PEARSON: Two hours provide link from last to next '24'

By Mike Pearson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 19, 2008 at 6 p.m.
Updated November 19, 2008 at 8:23 p.m.

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Photo by Kelsey Mcneal / Fox

While he hides out from congressional investigators, Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) forms a bond with the children at an African orphanage in a prequel to the new season of 24. Also pictured is Siyabuela Ramba.

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24: Redemption

* When and where: 7 p.m. Sunday, Fox 31

When last we saw Jack Bauer, he was facing an uncertain future, having been assailed by good guys and bad guys and seemingly everyone but his own conscience.

When Season 7 launches in January, Jack will be facing interrogation by a hostile Senate panel investigating the government's use of torture.

So what did Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) do on his hiatus? As you might imagine, he kicked some butt.

24: Redemption, airing Sunday night, is a two-hour movie designed to bridge the time between the last original airing of 24 and the start of Season 7. It takes place a year after the events of Season 6.

Redemption finds Jack in the fictional African country of Sangala, where he is hiding out from that congressional subpoena at a school for boys run by his old friend Carl Benton (Robert Carlyle).

Across the border, a rogue warlord is kidnapping children for his army. He plans to attack the capital soon, and he sets his sights for new recruits on Benton's school.

Of course, Jack isn't about to let that happen. He takes on the ruthless warlord while trying to get the 14 orphan boys in his charge to safety at the U.S. embassy, which is being evacuated. He's a stranger in a strange land, but still deadly when tortured and backed into a corner.

Meanwhile, halfway across the globe, a new U.S. president is about to be inaugurated. President-elect Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones) is miffed that she's been kept out of the loop about the crisis in Africa. Her predecessor (Powers Boothe) seems not to care that she will inherit this problem.

There's also something afoot with the first son (Eric Lively), whose best bud is caught up in some sort of financial scandal and leaves a computer trail leading to the White House.

And there's a new villain in town, Jon Voight as political operative Jonas Hodges, who will do anything - and eliminate anyone - to cover his tracks.

Redemption covers a two-hour period from 3-5 p.m. As always, the show is done in "real time," which means while minutes tick away for Jack in the African bush, the same minutes are ticking away in Washington.

Fans of the series may not forgive the Hollywood writer's strike for delaying the show (the last original episode aired May 21, 2007), or Fox for punting the program for nearly two years, despite having fresh episodes in the can last spring.

But Redemption delivers the action and angst we've come to expect from the series, with Sutherland in fine form as a spy on the run. And kudos to the producers for casting Tony Award-winner Jones as the new president. She's feisty and amiable by turns. Long may she reign.

If there's a downside to Redemption, it's that the producers hint at what's to come without giving us enough of a hook. Exactly who is Voight's character and why would someone in the president's inner circle be plotting the possible death of her son?

And, really, would any outgoing president hand his successor a crisis without at least trying to explain his actions? (Note to fans: There's an extensive preview of Season 7 at the end of the movie.)

Quibbles? Perhaps. Fans of 24 have come to expect the occasional loose end, knowing that eventually things will sort themselves out.

Redemption may not be the definitive Jack Bauer escapade, but it should tide fans over until the season proper begins in January.

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