24

In case you haven't watched any football on Fox for the past two months and don't know, '24' starts its sixth season, Sunday January 14th with two hours on both Sunday the 14th and Monday the 15th.

There are two types of men in this world, Those who love '24' and Those who hate '24'. If you love '24' it is because it is the ultimate "man drama" reminiscent of the "classic" 90's movies (e.g. "Speed", "Die Hard") you grew up renting and loving. Clear good guys and bad guys, unexpected heel turns, tons of gunfire and explosions all to a heart pumping bassy score. If you hate '24' it is because it is implausible as to some specifics (Southern Californians will tell you the miles they travel by car is impossible even without traffic), and can be predictable as to what happens to the bad guys at the 24th hour or what happens to anybody at 5 minutes to the hour. It is especially loathsome by those refuse to suspend disbelief that anyone can sustain Jack Bauer Intensity for 24 straight hours, no matter what the stakes are.

While I am clearly one of the former, I must agree that every season of '24' does follow a specific formula. And that formula is this:

1. The show will start with lead Jack Bauer (played by Kiefer Sutherland) in some unaffected state outside of his duties with Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU).

2. He will be made aware of a threat by a phone call in the first hour of every day.

3. There will be one central villian for the first 12 hours who will be revealed to work for a main villian with some anti-American or anti-Jack cause. The 12 hour villian almost never sees the second 12 hours.

4. There will be a political angle which will seem separate from the terrorist angle until the final episodes of a season.

5. Someone who will seem to be on Jack's side either inside CTU or outside will reveal themselves to be an ex-patriot working for terrorists just when you think the show is getting close to mundane.

6. Jack's daughter Kim (played by Elisa Cuthbert) will be either welcome eye-candy, or an annoying wet blanket with an awful plotline, or both.

7. While the terrorists plan is always thwarted (you never hear about Los Angeles getting attacked in the past five and half years do you?), each season ends on some kind of a downer either with Jack or the country as a whole.

If you have no opinion on '24' because you haven't watched. You might think its too late to start watching. Hopefully with my "Jack in a Box" season recaps you will feel brought up to speed to start watching January 14.