/ Entertainment

05/19/2002

By Frazier Moore, AP television writer

NEW YORK - What fun we all could have had with "24'' - especially now, with its conclusion!

In the tradition of "Survivor'' mania, all of us might have been hashing out every clue, plot twist and potential outcome as this serial thriller speeds toward its finale Tuesday at 9 p.m. EDT on Fox.

Will CIA agent Jack Bauer save his daughter from the clutches of the Serbian terrorists?

Will presidential candidate David Palmer avoid disaster after two assassination attempts and the deceptions of his scheming wife?

AP The cast of Fox's "24" is seen in this undated publicity photo. From left, Elisha Cuthbert, Leslie Hope, Kiefer Sutherland, Dennis Haysbert and Sarah Clarke.

Will Jack, after 24 hours of helter-skelter peril, get some shut-eye?

These, and questions like them, should have been on everybody's lips. After 23 episodes that tracked in real time, hour by hour, what Bauer calls "the longest day of my life,'' it would have been fun to share the end of "24'' communally.

That's the way some TV experts thought "24'' might grip the nation's consciousness. Fresh and ambitious in its concept - which wed scripted drama with reality TV's seeming spontaneity - "24'' was forecast as a likely hit, even a craze.

Then obstacles arose. For one thing, it was pitted against ABC's "NYPD Blue,'' NBC's "Frasier,'' the WB's "Smallville'' and CBS' hot new drama, "The Guardian.'' It may also have suffered from a late start - its first episode (covering midnight to 1 a.m.) aired Nov. 6.

But maybe undermining "24'' more than anything was Sept. 11.

Already stricken for real by the unexplainable, many viewers may have looked askance at any TV show designed to keep them in the dark for months. The hopped-up sense of dread that ensnares "24'' may have struck many viewers not as sleek escapism, but as an echo of their own altered world.

Familiar rhythms are absent from "24.'' There is never a break. No sleep, no awakening. No fade-ins or fade-outs. Just the fearsome rush of time, often flashing on the screen like a digital compulsion.

As a wild ride, "24'' has been a resounding success, even if the things that make it right seemed wrong to some viewers after Sept. 11. It surely isn't comfort-food TV.

Indeed, the series got off to a particularly uncomfortable start when, on its first episode, a terrorist blew up the jetliner in which she had been a passenger after parachuting to safety.

In that first hour, "24'' set spinning its four spheres of action:

- Bauer (played by Kiefer Sutherland). Initially brought in to save Palmer's life, he has divided his time between chasing bad guys and escaping from them.

- The Los Angeles operations center, where, in a shocker last week, his trusted associate and former lover Nina (Sarah Clarke) was revealed to us as a mole named Yelena.

- The band of terrorists, who, besides playing cat-and-mouse with Jack, also have a habit of abducting Jack's wife and teen-age daughter (Leslie Hope and Elisha Cuthbert), then managing to let them get away.

- The hotel headquarters of Palmer (Dennis Haysbert), a shoo-in for president who's in town for California's primary.

This multistrand narrative is told in a multiscreen display and linked by the cell phones clapped to everyone's ear. "24'' unfolds in gunfire and bitstreams, populated with dozens of characters, of which only five - oops, make that four after last week -still seem worthy of our trust: Jack, wife Teri, daughter Kim and Palmer.

Now the end (11 p.m. to midnight) is in sight.

"The day will be over, the story will come to an end - it's not a cliffhanger,'' pledges Sutherland. "It's a hard ending, but I think it will be satisfying on a lot of different levels.''

Not that even he knew how it comes out until two weeks ago.

"Various endings were being considered, and when we started shooting, I said, 'Look, which one are we committing to?' And they said, 'We think this one.' But I looped (did voiceovers for) three different endings.''

After the end? "24'' still won't be over. Despite its 89th-place ranking this season, it was renewed last week by Fox.

"I expect that next year it will start in a really, really strong way,'' Sutherland says.

By then, more viewers might be ready.