Although Fox's action-adventure/political thriller/serial drama 24 is still, after seven complete seasons on broadcast televisions, one of the better "must-see" shows in the early 21st Century, its longevity is proving to be both a curse and a blessing, especially for its loyal core of fans.

Though the various "very bad days" in federal counterterrorist agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) have all had a few weak spots throughout the whole series, many fans (including this one) are of the opinion that 24's first five seasons are great, while Season Six, which pitted Bauer against a coalition of ex-Soviet ultranationalists, Islamic jihadists, ambitious American conspirators, Chinese agents and even two members of his own family, took a big qualitative nosedive as far as the story went.

Nevertheless, the show continues to benefit from the continuing presence of its star, Kiefer Sutherland, and its core of writers, producers and directors, who probably were suffering from creative fatigue after several years of producing a series which chronicles the sometimes traumatizing and chaotic events of a single day in Jack Bauer's life throughout 24 one-hour episodes during a standard TV season.

And as bad as both the negative fan reaction to Season Six and the writer's strike that hobbled the entire 2007-2008 TV season, they also gave 24's cast and crew some badly-needed time to regroup and take the show into a new direction for 2009's Season Seven.

 Knowing that fans would need some kind of bridge between Seasons Six (set in Los Angeles) and the Washington, DC-set Season Seven, prodducer Howard Gordon wrote the teleplay for 24: Redemption, a two-hour (with commercials) "movie event" set in Washington, DC and the (fictional) African country of Sangala.

24: Redemption is rather unusual because not only is it a narrative bridge between the previous season and the then-upcoming one (it aired in late November 2008), but it's the first time that Jack Bauer has been depicted as doing the flawed-hero bit without the assistance of his colleagues at the Los Angeles branch of the (fictional) Counter Terrorist Unit. 

The story takes place over a two-hour period (midafternoon in Sangala, late morning to noon in Washington, although 24's traditional "events occur in real time" are altered a tad by the prologue in which several Sangalan boys are shanghaied into becoming boy soldiers by the men of Col. Ike Dubaku (Hakeem Kae-Kazim), the right-hand goon to Sangalan rebel leader Benjamin Juma (Tony Todd).

It is Inauguration Day in Washington, DC.  Outgoing President Noah Daniels (Powers Boothe) and his staff are meeting in the White House with President-elect Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones).  In their private meeting in the Oval Office, the two discuss the situation in Sangala, where Gen. Juma's People's Freedom Army has somehow gained the upper hand and defeated forces loyal to President Ule Matobo (Isaach De Bankole).

 Meanwhile, a world-weary (literally) Jack Bauer has been working as a missionary at the Okavango school in Sangala, which is run by his old Special Forces buddy Carl Benton (Robert Carlyle).  It seems that Jack has been roaming the globe in search of some inner peace while at the same time evading a subpoena issued by the U.S. Senate, which wants Jack to give testimony at Congressional hearings on CTU's actions and tactics over the past 10 years.

The theme of 24: Redemption should probably be summed up in the expression "You can run, but you can't hide."  This is both in the literal sense, since the plot has Bauer and Benton trying to protect the boys at the Okavango school from Gen. Juma's "draft" to build his army, as well as in the metaphorical one.  Bauer has been running from the many demons of his past, but they, like the Senate subpoena, have caught up to him at long last.

Based in part on the Rwandan fiasco of the 1990s, 24: Redemption tells a tale that blends the traditional action genre with a soupcon of political intrigue, white-collar crime, and even some elements of "prime time soaps" in which family drama and sex are featured to some extent.

For instance, as President-elect Taylor is meeting with President Daniels, her son Roger (American Pie's Eric Lively) is dealing with a potentially dangerous problem: his drug-using friend Chris Whitley (Kris Lemche) has some pretty incriminating information concerning his bosses' possible involvement in the Sangalan civil war.   Not realizing that his friend is knee deep in trouble of the mortal kind, Roger agrees to help him, which puts him in the cross-hairs of the American conspirators.

Though 24: Redemption can't break away from the show's format (there's the usual choose-the-least-painful-option deal making, as well as the "greedy American bad guy in league with foreign bad guys" and the tragic plot twist in the final act), its plot is still interesting, the guest stars (including Jon Voight as ultra-baddie Jonas Hedges) and the shot-in-South Africa sequences make the "bridge" movie worth at least a rent.

Indeed, the decision to film 24: Redemption on location in Africa lends the movie a sense of hyper reality that is often absent in most TV shows set on the oft-ignored continent.   Gone is the cheap, overly familiar look of the Fox backlot, replaced by the lush countryside and dangerous-looking environment of the Cape Town suburbs.

As always, producer Jon Cassar keeps things both tense and full of intense action, and series star Sutherland makes this iteration of Jack Bauer both troubled/world-weary yet able to rise to the occasion when confronted by the face of evil.

And even though its narrative is purely intended as the prologue to Season Seven (most of 24: Redemption's cast returned in January 2009) and feels like a cliffhanger, it is entertaining and very watchable, especially for long-time fans of the series, but it's also a great way to introduce 24 to a casual viewer who has not watched the first six seasons.

The 2008 two-disc set comes with the TV movie as it aired on Disc One, with the traditional "clock" transitions where the commercial breaks occurred, and an "Extended Version" without the transitions and with some additional footage not seen on TV. 

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older