Counter Television Unit. My one TV series indulgence fared well this Sunday when ‘24’ broke into the Emmy winner circle with its fifth season. Fans will no doubt be crawling all over the show’s elaborate Web site to digitally high-five each other and argue whether this was really the season deserviing such status. For my money, however, it was a good one. For starters, as a seasoned viewer, I thought that with Season 4 '24' had chosen to take its own life. It did not end with a cliff hanger so much as with a fatal, precipitous fall: there was no way our hero, Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland, who earned one of the show’s three awards for Lead Performance), could return after faking his death so he could change identity and disappear to avoid a vengeful Chinese official (Tzi Ma). All this made the Season 5’s 24-segment arc all the more severe, gripping, and – as any true fan will happily admit – ridiculous. Providing the biggest goose to the storyline was our friend Greg Itzin’s President Logan, who did a Shakespearean turn of changing from Dogberry to Richard III in one revelation, playing opposite Jean Smart as First Lady. Another of the show’s 12 nominees, Itzin lost to now-five-time winner Alan Alda. Logan will not be back next season, so we’ll be seeing Greg back on stage, where he has been missed. According to the cliffhanger that appeared to spoil last season's happy ending, Jack will begin Season 6 in the hands of the Chinese. That's right. It was less than a day before Mr. Ma’s character picked him up, taped him over, and tossed him in a holding cell until January. Photo: Keifer in Sutherland.
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