A trailer for season 7 of 24 is now streaming online. (WARNING: Trailer features a spoiler about the status of a certain character, which, by virtue of being in the trailer, I suppose is not such a spoiler anymore.)
Maureen Ryan at the Chicago Tribune suspects that the new season may have Jack Bauer lashing back at his critics who’ve attacked 24 for its reliance on torture. The evidence? The first scene of the pilot has Jack Bauer at a Congressional hearing, lashing back at a critic who attacks him for his reliance on torture. (His interrogator is Kurtwood Smith, the irascible Red Forman from That ’70s Show, so I hope the writers work in a way to have him call Bauer “dumb-ass” at some point.)
The new season is set in Washington, D.C., which could be a very good or very bad thing for the show. 24 needed a change of scenery, and hopefully the traffic will be better there than in L.A. But if the show does use its setting as an excuse for grandstanding and meta-self-rationalizations, it could end up being an unwanted remake of A Few Good Men, with Kiefer Sutherland playing Jack Nicholson playing the good guy. We may need you on that wall, Jack, but we don’t need you on that soapbox.