TV Show Review: 24 - Legacy

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Mostly good thriller pulls you in

Cons: Predictable plot “twists” if you know the franchise

The Bottom Line:

Time ticks once again

New characters; same old thrills

Familiar; still fun

“Right Now, I’m the Only Person I Can Trust.”

Back in the day, I was a 24 addict.  I never missed an hour of a day in the show’s original run.  So, when they announced plans to do a spin off focusing on an all new cast of characters, I was intrigued.  The ratings and reaction to 24: Legacy, weren’t that great, but I mostly enjoyed it.

Our hero this time is Eric Carter (Corey Hawkins), a retired U.S. Ranger who was lead the team responsible for taking down a notorious terrorist.  However, the past is coming back to haunt him when someone attacks him and his wife Nicole (Anna Diop) in their home.  Eric manages to get them out of it alive, but that’s when he learns that the rest of his team and their families have all been brutally murdered.

And so he turns to CTU where outgoing director Rebecca Ingram (Miranda Otto) was involved in Eric’s mission.  But Rebecca is trying to get out of the counter terrorism game since her husband, John Donovan (Jimmy Smits) is running for President.  Eric and Rebecca quickly realize the scope of the threat, but can they find a way to stop it?

Let’s be perfectly honest.  This show may feature an all new cast of characters, but it isn’t really anything new.  We’ve seen this story before, and we’ve seen the plot complications and twists before as well.  Now, this isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy the ride, but it was rare that the twists took me by surprise.

The familiar also extends to the stupid sub-plot.  Every season had at least one, and this time that honor goes to Nicole, who gets parked with Eric’s brother and her ex-boyfriend Isaac (Ashley Thomas).  Seriously, this was definitely a time filler, and rare intrigued me at all.

However, the harshest critics of the show seemed to come from the “24 is the Jack Bauer show, how dare you try to have this show without Jack” camp.  And the fact that one character from the original show did show up for a few episodes did nothing to satisfy them.  Honestly, I missed the character as well, and I’d love to see him get out of where we left him at the end of 24: Live Another Day.  But I also tried to watch this with an open mind.

And the result is, I enjoyed it very much.  Even with the predictable “twists,” I was on the edge of my seat just about every episode.  These creators and writers know how to tell a compelling story, and they hooked me once again.  As always, the ticking clock is the main thing, and the plot and characters serve it, but they do a good job of making us care about the characters that we truly do get invested in the story and the outcome.

The acting and stunts have always been wonderful, and this spin off season was no exception.  The actors even made the time killer storyline as believable as possible.

While the show did cover 24 hours, it only had twelve episodes.  Yes, they skipped some hours, but all twelve episodes are included in this disc.  Extras include one featurette and some deleted scenes.

No, this isn’t the best thing the 24 franchise has offered.  But if you are willing to go into this with an open mind even thought Jack Bauer isn’t in it, then you just might find yourself caught up in the 24: Legacy thrill ride.