Halfway through day, ‘24’ needs to pick up pace

However, having a geeky physicist academic as a conspirator might not really work. Guest-starring as Lennox is Peter MacNicol, who’s on leave from “Numb3rs,” where his physicist character is allegedly in orbit. But considering the way MacNicol channels his “Numb3rs” character, Larry Fleinhardt, on “24,” his character seems more like he’s making a cross-over appearance.

Lennox/Fleinhardt/MacNicol rubs his chin pensively and argues clearly and definitively, although here he’s talking about national security, not math.

Likewise, in his role as the vice president, Powers Boothe seems to be drawing from his “Deadwood” character, Cy Tolliver. Without the mustache and ascot but with the same icy disposition, he plays Noah Daniels as a man in command who is blind to anything except his self-described “aggressive agenda of national security, one that will out of necessity suspend certain civil liberties.” Tolliver would no doubt be in complete agreement about that necessity. Having assumed the duties of the president, Daniels is now in a position to become another Logan, using his new power for his own purposes. But his thirst for that power is so obvious and transparent that the only real surprise would be if he turned out to be a pacifist who’s a member of the ACLU.

At least the guest stars get to do something. The regulars have to be content with standing around answering the phone, like the writers have had Bill Buchanan do about five times every episode. There’s also been relatively little assistance for Jack from fan favorite Chloe, who’s too busy covering for her alcoholic ex-husband Morris, who created a detonator for nuclear bombs after having a particularly nasty looking corkscrew bit drilled into his back by his terrorist kidnappers.

After 12 hours, this season feels like the first few hours of any other season of “24,” where the show searches for a solid rope to climb up the rest of the season. Producer Howard Gordon has admitted as much, telling Entertainment Weekly that writers have “struggled much more with trying to find that big idea, and if you don’t find it, it’s like mining coal with your hands: It’s really bloody and it’s ugly.”

This season, there’s been plenty of bloody and ugly, just not much else.

Andy Dehnart is a writer and teacher who publishes reality blurred, a daily summary of reality TV news.

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