24: Redemption is the prequel to 24: Day 7. It’s also the gift to us, the viewers, for having to wait for the next season of 24 for such a long period of time.

In Redemption we meet a collection of characters as this prequel takes place between the hours of 3 and 5PM.

The 2008 Presidential election is finally behind us and I think it’s time for a little levity after all the anger and angst. I must confess how stunned I am to see so many people reveling in a victory that–if we are being truly honest with ourselves–must be accredited to one man in particular:

That’s right folks, I am referring to former U.S. President, David Palmer.

The cursed writers strike affected a lot of shows last year and is even partly to blame for the cancellation of some of them. Fox’s 24 was not immune to those effects

Before the writers strike occurred, Fox already had their own “issues.” No, not the usual ones (well, maybe the usual ones) - there was discord in the Fox house as to where they were going to film 24… since the original script for season 7 called for shooting in Africa. Africa was deemed too expensive on production costs. <<- Remember that: It - was - too - costly - to - go - to - Africa.

Once they decided not to shoot in Africa, the show underwent a major rewrite. During the rewrite, a new schedule was being looked at - but timing issues and the writers’ strike came down the pike to throw the production yet another curve ball.

After we got robbed of season 7 of 24 because of the writers strike, word has come down that Fox is going to produce a two-hour TV movie that helps bridge the two year gap between seasons 6 and 7 (not to be confused with the rumored theatrical film). All right!

I’m a late bloomer to 24, having started during season 6. I would watch each episode while also watching eps from season 5. Yeah, things got a bit confusing (which terrorist is this? Nukes or chemical weapons?), but I couldn’t stop watching! It was fantastic. By the way, season 5 was some of the best TV I’ve ever seen, and I’m not much of a TV guy.

Though season 6 ended, in my mind, at episode 18 or so, it was still a solid, if uneven, one. I’m gonna start going through the other seasons to catch up.

Anyway, back to the TV movie and season 7.

Season 7 of Fox Television’s hit series 24 has been postponed or temporarily canceled. I keep reading that it’ll be off the air until January 2009, but I don’t think that’s set in stone. It’s a possibility of course, due to the writers’ strike and the fact that the network prefers the show to run in the second half of the TV season.

I hear they only have 8 episodes (representing 8 hours out of the full 24) completed, and considering the heavily sequential nature of this show, they don’t want to air the eight episodes and then take the show off the air for who knows how long.

My personal opinions have me on the side of the writers in regards to the current WGA writers’ strike situation. The studios have got to be kidding when they cry “we can’t afford it” when it comes to compensating the folks that are the foundation of the TV and movie entertainment business. Yes, the bulk of the issue is “new” digital media includes the streaming of TV shows on the web where perhaps it’s so new that the studios don’t have the economics of the whole thing worked out, but writers should get residuals from this as they do from any other media as far as I’m concerned.

There is no doubt that the current WGA writers’ strike is going to have a big impact on the 2007/2008 televsion season, maybe even bigger than was originally anticipated. Many popular TV series and talk shows have already stopped production, and there are rumors that some series that are supposed to start in January like Lost and 24 may end up getting their premiere dates pushed way back due to this whole thing. 24 may not begin until the strike is over and Lost may end up getting pushed back to 2009.

As has been mentioned here, this also affects movie production since most movies have ongoing script tweaking going on during the process of shooting a film, so there are movies going into production that could end up being that much worse when they’re released.

Which leads me to this thought: Although I support the writers’ side in this conflict, I don’t support all of them.

Here’s the premiere trailer for season seven of Fox Television’s hit series 24. Keifer Sutherland introduces it, saying this will be “the most thrilling season of 24 yet.”

From the look of it, they are indeed going for a fresh look this upcoming season and some format changes, including:

Be warned, this post contains a spoiler about season seven of Fox’s 24.

Season six of 24 is for me, the one in which the series finally ran out of steam. I will of course be tuning in for the season 7 premiere (in January?) but I’ll be watching with a jaded eye. Last season started out weaker than the previous five and took much longer to suck me in. And despite the fact that they set off a nuke in L.A. it never really grabbed me as much as the previous “days.” The nail in the coffin was when the story abruptly shifted gears about 3/4 of the way through with the “Jack must save Aubrey” storyline.

Ok, on to the latest…

Cherry Jones (The Village) has been cast as a female U.S. President in the next season of 24. An interesting development to be sure, but I’m hoping they get radical with the entire story.

And I pray that doesn’t include the rumored/reported “Jack-is-a-villain” stuff I’m hearing. Vigilante? Sure, but not a villain. So what can they do?

I have only seen the excellent season 5 of 24 and the “started-great-but-ended-weird” season 6 (I haven’t finished it yet because it got so strange by hour 18 or 19), but I feel like if the show can lose the Los Angeles surroundings for a completely different locale, it would help.

Kiefer Sutherland has hinted that Jack Bauer might lose his good guy status for the next season of 24.

After attending the Princess Diana Memorial Concert, Sutherland told The Sun: “Bauer will be his own boss… he’s going to be on his own.” (Which to this author, doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to turn bad, just going out on a limb, again..)

Is this some twist on the usual scenario where being in the field, he’s his own boss anyway?