TVSquad

"They want me back in Washington, they can come and get me." - Jack

It's been a year and a half since we last saw Jack Bauer, staring out into the ocean and contemplating who knows what after saying good-bye to a comatose Audrey (Kim Raver). The time has gone by much faster for Jack though. In an attempt to find himself and figure out his true calling, Bauer has been wandering the world for three years. Wayne Palmer never re-gained the presidency following his memory lapse in season six and Noah Daniels (Powers Booth) finished out Palmer's first term only to lose a re-election bid to Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones). 24: Redemption (airs this Sunday, 11/23, on FOX at 8PM ET) finds Bauer in the fictional African country of Sangala on the day of Taylor's inauguration with everything to lose and nothing to gain.

For Ken Erhlich, executive producer of the Emmy broadcast, the goal is clear. "The war cry is always, 'What are we going to do and how are we going to make it better?' We did some inventive things, we changed it up, we understand that this is the industry's big night. This means something and we can't trivialize it, but we certainly can have some fun with it." He told me that last year, prior to the Emmy-in-the-round broadcast, a memorable -- and successful show.

In 2008, the decisions about the 60th anniversary Emmys are still in the works for the September LA broadcast, but one decision has already been made. It won't be in the round. While it looked good on air, the industry didn't like it. "People loved it at home. It had a great look, but you know, you try things, you want to bring something fresh to the show."

* Warning, spoilers from this week's episode ahead.*

While 24 had been critiqued left and right this week -- including in a new Entertainment Weekly piece (in the dead tree version) which gives this season a C -- let's mull over some choice moments from the twentieth hour:

Quote of note: "The only thing he cares about is pushing his lunatic agenda," aide Lisa Miller told her lover, lobbyist Mark Bishop, about her other lover, Acting President Noah Daniels. Apparently Daniels was concerned about more than pushing his agenda.

In a recent interview, producer/writer Howard Gordon told the press that he has been dramatically affected by the criticism 24 has gotten from its fans. It would seem that the show is in for a big change and I, for one, don't like it.

I was discussing the show with some friends the other day and one of them was saying they think the show has gone too far. "I mean, how can Jack get released from torturous imprisonment and be ready to save the world without a break?" they asked. Quite frankly, I was offended.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's still reeling from the 24 love scene last week featuring Acting President Noah Daniels, and who's praying we don't see a romantic replay in hour 20.

In the meantime, Powers Boothe, who plays Daniels, defended the power-mad pol to TV Guide, saying that he doesn't think Daniels is "misguided." "You had a nuke go off in [California]," Boothe said, "and people are sitting around wringing their hands. He feels like he has to do something."

*Warning, spoilers from this week's episode.*

This week's scene with 24's Acting President Noah Daniels pawing and kissing his aide Lisa Miller in the Oval Office, was, in a word, creepy. And when I thought about this season's multitude of, shall we say, unusual romantic/couple scenes -- of which there's been an abundance by 24 standards -- there was no question that the Daniels-Miller necking topped my list of the most uncomfortable amorous moments the season.

Other awkward contenders:

You know, it's been so long since I've seen the last episode of Deadwood that I'll have to go back and watch it again to prepare for the two movies that will end the western saga. I think the last scene showed Gerald McRaney on his way out of town, probably heading to Jericho, Kansas.

But there's no rush. According to this story at the Chicago Tribune, not only are the two movies not going to air until 2008 at the earliest, but (according to cast member W. Earl Brown), the stars of the show haven't even signed contracts to appear in the TV flicks. But creator David Milch said a couple of months that he is "committed" to finishing the movies.

*If you haven't watched the new episode of 24 yet, don't read any more, unless you want to find out what happened.*

Viewers are getting restless. And they're grumbling. Across the blogosphere. Among TV critics. And the buzz isn't good. People are hoping that things turn around for 24 and their boy Jack Bauer soon. 'Cause the most recent episode . . . well, 'twas disappointing.

Nonetheless, I'll try to be positive (and snarky) as I recap four select moments from this week's episode:

Quote of note: It's a Chloe O'Brian "quote of note" victory. Again. Three weeks in a row. "We all thought she was guilty. This is gonna be awkward," our gal Chloe said as Nadia Yassir prepared to rejoin her CTU colleagues after Yassir was briefly detained for suspected treasonous behavior.

(S06E14) *Warning, spoilers from the recent episode ahead*

Jack Bauer must really be hurting, more so than ever before. More so than he was when he emerged from two years of being tortured by Chinese officials a mere 14 hours ago. Or during other seasons when he was tortured via any number of weapons or devices (though not by a cigar cutter . . . or plastic wrap).

For the second consecutive week, 24 viewers barely saw our boy Jack. He sustained rib injuries in the Russian consulate that caused internal bleeding, necessitating heavy bandages around his mid-section.(Though we did get glimpses of his severely scar-ridden upper torso.) When Jack was doing something other than groaning in pain, he was either close-talking with his sister-in-law, or perusing files from the CTU archives while an unmanned aircraft carrying a live nuke circled over California.

When you think of the FOX network what's the first thing that comes to mind? Perhaps the fact that its been on the air for over 20 years now, or maybe that it's the home to The Simpsons. Yes, those things are certainly true. Yet, when I ponder about FOX the first thing that comes to mind is . . . Good Lord, they certainly know how to pimp their most popular shows!

Case in point is that small action-adventure program named 24. We already got two full nights of double episodes last week to kick off the season. Yet, the network isn't done shoving it down our throats giving fans more Jack. So, they have scheduled another two-hour event for Monday, February 12th. This, of course, is conveniently placed smack-dab in the middle of sweeps. The event will cover the hours between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. and co-stars Chad Lowe and Powers Boothe.

By the way, just because the network pimps its most popular shows to death doesn't mean they don't know what they're doing. The two-day, four-hour launch of 24 that premiered last week exceeded the fifth season premiere by 14 percent for all viewers.

What happens when two really big celebrities want to guest star on one of TV's hottest shows?

The show turns them down.

Both Jennifer Aniston and Ben Stiller wanted to appear on FOX's 24, but producer Joel Surnow turned them down because they are "too recognizable. They'll take you out of the reality."

The show has added a lot of new cast members this season, including Rick Schroder, Peter MacNichol, Regina King, Eric Balfour, Powers Boothe, and Michael Angarano, so maybe a big name star (or stars) would put the entire feel of the show out of whack.

Look, I know that his years on NYPD Blue redeemed him from a crash course with the child star curse of reality shows and cultural irrelevance, but he'll always be Ricky Schroeder to me. Ricky Schroeder - Silver Spoons star, friend to "Tap Dance Kid" Alfonso Riberio and owner of the racing car bed. Fortunately for Ricky, he overcame the 80s with the aforementioned three seasons on NYPD Blue, a comedic turn as Nurse Paul Flowers on Scrubs and his latest outing as Dr. Dylan West on Lifetime's Strong Medicine.

Ricky has made another great career move - further distancing himself from that plucky young lad in The Champ. He'll be joining the cast of 24 as CTU operative Mike Doyle. Expect to see Schroder team up with Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer in executing "key field ops." 24 is really pulling out all the stops with its latest casting decisions. Schroder is just one of a list of fancy new cast members including Chad Lowe, Regina King, Powers Boothe, Peter MacNicol, James Cromwell, Kal Penn and David Hunt. That's right - Deadwood's Cy Tolliver meets Babe's Father Hoggett meets The Boondocks' Huey Freeman meets Kumar. Who doesn't want to see that?

(S03E12) Maybe I sit alone with this belief, but I was royally disappointed with this finale. This entire season has been building up to this episode. It was supposed to be a magnificent explosion with guns a blazing as Bullock and Swearengen delivered Deadwood from the clutches of Hearst and his Pinkerton pistoleros. There was none of that. For the most part it was calm. It's clear that this finale was written with a full-length fourth season in mind and I only hope now that the remaining four hours of this wonderful series can do it the justice it deserves.

(S03E11) Forgive the extreme lateness of this review folks, but between work and my cable being out for a day, I just haven't had the opportunity to sit down and watch this episode. But now that I have... wow. Words cannot describe how excited I am for tonight's season three finale. So take this review as sort of a refresher on the season as a whole as we prepare ourselves for the final stand-off between Hearst's men and the camp of Deadwood.

(S03E10) Once again, great as usual... but man, they are really building up to this season's climax at a snail's pace. As much as that fact has me agitated, you still have to admire it though. Every move, every scene, every choice bit of dialogue in this show means something. It all ties together. It's just so meticulously laid out and that's why we're unfortunately not being treated to a full fourth season. It's too bad that series renewal relies on viewership and not the quality level of the program, because let's face it. Deadwood, along with a few select others (Rescue Me comes to mind), are alone at the top right now.