24 S09E01.m4v

It has been four years since Jack Bauer was last seen on television, and for a series that made its name by unfolding its storylines in real time it comes as no surprise that those four years are wholeheartedly felt here. At its heart, the world of 24: Live Another Day is still very much the world of 24, as it was last seen in season 8 (back in 2010). But things are different; most notably, the world has gone on without Jack battling it out on the frontlines. It has somehow endured without the relentless, near-super heroic efforts of one man constantly racing against the clock to prevent catastrophe. As the special 12-episode event series kicks off, it becomes clear that the ever-ticking clock counting down the seconds of each and every episode won’t be the only thing reminding the audience of time; those four years that the world treated Jack Bauer as a memory weigh heavily on the proceedings as well.