Ahh, those famous initials: J & B. No, no, not James Bond. And we don't mean Jason Bourne, either. And we're fairly certain we're not referring to the Scotch Whiskey—though that might be strangely apropos. We're talking about Jack Bauer, savior of America, and, if FOX is lucky, of the forthcoming season of 24, too.

It hasn't been an easy path for Jack. Let's recap. There were those pesky terrorists in Season 1. Then in Season 2 there were...ahem, well, more pesky terrorists. Followed by, yep, pesky terrorists in Season 3 as well. Season 4? Uh-huh, you guessed it. No need, then, to even mention Seasons 5 and 6. The monotony of it all might be enough to drive one to drink, or to drink and drive. We won't go there.

If it all sounds a bit droll, remember that the first season of 24 was possibly the most adrenaline pumping, sweat-soaked nail-biter of a show to ever reach out through the screen and grab you by the unmentionables. I said so myself back in 2005. Season 2 wasn't bad either. But after that, it began to feel a little like driving a Nextel Cup car at high speed around a NASCAR track: great fun and exhilaration for the first couple of hours, but a bit exhausting and repetitious after that.

Despite enormous initial success, the show has thus had its ups and downs, the downs mostly a result of the corner in which the producers painted themselves. 24 is a high octane thrill ride that defies logic and laughs in the face of common sense. Its a formula that worked brilliantly in the first two seasons. But after that, it began to laugh in the face of the audience, who, acclimatized to the tricks, wondered where the substance was. And therein lies the rub. 24 has never been about substance, but about technique. The show's gimmick is to assail the audience with the unexpected for 24 sequential hours. And we're all too happy to go along for the ride and feel our pulse race...until we grow weary of the gambit.

The gambit also made it very difficult for the writers to give the show weight and to evolve the characters along the same lines as other series which use more traditional narratives—great for short term payback, not so good for long term story and/or character development. This failing became all too apparent in Seasons 5 and 6 (particularly when the writers didn't seem to know how to end the storylines), though 3 and 4 were showing early signs of strain, too.

Season 7 is about to kick off in January, and to tide the show's audience over until then — and to compensate for this years writer's strike which time-ravaged a number of series — the network shot a two-hour movie, 24: Redemption (originally titled 24: Exile) which introduces many of the conflicts and characters that we’ll be seeing when the seventh season begins.

CinemaSpy was sent an early screener of the movie by the network, and while the story is competent and reasonably exciting, it's all a little...conventional. Click the Video tab at the top of this article to watch an exclusive scene from the movie. Meanwhile, beware of minor spoilers below.

Much of the telefilm was shot in and around Cape Town, South Africa, which is where the story kicks off—we find Jack seeking solace in the fictional African country of Sangala, where he's working as a missionary alongside an old colleague, Carl Benton (The Full Monty, 28 Weeks Later). Sangala is under siege by a vicious warlord (played by the wonderful, but underused, Tony Todd), who is recruiting local children for his militia. Naturally, the militia comes looking for more young recruits at Benton's mission. And just as naturally, Jack isn't about to stand by and do nothing, try though he might to avoid conflict.

Sutherland is in fine form here as Jack Bauer. Disheveled and humble, he is clearly doing penance for past deeds when we first meet him at the missionary. The respite doesn't last long, of course; the formula dictates that, like water always finding its own level, trouble must always find Jack Bauer, and find him it does. This, of course, allows Jack to do what he does best, and before long he's meting out his own special brand of Rambo-esque resistance against militia members intent upon childnapping.

And while it's a bold departure for a series that has stayed firmly entrenched in Los Angeles for the past six seasons, and become identified with the 24 clock format (though the movie does follow the real time format, with Jack telling us at the beginning, "The following takes place between 3:00pm and 5:00pm), it doesn't feel especially electrifying.

Moreover, while Redemption was filmed on location in South Africa, there are many times when the location doesn't seem to have been used to proper effect, and could just as easily have been shot in southern California. There are very few establishing shots that clearly mark the location as Africa, and too often one never really feels as though they are in Africa.

At the same time, the B story concerning the inauguration of President Allison Taylor (played by Cherry Jones), looks like pretty standard stuff, too, weaving together a plot introduced by Taylor's son, his duplicitous best friend and the enigmatic, and clearly nasty, Jonas Taylor (Jon Voight).

The story also gets mired by a few ancillary characters who, sadly, are clichéd stereotypes, including Gil Bellows as an unpleasant government operative looking to return Jack to US authorities, and a UN Peacekeeper who is painted as a self-serving coward when the sh*t hits the fan (please!).

Whether Redemption can reboot the franchise remains to be seen. Like a guilty pleasure, it's fun to see Jack Bauer back in action again, but audiences may grow apathetic quickly if the producers can't find an effective way to balance the tried-and-true formula of 24 with some new, innovative elements. Failure to do so will almost certainly guarantee that Season 7 will be the show's last.

24: Redemption airs Sunday, November 23 on FOX in the US and Global in Canada.