reasons that Kiefer Sutherland's so good is that in the hands of a lesser actor, Jack Bauer could be about as belivable as Batman or James Bond. (I like Batman and James Bond, but I said belivable.)

Jack, you could actually believe these things are happening to a human being.

Oh, one thing, then I promise I'll drop this particular thread forever. Remember how I've complained once or twice about that stupid Fox promotional slogan, "America doesn't negotiate with terrorists. Neither does Jack?"

I'd just like to point out that not two hours of the new "day" had gone by before Jack was, in fact, negotiating with a terrorist.

And Assad, the possibly reformed (I'm sure we won't know for a few hours yet) terrorist Jack's been negotiating with is the most interesting of the new characters so far. That is to say he's the only interesting one of the new characters so far, thanks in large part to a charismatic performance by newcomer (to me) Alexander Siddig.