24: Redemption?

And so the verdict on Jack Bauer is guilty on the following charges:

• shameless product placement
• shallow emotional manipulation
• static plot devices (elaborate conspiracies among government insiders)
• implausible gunplay
• inane dialogue
  
• continuing preoccupation with torture
  

So we don't think that 24: Redemption achieved what it so ardently sought, a chance to redeem the series.* We did get a laugh at the impotent UN guy. And we look forward to watching Jon Voigt's impressive acting technique in the series to come, though he can never surpass Dennis Hopper in Season 1.

For portrayal of the brutality of modern warfare in Africa, we prefer the flawed Hotel Rwanda or the disturbingly realized Last King of Scotland. On the awful matter of boys pressed into soldiering, we just finished Ishmael Beah's memoir, A Long Way Gone and hope that somehow someone will turn it into a movie.

We note in passing that one aspect of the show probably epitomizes the shape of things to come. Hyundai is now the obviously-for-promotional-consideration-placed-in-the-teleplay automotive sponsor, supplanting Ford. The future of American automobile manufacturing is in partnership with our South Korean friends and their employees in Montgomery, Alabama, among others.

And only The Office rivals 24 for its in-your-face product placement.

But in the end, we'll still watch the new season. It will divert us until baseball season returns.

And we still recommend Dave Barry's blog on the show.
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*Per Wikipedia, the original title for the episode was 24: Exile. We assume that the producers knew that folks would know it's the series, not Jack, that needed redeeming.