24: Redemption is a cruel reminder of what 24 could have done if they didn’t wait so long to do things differently. This was only done because of the writer’s strike blowing up season 7 and delaying it for a year, but on it’s own it was a strong couple of hours of 24. I just wish they realized the potential of the show after the first couple of seasons. Taking the rigid format away and putting Jack somewhere new really mad the usual feel new. Hopefully if the 24 Movie ever happens, it will resemble this more than the last couple of seasons.
The first thing that becomes apparent with Redemption is that it looks worlds better than any episode had looked previous to this. This felt hi-def and not gritty like a regular hour. Also, placing it in the fictitious African nation made everything look new. Yeah, they still cut back to DC for the usual political nonsense but what Jack was doing felt unique because he wasn’t on city streets and inside warehouses. Instead there was plenty of sunshine and nature with Jack running around killing people. Once again, I hope the talked about movie goes through with placing Jack in Europe so the environment feels different than the normal streets and buildings.
Calling this Redemption hinted at what was going on with Jack since Day 6. And his conversations with Willie and Benton dropped even more hints to what he is going through. I love the idea of broken Jack wandering the world trying to find himself and at the same time running away from the world he left behind in America. But, of course, when danger came looking he was ready to jump back into action. Because there was no building to a later hour, they went all out and gave Jack a long one-man army battles against Youssou and his soldiers. It was also nice to see that he got tortured instead of giving him a reason to torture anyone. There wasn’t much more than the big action piece and Jack surrendering to the American government going on here.
Jack was the only significant returning character to the story here. Daniels, Lennox, and Ethan were around but more in the background to Allison Taylor’s introduction. On the other hand, they took advantage of this prequel movie to introduce most of the new characters for Day 7. The political side of Redemption introduced Allison and Henry Taylor along with Jonas Hodges and a bunch of his cronies. We even got to see Dubaku and Juma in Africa before they start causing havoc in DC next season. But since this was a prequel, there is not much to say about many of them. Everything that wasn’t about Jack was set-up for Day 7. So on to Day 7.
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