24: Legacy

24: Legacy keeps the clock, the split screens and the emergency phone calls, but puts Eric Carter at the centre. A former Army Ranger finds that the danger from an overseas mission has followed him home. Corey Hawkins takes the lead, with Miranda Otto as an intelligence official drawn back into the crisis.

Hawkins gives Carter enough presence to make the action work. He isn't playing a younger Jack Bauer, and the series is more enjoyable when allowed to establish his own predicament. Otto is a useful counterweight: the people directing the operation have pressures and divided loyalties of their own.

The harder problem is familiarity. The format still moves quickly, but another last-minute reversal does not carry the surprise it once did. There is a serviceable action thriller here rather than a replacement for the original's best years. If the real-time structure was what you liked about 24, this is worth considering. If Sutherland was the attraction, his absence is difficult to ignore.