24 prepares for a bloody good time

From comingsoon.net

Twentieth Century Fox Television, Imagine Television and Fox are sending the production of "24: Live Another Day" across the Atlantic to London for a thrilling international adventure, as the new tent-pole event series restarts the clock on the groundbreaking and Emmy Award-winning drama franchise starring Kiefer Sutherland. As previously announced, "24: Live Another Day" will make its debut in the summer of 2014 on Fox.

"'24' has always had such a global sensibility," said Sutherland, who also serves as an executive producer on the event series. "But to be able to tell this intense '24'-style story with the beauty of Europe's history and architecture as the backdrop is going to be fascinating. Hopefully, by the time you're finished watching an episode, you'll feel like you've been there...on the edge of your seat."

Co-showrunner and executive producer Evan Katz added, "We wanted the show's return to be an event, and part of that was putting Jack in a very different context. Four years ago, we left Jack a fugitive from justice and we're going to pick him up four years later in London."

Co-showrunner and executive producer Manny Coto continued, "Jack is soon back on the run and it takes us into the streets of London and in places that break new ground for the show. We've shot in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Cape Town -- but now we're in London and Jack's loose on the streets of Europe, hunted by and hunting bad guys."

Originally premiering November 6, 2001, "24" was nominated for a total of 73 Emmy Awards, winning for Outstanding Drama Series in 2006. Over the course of eight seasons, and a two-hour telefilm, Sutherland garnered seven Emmy Award nominations and one win for Outstanding Lead Actor - Drama Series.

"24: Live Another Day" is a production of 20th Century Fox Television and Imagine Television in association with Teakwood Lane Productions. Howard Gordon, Brian Grazer and Kiefer Sutherland will executive produce, along with an additional team to be announced. The original series, which had its last American broadcast on May 24, 2010, was created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran.

TV reviews (Midseason edition)

I figured I'd take a few moments and share some of my feelings on a pair of shows which have recently debuted.

Alcatraz: In the ongoing quest to fill the void left by Lost comes this new drama that is part police procedural and part sci-fi mystery. Back in 1963 over 300 of the prisoners encarcerated at Alcatraz, along with the guards on duty mysteriously vanished. Now in present day they have begun showing up seemingly the same age they were back in '63. A team has been assembled to recapture these guys consisting of a young cop (played by Sarah Jones), a comic book artist who's an expert on Alcatraz (Jorge Garcia aka Hurley from Lost) and a mysterious federal agent (Sam Neill) who was a guard not on duty at Alcatraz when everyone disappeared. Thus far, the show has managed establish a rhythm (each episode has featured one returning inmate/guard that the team is trying to locate) but has avoided becoming pure formula by throwing in some twists and mysteries to keep audiences guessing at the show's big questions. I really like the cast here. Neill as excellent playing the shades of grey agent, Jones is sexy but tough, and Garcia remains likeable while doing a good job of making this character different from Hurley. I've definitely become invested in discovering the show's central mysteries and unlike Person of Interest which I stopped watching after about 6 weeks, I don't see myself getting bored with the formulaic aspects of the show. Thus far, ratings have been solid. And with the announcement that FOX will not be renewing House after this season, it looks likely that this show will be sticking around. If you haven't given this show a look yet, trying finding its aired episodes online somewhere and get caught up. Thumbs up!

Touch: This had an early preview a few weeks ago. This is the latest show from creator Tim Kring(Heroes). It focuses on single father (Keifer Sutherland) struggling to raise his son who has never spoken one word since he was born. However, we see that the boy is very special and has a gift for finding connections between people through numbers. The story is similar to the film Knowing but with a much more positive and uplifting theme. I enjoyed the pilot episode but I do have some reservations as to whether or not the show can sustain itself as a series. I'm really glad to see Keifer Sutherland back on TV, although I do wish it was still as Jack Bauer. His character here does not possess Jack's skills of being a badass, but if they do share a similarity it's that both characters seemingly try to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders and you easily empathize with both. There's a lot to like here, but the jury is still out as to whether this will work as episodic televison.

Finding the right Touch

So I realize we're just a few weeks into the new fall schedule, but there's already buzz surrounding a new show scheduled to come out next spring. It's called Touch and it stars Keifer Sutherland as the father of a 10-year old boy who has never uttered one word in his entire life. I've posted a trailer for the show below. Right now I'm having a lot of mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I love Keifer Sutherland and am anxious to see what he does as a follow up to 24. I also think that the story has a lot of potential. What's concerning me is that the man behind this show is Tim Kring, the creator of Heroes. That too started off very cool, but we quickly learned with that show that an interesting story means nothing if it doesn't have a sufficient payoff. Since we are still several months away from its debut, that gives us plenty of time to ponder the prospects of this show's quality. Feel free to chime in yourself in the comments section. Is this the next sci-fi smash? Or just another promising story about mystical numbers that turns out to be nothing more than hokum?