’24: Legacy’ episode 1 review: Meet Eric Carter
We give the producers of “24: Legacy” a great deal of credit from the jump. Reviving a beloved series is no easy task. It’s even more difficult doing so without Jack Bauer as the leading bad.
The bad news for the show is that over the course of the first episode, we did find ourselves missing Bauer. Part of his appeal is that he was grizzled, world-weary, and carried much of the weight of the world on his shoulders. However, at the same time this is no slight against Eric Carter (Corey Hawkins), the new lead of the show. The one similarity that the two men do have is that they have this subconscious, insatiable need in order to be involved in danger. They can’t escape fighting and killing.
It was ultimately Eric’s wife who said it best in the premiere — Eric likes what he’s doing. He’s not suffering from PTSD so much as he is trying to relive everything that he already went through. He’s compelling, but we still need to see more of his heart.
Meet the CTU – Rebecca Ingram used to be the head of the CTU, but in theory, she technically left. Keith Mullins, meanwhile, is technically the new person in charge. However, Rebecca hasn’t been able to get away from that life entirely, much to the detriment of her husband John Donovan, a powerful U.S. politician who was ready to move forward to a different phase of life with her.
Rebecca’s whole getaway was in part ruined by Eric’s past coming back to bite him. His history with Bin Khalid, the terrorist leader he was ordered to kill overseas, came back to bite him, and the identities of he and many of the other Rangers he was with in battle were compromised. One of the big flaws in the premiere is that there is ALREADY a mole story going on, and you’re left to wonder whether Rebecca, Keith, or someone else leaked some of the information to cause this trouble in the first place. Can’t Miranda Otto not play a morally-ambiguous character a while after her time on “Homeland”?
With the help of Rebecca (who was willing to attack Keith with a stun gun in order to continue aiding the cause), Eric eventually tracked down one of his fellow Rangers in Ben to look for a strongbox, one that is apparently full of information that Khalid’s people are looking for. These two guys are the only members of Eric’s team left, as Khalid’s people are hunting and taking them out.
Love gunfire? – Well, we guess that you do given that this is woven in the fabric of “24.” Things really got going when Ben and Carter were forced to run full-speed away, and then find a proper way to escape to go along with it. The final minutes of this episode proved further that this show, like the original, is best when it is going 100 miles an hour. The stuff about Eric’s family life, while somewhat interesting, was window dressing when compared to the mission.
Ben escaped the situation alive, but soon found himself in a situation where he decided to take matters into his own hands, and demand money in exchange for the information he still had. As a veteran let down by the system, we understand where he’s coming from … but you gotta think that this could end badly for him.
The school sideplot – There’s an attack being planned, and we have both a “student” (think of the undercover type) and a teacher in on it. Intrigued? Well, hopefully you are. Other than fleeting glimpses of our student / teacher duo taking care of their problem (being found out) at the end of the episode, this is all we got for now.
Our overall verdict – The first episode of “24: Legacy” was very good. It’s a little early to proclaim it as anything more than that. What it did bring to the table was relentless action, but we do need to still care a little bit more about some of the characters and the story to start to assess it as anything more than a decent follow-up to the original. Grade: B.
What did you think about the premiere of “24: Legacy”? Share in the comments, and click here in the event that you are curious to read a preview for what is coming up next! (Photo: Fox.)