kiefersutherland

Jack Bauer saved the world, but in the end, he couldn't save himself from cancellation. Fox has announced that it is ending '24' after the drama completes its eighth and final season. The two-hour series finale will air May 24 at 8PM.

"While the end of the series is bittersweet, we always wanted '24' to finish on a high note, so the decision to make the eighth season our last was one we all agreed upon," said '24' star Kiefer Sutherland in a press statement. "This feels like the culmination of all our efforts."

Jack Bauer fights baddies on the domestic front. But '24' showrunner Howard Gordon's next Fox drama will focus on soldiers who've gone global with their efforts to protect America.

Gordon is writing and producing a U.S. version of the hit Israeli drama 'Prisoners of War,' about a trio of soldiers who return home after being MIA for a decade. In the Israeli original, the three soldiers were kept in captivity in Syria for 17 years before reuniting with their families. But in the American revamp, three U.S. soldiers who were presumed dead after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 are found to be alive in a cave, and are sent home to try to start their lives over.

"They come home greeted as heroes, but they are traumatized by the treatment there, and their families have become collateral damage to their captivity," Gordon tells the Hollywood Reporter.

(S08E12) Stephen Root didn't set the building on fire, but last night's '24' was the best episode of the season so far.

Jack and Cole teamed up to chase down Tarin, but their potential buddy cop moments were undercut by an overzealous SWAT team leader and some very crafty terrorists. For the first time in a long time, '24' delivered edge of your seat suspense and some truly exciting twists and turns. Spoilers after the jump.

We knew this was coming eventually. Terrorists took down CTU with an EMP bomb on '24' (Mon., 9PM ET on Fox).

We looked it up on Wikipedia, and EMP stands for electromagnetic pulse, which may or may not be nuclear, but would likely fry any nearby electrical equipment.

Let's just hope CTU took the advice of every geek on the planet and backed up all their computers to an off-site location. Then again, since they just established the new CTU not long ago, how much intel could they have? Chances are good that most of it's on Jack's PDA.

Watch the video after the jump.

It looks like Jack Bauer might be running out of really bad days. The popular word is that the latest season of '24' may be its last.

Mind you, the franchise is far from dead. A movie version of the series is in the works. It's also not out of the realm of possibility of a sequel series which stars the CTU team minus Jack Bauer. After all, they have to be doing something when Jack's not around.

'24' is one of those series that benefited from timing. Would it have been as successful if it wasn't first released in the shadow of 9/11 and issues like terrorism and torture didn't suddenly become hot button topics?

The end of the series is probably a good thing. While the series is still good, it feels as if it's jumped the you-know-what and a change of venue might help reinvigorate interest in Jack Bauer.

Hour eleven had its share of "WTF" moments, but it also delivered some fine dark drama, a few gripping scenes, and a crazy shot of a guy blowing up right in front of Jack Bauer's face.

Renee sat this one out, and Dana's frustrating B-plot ate up a good chunk of the hour, but I still had a blast with this episode of '24'. Spoilers after the jump.

Has '24' (Mon., 9PM ET on Fox) officially become a parody of itself? If not, it's darn close. Or maybe it's just all those other parodies on YouTube that are making it hard to take the show seriously these days.

Even so, things got pretty tense when Jack Bauer tried to disarm a bomb strapped to a guy's chest. What's worse, the guy's mom was right there, being dragged off so she wouldn't have to 1) see her son blow up; and 2) blow up with him.

Yikes, Jack. You're probably wishing you'd gone to California with Kim and your granddaughter, aren't you?

Watch the video after the jump.

(S08E10) This episode hat it all – action, suspense, tension, and dead bodies on parade. The plot is really heating up now that Jack is "all in" and motivated to stop the terrorists from detonating their "dirty bomb."

But saving New York City from a radiological nightmare isn't the only thing pushing Jack to nab the baddies. The man is smitten. He wants to keep Renee safe and sound and free from government prosecution. I guess everyone needs some personal motivation, right?

Take Samir and the IRK terrorists, for instance. Detonating the bomb would be a huge win for them. Not only will they demolish NYC and leave the area uninhabitable for 40 years, but they'll also plunge the US into a war with Kamistan, successfully thwarting Hasan's peace negotiations.

Terrorists will do just about anything to get away from Jack Bauer, even if it means leaping to their death out of a high-story window. Yep, that's what happened on '24' (Mon., 9PM ET on Fox).

Come on, Jack. Even we saw that coming from our living rooms. What's the matter? Reflexes a little slow or something?

Watch the video after the jump.

"Son, you'd better put that down, or you're gonna get hurt." Oh, Jack. It doesn't take much for us to fall back in love with you. All you have to do is kick some butt, toss out some one-liners and rescue the girl.

But did you really think you could just turn your back on that guy and walk away? This isn't 'Cool Guys Don't Look at Explosions.' This is '24' (Mon., 9PM ET on Fox), the show where if there's a taser to be given, you'll be on the receiving end of it.

You should know that by now, Jack. Who do you think you are? The world's hero or something?

Watch the video after the jump.

(S08E08) "Hey! Why you gotta focus on the negative?" - Kevin to Dana/Jenny

He was stabbed, beaten, electro-shocked and strung up like a side of beef, but that didn't stop Jack from busting out of the basement of doom with relative ease. Luckily for Jack, it seemed like Bazhaev's goons forgot to bind his legs. (Why do bad guys always forget to bind the legs?) Our hero only had to employ some fancy footwork to crack his torturer's neck and escape.

Then, like some tiny feral jungle creature, Jack pounced on another goon, bit him on the neck and drained him of his blood!

OK, maybe that last part happened a little differently, but seeing skinny little Jack jump that chubby baddie was like watching a vampire bat attacking a cow. It was the funniest moment of the season so far.

Oh man, Jack Bauer is getting tortured – again! That poor guy has had enough shock treatments to be in a 1950s insane asylum. Not only that, but he's already been stabbed in the gut this season.

We feel for the guy, but he always manages to spring back into action and overpower the bad guys. If '24' (Mon., 9PM ET on FOX) is on its last legs, we suggest that Freddie Prinze, Jr. take over the saving-the-world duties. We love you, Jack, but let Freddie carry some of the burden! And Cole Ortiz is a really cool name, too.

Watch the video after the jump.

With '24' in its eighth season, the future of the show is up in the air. E Online has an article summarizing all the potential futures of the show, including that '24' movie we keep hearing about.

This entire situation sounds like Fox is hedging its bets. '24' remains a big ratings winner and they want a few options available. In their perfect ideal, Fox would likely want to continue the series with Kiefer Sutherland in the lead, possibly having Freddie Prinze, Jr. in a spin-off series.

As a consolation prize, they would continue '24' with Freddie rather than Kiefer and possibly have Jack Bauer move to the movies (although that didn't work out so great for the final seasons of 'The X-Files'). If it is decided to kill off Jack Bauer (as has been rumored before), then the movie could always take place before that happens.

For now, enjoy season eight!

We can't say we've been all that thrilled about this season of '24' (Mon., 9PM on FOX). In fact, it's just a shadow of its former self.

But one scene in last night's episode offered a glimmer of hope that perhaps all is not lost. After getting knocked around by Vladimir, Renee, who's been mostly a simpering wimp thus far, picked up a knife and stabbed him smack in the eye! And then in the chest! Multiple times! Stab! Stab! Stab!

But, uh oh. Clearly, she didn't mean to stab Jack, too. She just got caught up in the moment of unbridled revenge! Then again, it's just another day in the life of poor, tortured Jack.

Watch the video after the jump.

(S08E07) I'm going to whine a lot about this episode, so that's just a little warning to anyone absolutely loving this season of '24.' But first, let's talk about the great scene where Renee goes ballistic, stabs Vladimir, then accidentally stabs Jack. Then Jack takes the knife out and hurls it at the other guy coming in the door. Awesome!

Ok, now for the bad stuff. For one thing, I thought we were going to get to see Renee kick some major butt this season. So far, she's just a wimpy female with a big fat vengeance chip on her shoulder who still gets knocked around by the bad guys (excepting that awesome scene noted above). Come on, Renee! I want a female Jack Bauer, not some sniveling sap!