Jack Bauer Where Are You We Need You for 24 Hours

Suspending reality, that's great T.V., who wants to watch something that reminds you of the yucky mess that we actually live in? Nope what we want is to grab hold of that remote, switch to the surreal that we enjoy, kick back and forget about the bills, the boss, and the neighborhood going downhill with no brakes.

Enter the sweat master general Jack, who does know Jack, and knows him rather well; in fact, Keiffer Sutherland plays the hero with such honesty that you want to reach through the television and offer Jack a sip of something cool. Especially since he's in the midst of the whole Californian nightmare of nuclear reactors (not one, but five- no small challenge for our bud Jack) being sent critical as an act of terror. Jack, however, has it all together, and is running the whole situation through the TOC (Tactical Operations Center), in order to keep the alliances he has formed from going under. It's a gritty, sweaty, tough job, and thank goodness we have Jack doing it.

Only the problem is, Jack ain' real, yeah that's the tough part; our reality gets all messed up when it doesn't measure up to our surreality. We want our F.B.I. agents to be just like Jack, only the majority of them probably aren't; and in reality we can be thankful for that, on the other hand, where is Jack when we need him?

The premise of 24 some years back was fun; take 24 hours in the life of a counter terrorism agent who gets involved in really intense investigations involving high level crimes against the government of the Unite States. That premise meant sweat for anyone who watched it, a healthy dose of "Oh My God I know he didn't do that (!)" factor for the "hey grab me a coke while your up," America viewership. What happened instead is a little hard to believe, Jack didn't become a household word, but he did become a hero to a smaller niche of viewers. Those viewers are passionate about their Jack.

There are a couple of problems with the latest doses of "no way man..." They have to do with the technology being evidenced, either this is taking place in the future by several years, or somebody was on Mescaline the day they toured agent land. The modern counter terrorism unit. is still a government outfit, they are loving older systems, older computers, and new flat screen wonders are not the norm. The tactical operations center pictures are nice, but the C.T.U's are immense organization of totally dedicated agents who fight day in and day out as much against the limitations of rules of the bureaucracy as they do against the bad guys; at least, that's the impression that is easy to logically deduce.

The thing about Jack is, he's not real; and the world that they insist is possible for terrorists, is just this side of possible as well. Those of you who have tried to do a wireless link up network in your own home know what fun that can be, try doing that same thing in Los Angeles with five different nuclear (can we say "FIREWALLED") systems! Sure that's gonna happen, right after the Pigs fly around Bush's baked beans farm and the dog gets to spill the secret. Jack on the other hand, is on top of whatever will be doing down, and why? Not because he logically deduces what is needed, but because elements just appear. That's one of the problems with this story, not only do we have to suspend the reality of people using the bathroom on occasion, but we have to also just accept that some stuff takes place, which can't, but it just does.

Many years ago there was a drama on T.V. called the "Six Million Dollar Man," and we used to all get a little "miffed," 'cause we knew good and well you couldn't do that for just six mil; but worse, he lived just like a regular "schmo" until he had to get the bionics up; shades of Jack, was that guy in the F.B.I.?

So after all the sugar high jokes have been exhausted, and the all the retching about plot jumps for convenience sake, and a total suspension of all that is potentially real being necessary to enjoy sweating with Jack, if you're like me, we'll be sweating together and hoping that some of our real agents are just like Jack.