Back sans Jack.
Warning: Major spoilers for 24: Legacy - Season 1 follow.
I was cautiously optimistic about 24: Legacy. Admittedly more cautious than optimistic, I wanted to see if they could continue the saga without Jack. Jack Bauer is a special character and I was afraid of what taking him off the board would do to the game, but I was excited nonetheless. He’s a transcendent character, one whose personality and cadence bleeds into the public zeitgeist. That is a lot to live up to for our new lead. Does Legacy deliver on all fronts? No, but at times it flirts with the peaks of the original series.
Legacy follows former Army Ranger Eric Carter, played by The Walking Dead’s Corey Hawkins. Carter is having difficulty adapting to civilian life as he tries to juggle both his marriage and his nagging desire to return to action. Throughout most of the season we are told that Carter is the man that he “can get it done” and he will do “whatever it takes”. Carter had the most to live up to; it’s hard to be compared to Jack Bauer. While he doesn’t quite get there, but in the end he has made great strides in filling Jack’s shoes.
The season’s plot is nothing special, and sometimes felt more like a retread of a past story than a continuation of the series. Big-bad Jadalla Bin-Khalid plans to activate a collection of sleeper cells across the United States as an act of revenge for troops (ie. our hero, Carter) killing his father. Any fan of 24 should be able to see the the similarities to Jack’s first day on the clock. It’s a serviceable plot, sure, but as the season progresses it starts to be kind of embarrassing how closely they mirrored the first season of the original. The symmetry doesn’t play as a loving homage, but instead as a less effective way to tell a simple story.
If Carter is the new Jack Bauer, then Rebecca Ingram (Miranda Otto) is the Chloe/Tony/Renee Walker of Legacy. As the former head of CTU, she initially stood out more than Carter with her strong opinions and quick decision making, though her story meandered a bit in the middle, right around the time we were reintroduced to fan favorite Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard). While Rebecca lacks the physical threat of Carter you fear her callous focus on her mission - she looks entirely unfazed watching Tony torture her father-in-law. They never lightened her, she was never made more palatable, and that’s why it worked.
Due to it’s format, 24 has to jump around between different storylines more than most other shows on television. If Carter has to drive somewhere for twenty minutes, we need the ability to focus on someone else. Every storyline matters when perspectives are constantly changing for the viewer. Where one minute we are focused on CTU and their plans to stop Bin-Khalid, we then immediately shift to one of the cells preparing for an attack. This is nothing new for 24, but it is again executed well here. For the most part I didn’t dread when the show shifted to any thread, with a few exceptions.
For the first half of the season I was most interested in the high school plot thread anchored by Amira Dudayev (Kathryn Prescott). This thread had some genuinely shocking moments. I was surprised when Drew’s head was bashed in, then was utterly confused when he got up and ran away a little bit later. Amira looked like she might be developing more of a conscience and you believed she may have some second thoughts about executing her plans. I genuinely wanted her to make the right decision, and I felt this was a clear example of the show succeeding.
Not all of the threads and pairings were entirely fulfilling. I would be very happy to never see another Isaac and Nicole scene. The two just didn’t work together. The love triangle subplot was uninspired and the show simply didn’t need it. Constantly coming up with reason to put the two in danger became such a chore that was I not reviewing the show I would have fast forwarded through their scenes. Each of these characters work well on their own, both also work well with Carter, but together they are simply a drag.
The remaining cast members were good at stepping into the character tropes need for this show to function. Andy Shalowitz, played by Dan Bucantisky, filled the analyst position usually occupied by Chloe. He was awesome and arguably the most heroic character in the show. Jimmy Smits as presidential hopeful John Donovan spent most of the season doing nothing of substance, but comes into his own towards the end. I would be most interested in seeing a second season specifically for him.
While I initially found Jadalla’s turn to the dark side refreshing, the twists in the season’s story forced him to take a back seat to both his miraculously spry father and Naseri. The aforementioned miraculous reappearance of the elder Bin-Khalid lacked bite, as by that time we had all figured that the story was going to follow season 1 of the original formula.
The first season of 24: Legacy definitely had its moments worthy of the ticking clock. The season opened strong with Carter and Nicole fighting for their lives. Andy agreeing to sacrifice himself to stop Jadalla was the best character moment, continuing to prove the strength of the show’s secondary characters. The entirety of the warehouse fight was amazing (also - a football field on fire!). Tony, meanwhile, was used rather well all things considered. He wasn’t the focus of the story, giving time for new characters to develop, but he lent gravitas to the situation and his character continues to evolve.
The Verdict
Despite the fact the plot feels eerily similar to the first season of the original series, there is enough action-packed goodness for the clock to keep ticking for this rebooted series. With the 14th silent clock in the books, the resurgence of Tony Almeida, and a hero in Eric Carter worthy of succeeding the fabled Jack Bauer, this season of “24-lite” ranks somewhere in the middle.
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