GAMES: GameSpot | GameFAQs MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Television

2008-09 Midseason
2008 Fall Season
2008 Summer Season
2007-08 Midseason
2007 Fall Season
2007 Summer Season
2006-07 Midseason
2006 Fall Season
2006 Summer Season
2005-06 Midseason
2005 Fall Season
Best Of 2008
Best Of 2007
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss TV In Our Forums

 

Upcoming & Recent Movies & Specials

Wuthering Heights 54
PBS, 1/18

The Story of India 73
PBS, 1/5

Tess of the D'Urbervilles 66
PBS, 1/4

 

Upcoming & Recent Series Premieres

United States of Tara 67
Showtime, Sunday

Big Love Season Three 77
HBO, Sunday

Secret Diary of a Call Girl Season Two 62
Showtime, Sunday

Flight of the Conchords Season Two 79
HBO, Sunday

Friday Night Lights Season Three 82
NBC, Sunday

The Beast 53
A&E, Thursday

24 Season Seven 72
Fox, Sunday

Howie Do It 37
NBC, Friday

Damages Season Two 80
FX, Wednesday

13: Fear Is Real 33
CW, Wednesday

Game Show in My Head 34
CBS, Saturday

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

24
Season Seven
SERIES: Fox, Sunday 8:00p (60 minutes)

24
Critic Score
Metascore: 72 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.9 out of 10
based on 21 reviews
read critic reviews
how did we calculate this?
based on 21 votes
read user comments
rate this tv show

Starring Kiefer Sutherland, Mary Lynn Rajskub, James Morrison, Jeffrey Nordling, Annie Wersching, Janeane Garofalo, Cherry Jones, and Carlos Bernard

Jack Bauer returns from Africa (24: Redemption) to find himself defending his actions before Congress.

GENRE(S): Drama
CREATED BY: Joel Surnow
FIRST AIR DATE: January 11, 2009

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Newsday Verne Gay
Tonally, this often feels more like a psychological thriller than an action one, which is a very good sign. 24 is thinking, not just doing, and that bodes well for the later hours when our friend has tended to jump the tracks. All in all, a terrific start.
Read Full Review
100
USA Today Robert Bianco
Even when 24 went off the rails, Sutherland somehow kept Jack in balance. And now that his show seems back on track, he's rolling at top form.
Read Full Review
100
New York Post Linda Stasi
All the new characters are wonderfully drawn, including FBI agent Walker (Annie Wersching); bad, bad guy Jonas Hodges (Jon Voight); a new Chloe-type nerd (Janeane Garofalo). Especially good are Jones and her husband (Colm Feore), who is more consumed with solving his son's death than in being First Man. Whew! Thank God there is Jack Bauer--unchanging, unflinching.
Read Full Review
83
Entertainment Weekly Ken Tucker
Let's just say that after the two-night, four-hour season premiere, Jack will have threatened to jab a Bic pen into a bad guy's eardrum, and you'll feel the warm glow of sadistic glee that signals a jolly good start for vintage 24 mayhem.
Read Full Review
80
Hollywood Reporter Ray Richmond
Fortunately for the audience, the show on which he struggles to save the republic is back on track after a season of misdirection followed by a year away.
Read Full Review
80
Los Angeles Times Mary McNamara
Jack is the glue that holds the show together, and Sutherland, with his pained, superhuman skill set, makes him a physical statement about the toll violence takes, even violence committed in an attempt to save the world.
Read Full Review
80
Variety Brian Lowry
Whatever its flaws, this edition of 24 features smart, crisp and densely woven storytelling whose subplots look to be on a well-orchestrated collision course.
Read Full Review
80
Wall Street Journal Dorothy Rabinowitz
Ms. Jones's president is compelling--a force to contend with. Much the same can be said of the new 24 itself--a force now returned in strength and, once again, highly addictive.
Read Full Review
80
LA Weekly Robert Abele
Treachery and action still abound on 24--its brand is crisis, after all--but the nail-biting, espionage-like first four hours erect a scenario that promises a recharged season built on smarter suspense gambits than the tiresome 24 (and, by extension, Bushian) tropes of outlandish risk, torture and Armageddon-mongering.
Read Full Review
80
New York Daily News David Hinckley
The show's long break seems to have rejuvenated its story lines, in which intense, rapid-fire action plays out against the backdrop of a complex, methodical geopolitical chess game.
Read Full Review
70
Philadelphia Daily News Ellen Gray
Yes, CTU's still dead, but the market for its most out-there operative's very special interrogation methods hasn't dried up altogether, it seems.
Read Full Review
70
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen
This season doesn't really kick into gear until night two, when Bill Buchanan (James Morrison) and Chloe (Marylynn Rajskub) return, operating outside the bounds of the government.
Read Full Review
70
Kansas City Star Aaron Barnhart
There is a distinctly 2002 feel to this season of 24....But you know what? It all manages to hold together.
Read Full Review
70
PopMatters Cynthia Fuchs
It is returning to its own past, that most effective masculine melodrama. Two, it is making that return meta, arranging plot points to emphasize official repetitions and narrative redundancies. And three, it is yet again making torture its most salient focus.
Read Full Review
67
Time James Poniewozik
There are, maybe, some hopeful signs. The series seems to have given up on trying to create a bigger WMD for every season, which it needed to do. The political subplot—new president Cherry Jones wants a humanitarian invasion of a Darfur-like African country but is being undermined—is intriguing and a bit different for the show.
Read Full Review
60
Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker
The seventh season of the Fox thriller starts with four hours and some compelling plots....Then the plot twists pile up, and the action scenes can turn preposterous.
Read Full Review
50
Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert
24 makes a feint toward change, before getting back on the same old mechanical cowboy ride.
Read Full Review
50
San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman
After watching the first four episodes, it's clear that despite the familiar adrenaline rush and a (temporarily) tighter rein on the ridiculous, 24 hasn't changed much at all.
Read Full Review
50
The New York Times Alessandra Stanley
The novelty of the hour-by-hour conceit wore off long ago, and the various plot devices and characters are all familiar. The fun, at least at the beginning of a new season, is in seeing how the creators will rejigger the pieces this time around.
Read Full Review
50
Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan
The biggest problem is that by now some elements of 24 are distressingly predictable.
Read Full Review
40
Newark Star-Ledger Alan Sepinwall
The new season has a few moments, mostly involving the return from the dead of Jack's old CTU colleague Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard), who now seems to be working for the bad guys. But all the attempts by Jack and his writers to justify every past decision often brings the action to a crawl.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this tv show is 8.9 (out of 10) based on 21 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Discuss this tv show in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: MLB | Spore | iPhone 3G | Paris Hilton | Antivirus Software | GPS | Recipes | Shwayze | NFL

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use