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I can’t wait to watch this! Cannot wait!!!!!

’24’ picks up the thrills where they left off
Talk about arriving in the nick of time.
Never mind saving his country, we have a tougher job for super secret agent Jack Bauer. We need him to jump-start a season in danger of winding down before it even revs up.
Happily, if anyone is up to the task, it’s Jack. In tonight’s jolting commercial-free premiere, the shamefully Emmy-free Kiefer Sutherland immediately re-establishes Jack as TV’s most commanding hero and 24 as one of TV’s prime destinations.
Told, once again, in real time over the course of a single day, the story takes place three years after the attack on President Palmer (Dennis Haysbert, as perfectly presidential as ever). Palmer is up for re-election, which brings him and his brother (Buffy’s D.B. Woodside) back to Los Angeles.
As for Jack, he has a new, young hottie partner, Chase (James Badge Dale); a new job at CTU; and a new mission. Having infiltrated a drug cartel run by Ramon Salazar (Joaquim de Almeida), Jack now wants the imprisoned Ramon to reveal the cartel’s terrorist links.
Jack wouldn’t be Jack if he weren’t also battling some personal demon. The surprise, when it’s revealed, is not just a great serial shocker. It’s proof of how fabulous Sutherland is in this part.
Almost immediately, Jack and the president are faced with a bigger problem, one that may even top last year’s nuclear bomb for current zeitgeist terror value. The threat this season? A mutated bio-weapon virus capable of killing a large part of the populace in ó you guessed it ó 24 hours.
With admirable efficiency, tonight’s premiere ties up a few loose ends while plunging us into the new story. Old cast members return and new characters are introduced, including a presidential doctor (Wendy Crewson), an unstable drug couple (Vincent Laresca and Vanessa Ferlito) and an errant mule (Riley Smith) who is such a loser, he should be dating Kim.
Ah yes, Kim (Elisha Cuthbert), the cougar-girl we love to hate. This year, however, Jack’s peril-prone daughter has had a makeover: She’s older, more discreetly dressed and working at CTU as a computer analyst.
Oh, never fear, she’s still our Kim. There may be no kidnappers in sight, but she’s still determined to distract her dad with her personal problems in the midst of a national crisis.
And there you have part of the genius of 24. Kim isn’t just a plot diversion. She’s a reminder that the show is entertainment on a grand, oversized scale, packed with shocks, twists, and, yes, absurdities. It may be more grounded in reality than that other, equally enjoyable serial, Alias, but it’s not a documentary. You’ll have more fun with it if you give it a long leash.
We’re ready, Jack. Restart the clock.