Jack's back for another grueling day on Fox's '24'

NEW YORK -- Jack Bauer was in a coma at the end of last season's "24," resigned to the death he had cheated countless times before.

Now, as a new day (and eighth season) starts for the round-the-clock Fox thriller, Bauer is nudged awake. But it's a couple of years later, just after 4 p.m., and Jack has been comfortably dozing on a sofa while he baby-sits his little granddaughter, who's poking him to get his attention.

Today, life seems peachy for Jack. His doctors have declared a success his risky treatment for the bioweapon infection that had put him at death's door -- surgery ordered against his will by daughter Kim in last season's closing moments.

Now Jack (series star Keifer Sutherland) looks happy, healthy and almost relaxed. He's content to play the dedicated granddad and rededicate himself to his once-fractious relationship with Kim. He plans to take a job with a private security firm, and say goodbye to saving the world with his counterterrorism derring-do.

Hope springs eternal, even for Jack. But there are 24 looming hours in the day this new "24" season will span (with the first four episodes airing Sunday at 9 p.m. and Monday at 8 p.m. EST). And despite his insistence that, "I'm out, I don't work for the government anymore," by 4:22 p.m. on the "24" clock, Jack is pressed back into service.

Maybe he shouldn't have answered that knock at the door.

(Caution: Possible spoilers lie ahead.)

Within the hour, Jack is escorting a wounded would-be informant and trading gunfire on a downtown Manhattan street.

By 6:25 p.m., he's getting his first severe beating. The fact that just a few scenes later he displays not so much as a bruise doesn't make him any happier to be back in the game.

"I hate this place," he says as he gazes around the headquarters of the Counter-Terrorist Unit.

Unfolding in New York after past seasons set in Washington and Los Angeles, "24" initially sticks Jack with saving the life of Omar Hassan, president of the Islamic republic of Kamistan. Hassan (Anil Kapoor, "Slumdog Millionaire") is in town for nuclear disarmament talks with U.S. President Allison Taylor (returning Emmy-winner Cherry Jones). But evil forces are trying to derail this Mideast peace accord.

The growing peril reunites Jack with Chloe O'Brian, a former CTU analyst back in Los Angeles who has been stationed in New York for less than a month.

Played by "24" veteran Mary Lynn Rajskub at her petulant, pouty best, Chloe isn't much liked in this CTU office, nor has she yet exhibited her past data-slinging expertise. She needs an ally who believes in her.

"You've come to me for help many times and I've never let you down," she implores Jack. "Please, help me. I can't do this by myself."

"I'm sorry," he replies. "Not this time. Not me."

But after a couple of false starts at extricating himself from the inevitable mess, Jack, as usual, is caught up in it. By then, it's still only 5:37 p.m.

Lucky he got that nap. If past seasons are any indication, he won't be getting any shuteye, nor other creature comforts, in the day ahead.

The inhuman demands heaped on Jack are a given of "24." So is high-tech gadgetry, rampant firepower and foreign bad guys with surly accents.

Personal problems are also part of the mix, complicating the save-the-world mission at hand. For example, early on, data analyst Dana Walsh (Katee Sackhoff of "Battlestar Galactica") has to deal with a vengeful ex-boyfriend who could cost this hotshot CTU operative her job, and maybe worse.

But despite all the effort expended on action and intrigue, "24" remains heavily character-driven. Long ago, Chloe emerged as an audience favorite beyond the narrative function she served. And one of the best "24" sagas -- Season Five -- scored big with its wonderfully weaselly, treasonous president, Charles Logan (who, played by Gregory Itzin, will make an encore appearance this season).

Renee Walker (played by Annie Wersching) makes a welcome return in the fourth hour. She's a dishy, tormented former FBI agent viewers loved last season, and now she's back for an assignment to go undercover -- and maybe exorcise her pent-up rage in fearsome ways.

Renee's arrival is a hopeful sign for a series that each season pushes to top itself, but does it more successfully some years than others.

After seven seasons (plus the two-hour TV film in 2008), what was once groundbreaking and breathtaking threatens to become a bit, well, everyday. The main challenge for "24," as with nearly any aging series, is to find fresh and ever-more-impressive ways to tell the same tale that made viewers like the show originally.

Much of this season's first four "24" episodes consists of scurrying in place -- however furiously. But hope springs eternal for the "24" fan. "24" always unfolds with the promise of a narrative about-face that, at any moment, can blast some routine story straight into the stratosphere.

It's happened before, and there's loads of time for it to happen again. After this week's big beginning, Jack -- and his viewers -- have 20 hours left on the "24" clock.