24 Legacy: Season One

[Michael Scott]

24 Legacy: Season One



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Spin off shows are always a hard sell for audiences. Especially a much loved show like 24 which had a rabid audience for 8 full years, AND were yelling loud enough for Jack Bauer to come back for a “special event” half season in 2014 to act as the shows send off. It’s kind of like the Full House/Fuller House situation, except it’s only been 3 years since the last appearance of Jack, instead of over 25. Still, the same principals apply. Viewers are have to enjoy the familiarity of CTU and hunting down big terrorist baddies, while also having to accept new faces, new heroes, and new agendas into the wheelhouse as well. Personally, I thought I was going to LOATHE 24 Legacy, so when it first aired I only watched begrudgingly because a friend really really wanted to watch the show. The first couple of episodes started off quite nicely, but seemed to lake that 24 vibe to it, but by the time the 5 episode was underway I was grabbing popcorn and watching Jack Bauer lite blow stuff up and race against the clock like usual.

The series starts up without really trying to tie Jack into the CTU anymore. Instead, it takes the approach of allowing time to pass, and completely ignores Jack’s shadow, which means audiences can actually ignore the comparisons if they really want. Army Ranger Eric Carter (Corey Hawkins) is living life outside of the military as best he can. He and 5 other rangers appear to have operated a joint task force with CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit for those who aren’t 24 aficionados) at some point, and have been under a form of Witness protection after taking Arab terrorist Ibraham Bin-Khalid. Unfortunately for him, his life is about to get a LOT messier when Ibraham’s son, Jadalla (Raphael Acloque) starts hunting down the ex Army Rangers and killing them off one by one. With Eric the only one left, he is forced to go rogue and utilize the only person that he can trust. Rebecca Ingram (Miranda Otto), the just retiring head of the CTU.

Jadalla appears to be after a flash drive full of sleeper cells his father set up, and he will stop at NOTHING to get it, meaning Eric’s wife, Nicole (Anna Diop) is forced to go underground with Eric’s gangster brother in order to survive the next 24 hours while Eric and Rebecca try to take out Jadalla and his holy warriors before thousands of people across the U.S. are murdered. In typical 24 fashion, there are multiple storylines at play here. Rebecca is stepping down from CTU, so her role is kind of liasonary, and she also has to balance the life of a CTU head helping a rogue agent, as well as deal with the ramifications this terrorist plot will have on the life of her husband, John (Jimmy Smits), who is running for president (well always need a president at the focal point of CTU, just works that way). Then there’s Nicole dealing with the realization that her husband is NOT out of this lifestyle, no matter how much he says he wants to start a family, and John’s own presidential bid soon wraps itself into the story itself, as there is a traitor in his own midst with ties to Jadalla Bin-Khalid.

24 Legacy is actually a very decent show in its own right. The series jumps into the waters with both feet and lets the viewer sink or swim with the characters. Eric Carter is very obviously the next Jack Bauer (though without Jack’s incredible charisma), and we just get introduced to the new CTU staff, even though 99% of them we’ve never heard of before. To breed familiarity with the crew, the show doesn’t really try to go into massive exposition, but rather acts as if we’ve known them for all these years, and has us just right into the middle of their romantic squabbles, power struggles and the like. It was odd and off putting at first, but after a while I had to agree that it was an effective technique for getting us to feel like this was a “transition” rather than a complete reboot where we had to build from the ground up. The show starts off running on all cylinders, and even though it can seem like we’re entering the show mid season, it really works by the end to give the appearance of a fairly seamless transition.

Legacy is more or less a clone of the first season of 24 plot wise. Sure, some names are changed and events worked up, but if you look closely, the thing seems WAY too familiar. Right down to the typical Isis/Taliban style bad guys that are the main villains. We get a few curve balls (Oded Fehr was an awesome twist, and so was including fan favorite Tony Alemeda), but really it follows the ups and downs of the first season, along with all the positives and negatives that brings to the table. Conspiracies, presidential plots, corrupt government agents working from within. It’s all there, including the fun of watching an Army Ranger kick butt and take names. Corey isn’t Jack Bauer (there never will be another one, Kiefer was just too perfect for the job), but Corey Hawkins does a good job at making the “rogue CTU agent” his own, and by the end of the show you’re looking forward to what he can do next season. Unfortunately that won't happen, as Fox decided to the cancel any further seasons, and leave it as a "one off" special event, instead of continuing forward.




Rating:

Rated TV-14 by the MPAA




Video:

24 Legacy shows up with a very traditional looking encode if you’ve watched the previous seasons of the original 24. the series is bathed in darkness many times, with CTU looking like the batcave, with monitors everywhere and lights glowing in the background. Daylights shots are incredibly sharp and vibrant, while the darker sequences (such as when Carter faces off against Naseri) is dotted with some digital noise that crops up fairly consistently. You can see some banding in the opening credits, and when flashlights show up in the dark, but other than those little abnormalities the show is devoid of any other artifacting and the detail levels are quite nice. Skin tones are balanced and easy on the eyes, with a nicely level contrast that allows for maximum detail levels to be seen in light or darkness. While the encode never really looks STARTLING demo worthy, it is a very impressive looking show and very typical of how Fox has treated the series to date.





Audio:

If anything, all of the variations of the 24 universe on DVD have given us a good baseline to judge based upon history. In that regards I mean to say that the show’s energetic and exuberant sound encoding has transferred over into this new spinoff. 24 Legacy’s 5.1 Dolby Digital track is aggressive and explosive, filled with lots of gunfire, and a thundering score that grabs ahold of you and doesn’t let go until the credits of the final episode are over. LFE is powerful and impactful, adding weight and authority to the gunshots as Carter battles Khalid’s agents, as well as ambient effects such as helicopter rotors and the sounds of explosions rocking the soundscape. Vocals are well placed up front, but SOMETIMES get a bit lost in the action. The front three speakers show off some nice panning effects inside warehouses or on the open streets, and the surrounds are always active with the score, and of course the copious action sequences. Overall, this is an EXCELLENT 5.1 mix, and very indicative of all the 24 sound tracks that I’ve had the pleasure of listening to (at least in the later years)








Extras:

• 24: The Legacy Lives On
• Deleted Scenes

Final Score: ​

24 Legacy: Season One is an interesting hand off from Jack Bauer’s regular romps. CTU is still there, as as some familiar faces, but Kiefer Sutherland’s massive presence is felt the most with his absence. The series works quite well on its own, with Corey Hawkins coming in his own as a solid agent for CTU, and the show almost feels like a way for him to get acquainted with the audience rather than letting him be the main star (that was left to Miranda Otto and Jimmy Smits this season). Although, I’m rather impressed with how Corey handled the series, especially with the massive shows that he had to fill without Kiefer present. The season itself mirrored season one of the original 24 in many ways, and that brings with it many good points, but also the negative of feeling like it was copycatting instead of coming up with something new. After standing back after watching in live on TV, and then following up with a binge watch of the DVD set, I have to say I LIKE the show, but it is still in the infancy stage, but sadly it looks like we won't get another season, so we can enjoy a little more 24 without getting inundated. Audio and video are excellent for the DVDS, but I WAS a bit saddened by the limited extras on board. Definitely good for a watch for those who enjoyed 24.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Corey Hawkins, Miranda Otto, Anna Diop
Created by: Robert Cochran, Manny Coto, Evan Katz
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Mpeg2
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Rated: Rated TV-14
Runtime: 525 Minutes
DVD Release Date: November 14th, 2017

Recommendation: Solid Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will try and catch this one.