24 Points About 24 Coming Back

I am a 24 fan, worshipper, devotee, fanatic, critic, archivist, connoisseur, and whatever other noun you can dream up. I have seen every episode of the show live except one in season three (VCR malfunction!) 24 was the first TV show I ever watched with my family and was my favorite show to watch with friends. I have written extensively on how it relates to "Homeland" (24 is superior). And finally I shared recaps in the form of 24 points for the last 3 seasons here on thislalife.

Now that it has been announced that the show (the new season titled 24:Live Another Day) will be returning for a more condensed 12 episode run next summer, I thought I would return to the 24 Points to let you know all morsels that are brewing in my head with the almighty return of Jack Bauer.

1. How will the 12 episode format work for a show that is so dependent on having 24 episodes? The producers have said they will skip some hours and condense some events to fit the timeline. This sounds like we'll still be looking at a full day in the life of the greatest terrorist hunter that has ever lived. 

2. Will we finally get the epic motorcyle that Jack has in him. Motorcycles, TPG what you talking about? You see, revealed somewhere in the bonus features of the DVDS and mentioned here in the 24 wikia, it is stated that Jack is an expert motorcyclist. Also says he's a surfer, I'd rather have him dispatch foes by bike than by bodacious waves.

3. Will Tony Almeida return?

4. While we are at it...will the vampire bite return? That's what really counts (sorry Tony).

5. The show always succeeds because the way that it mirrors and inflates real life events. It's well known that the show premiered months after 9/11 and rode the war on terror to massive critical, popular, and political success. I wonder how it will adapt to the current drone based war on terrorism and also how the events of the Boston Marathon bombings will influence it?

6. My dream is that even though the episode count is shorter the budget will be the same which will mean bigger and better action.

7. The whole "skip" and "condense" some hours thing means that perhaps we will see multiple far off locations for the show, which has always been rooted in either LA, D.C. or New York and the surrounding area. Will we see Jack get on the plane to some far off exotic place and then jump to him landing...I think so.

8. Ron Swanson survived season 2, will he make a guest appearance?

9. The Bad Guys in the new season will be some mix of the following: private contractors, "Russians," Islamic extremists, red-neck terrorists. In fact Bauer has never really taken on the red-neck variety, actually....Kim has she took down Johnny Drama in season 2.

10. Will anything in this season come close to the majestic brutal power of the Fayed death from season six?

11. Jack has had some "bad luck" with the ladies in his life? Will he have a new flame this season? Does that even make sense or is the ticking clock just not gonna allow it?

12. How many Christmas Trees will Bauer destroy?

13. Kiefer is 46 years old now, which is not exactly young on the special agent scale, I wonder if we'll see him either shrug off his age or acknowledge it a la Brian Mills in "Taken."

14. Speaking of that whole time speeding up, is the reason for the shorter season because we as human beings can't handle 24 episodes of anything anymore. Is 24 episodes too long for our twitter/facebook/24-7 news cycle brains to handle? 

15. James Badge Dale was not really a known actor when he appeared in the highly underrated season 3 as Jack's partner Chase Edmunds. Now he is everywhere (Iron Man 3, Flight, The Pacific etc.) I have no doubt that Jack will get a new partner (besides Chloe of course, more on her later) but who could play that part? Don't be surprised if they switch it up and give him another female partner. This way the bad guys can say things like "you can't protect ya women Jackkkk!"

16. Chances that the season will actually just be a prequel and it will feature the abandoned "Samuel" plotline featuring legendary anti-hero Dubaku. Hopefully 10000%, long live Dubaku.

17. Calling it now we're looking at 37 confirmed Bauer kills this season and I'm not talking about random explosion related deaths. I'll be more specific and say we'll get at least 3 spectacular kills or "Mortal Kombat" deaths.

18. Earlier I asked if Tony will return. I'd say the only guaranteed cast member to return besides Jack would be Chloe as she is like part of Jack's existence now. In fact Chloe never really changes season to season...she's just always there and as neurotic as ever. That is except for the time she blasted those dudes with the machine gun!

19. Anil Kapoor - the star of the Indian version 24 has already starred in a season of 24 as a different character, but what are the chances he pops up again this time as the Indian Jack Bauer...that would be crazy.

20. Speaking of crazy, I would love to see the show get slightly meta and have Jack take down some Hollywood types. You could tie it all together with the shady world of global corporations media investments.

21. Jack Bauer is also a straight up Grandpa - how zany would it be if the whole season was actually a comedy where Jack has to supervise a kid. Kind of like Baby's Day Out but with more awesome violence.

22. I'm calling it now...Kim Bauer is coming back fo sho.

23. Feels great to be writing these again, so stoked the show is coming back, did I say that?

24. As a show 24 was a classic water cooler topic. If you hadn't seen last night's episode then don't waste my time talking to me chief. But things are different now, people binge on shows on Netflix and the water cooler isn't what is once was. Will the show's return to the airwaves signal a return to must see live drama programming? We'll have to wait and see...beee bowp bee bowp beee bowpp.