Review Roundup: 24: Live Another Day Episode 10

Here’s a comprehensive collection of reviews and recaps for 24: Live Another Day Episode 10. We strive to collect as many reviews as possible here – both positive and negative opinions from a wide range of sources. This post will continue to be updated throughout the week as more reviews come in.

The A.V. Club (A-): “The best part was watching Benjamin Bratt turn up the smarm as he switched into full heel mode. He didn’t get a ton to do, but he was fun, and that last look on his face as he realizes he’s been played (and the play was pretty obvious) was satisfying.”

IGN (8.1/10): “Cheng Zhi’s arrival on the scene immediately kicks the stakes into a higher gear. Margot was evil and ready to kill thousands, but this dude might have just kicked off World War III.”

HitFix: “I suppose I have to give credit to the “Live Another Day” creative team for squeezing a half season’s worth of plot twists into these last few episodes, as if they want to give us all the story beats of a traditional “24” year even though they have only 12 episodes to play with.”

The Escapist: “Offering the best plot payoff of the entire show, Kate’s discovery of Navarro’s dealings, and her subsequent wrath against him has been the greatest moment of Live Another Day so far. After an awesome punch, she pulls a gun on him — much like she did with that doctor to get Simone talking a few weeks ago — forcing him to reveal there’s a tracking code on the override device he gave to Adrian.”

TV Equals: “Circumstances are tweaked slightly thanks to Jack’s issues with the Russians, but the show is clearly relying on trying to execute its same playbook its had for years. Fortunately for them, there is few shows better at executing their playbook on network television.”

TV.com: “But once Cheng and his cronies blew through that door, put two bullets through Cross, forced Chloe to reconfigure the device, and sent a false directive to a U.S. submarine to attack one belonging to the Chinese, moral grey areas were gone. Live Another Day upgraded from the odd pseudo-honorability of Margot and Cross to FULL-ON VILLAINY of one of the show’s most monstrous figures. The stakes were properly raised, all hell broke loose, etc.”

BuddyTV: “It’s nice to see that 24: Live Another Day is hitting the trifecta of terrorists in its final hours, with Muslims, Russians and now the Chinese. With only two hours left, I have to assume that the return of Cheng is going to cause some serious drama for both Jack and Audrey.”

Paste Magazine (7/10): “The flaws in 24: Live Another Day are starting to show. There are only 12 episodes in this series, but they didn’t stretch out Margot’s drone war to cover all that ground. Instead, with very few episodes remaining, they move the B storyline to the A storyline. With Margot’s storyline, we came to understand her motivations. They may not have made sense, but they were clear. Now, we’re left with characters whose bad decisions have more to do with that rare and deadly mix of arrogance and incompetence.”

Vulture: “This season, we’ve seen both Mary Lynn Rajskub and Yvonne Strahovski play different notes that we don’t normally see on 24. Rajskub has been allowed to play more than Chloe’s trademark scowling, keyboard-pecking attitude, while Strahovski has infused Morgan with a ferocious sense of desperation and rage that’s become quite moving.”

Den of Geek: “With three episodes left if you include tonight, 24: LAD hooked me in for the final stretch. How did they do it? Tonight they let the balls drop. They threw everything at the wall and threw it hard to make sure it stuck.”

ScreenRant: “Since Jack threw Margot Al-Harazi and her son out a window, 24: Live Another Day has been running at a breakneck pace, and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down as it careens toward the final two episodes. And for a series that took so many years off before making its comeback, it’s great to see the show able to do what’s expected of it from a structural standpoint and still manage to be entertaining and exciting, as it burns through more characters and twists in an hour than most shows do in a season.”

CNS News: “With just two episodes left and possible war on the horizon, Jack faces his toughest test yet, against an enemy he’s had quite the history with. At this point in the season, 24 is firing on all cylinders.”

TV Fanatic: “But poor Chloe may have gotten the worst of the hour. First, everything she believed about Adrian’s ideals were crushed when she found out how he intended to use the override device. Then she learned he’d been hiding the truth about the death of her husband and son only to then have to watch Adrian be killed moments later.”

Boston.com: “l, it’s been a week since The Greatest Single Thing in the History of Television history happened. I guess I’m ready to write rationally about “24” again. Wait, no, I’m totally not. That was the GREATEST THING EVER.”

ScreenCrush: “24 has never been big on theme, but Chang’s sudden reappearance has thematic resonance, too. This season has been all about Jack’s past coming back to haunt him and you can now add his, uh, labored history with the Chinese to Heller, Audrey and the Russians on the list of things and people that Jack has done everything possible to ruin. With all of these sins coming back to haunt him, it’s tough to imagine this season ending without Jack (or someone close to him) meeting their maker.”

FOX News: “He holds her at gunpoint and brings her back to his new hide out, where his team was hard at work. Surely these were the actions of this season’s true villain, right? Not so fast. Cross and Chloe arrive to find that all of the members of Open Cell have been murdered, their bloody bodies strewn around the warehouse. That’s when Cheng Zhi reveals himself.”

NY Daily News: “Jack restrains himself for ten whole seconds before he pulls out a gun and hammers Navarro’s hand with the butt until bones shatter. I’m mildly surprised that the writers are taking another (ahem) whack at the subject of torture, given the backlash it’s gotten over previous seasons.”

Blogcritics: “There is also a cool interrogation scene which turns around the scene earlier in the season when Navarro had a bare-chested Jack in for questioning. Now it is Jack’s turn, and the smirk on Navarro’s face let’s us know that he thinks he has all the cards in the hand. Unfortunately for him, Jack loses it and his hand is in need of surgery.”

BloombergView: “My joy in seeing Cheng stemmed from the fact that he is neither an insane schemer (see: Margot Al-Harazi, who died last week) nor a craven mumbler (see: Adrian Cross, who died this week). Cheng, instead, is implacably evil. The kind of villain who makes Jack Bauer’s struggle against bad guys seem — well, worthwhile.”

Schmoes Know: “Yvonne Strahovski has really impressed me with her performance all throughout this season and seeing her deal with the mixed levels of emotions from being fueled with anger and extreme sadness. Next to Sutherland, she’s the best thing about this season.”

Starpulse: “Here’s another thought: why did the show have to reach back into its archives again for the major villain, rather than creating a new character? The new season has been an opportunity for the series to tell a new story with new characters, but aside from a few vaguely entertaining fresh faces who could still use more development (Kate’s finally showed a side other than ‘female Jack’ and poor Jordan only got intriguing when he died), most of what we’re getting is old faces who didn’t necessarily need to come back. No disrespect intended to the actors, but Chloe’s the only returning character who’s really been that useful or interesting. Having Cheng return gives Jack the opportunity to finally kill him, but why look back into the show’s past when you’ve been granted this opportunity to move forward with it?”

Better With Popcorn (10/10): “24 brought back one of its most ruthless, and to be quite honest, most ridiculous villains in order to give this season the sendoff it deserves, an the way he was brought back was interesting.”

RazorFine (4/5): “The episode continues to build on the Jack/Kate relationship as well as showcase how professional the woman can be given how much Navarro took from her family including a husband who took his own life in prison believing his own wife believed him to be a traitor.”

New York Observer: “What’s the status of President Heller’s Alzheimer’s? Oh man, dude has completely lost it! In this episode, Heller forgets his pants, makes out with his daughter, and does the jitterbug through Piccadilly Circus. Just kidding, he’s basically fine because it has again become convenient for him to be so.”

Grantland: “So now Cheng can do everything. And Chloe is no longer needed. FANTASTIC. And then Cheng shoots Adrian in the head. FANTASTIC. And then a truck crashes into the Bauers’ car, presumably sent by the Russians. FANTASTIC. And then Cheng’s men send a message to a U.S. nuclear submarine to fire on a Chinese carrier. FANTASTIC. And then the missiles hit the Chinese carrier, BECAUSE CHENG IS TRYING TO START WORLD WAR III. FANTASTIC.”

Polar Bears Watch TV (A-): “It’s history that sometimes comes back to haunt these characters, and what do you know: welcome back, Cheng Zhi. This development makes perfect sense and should be an intriguing one over the final two episodes, and the sheer history between Jack, the Chinese, the Russians, and Heller is an exciting prospect to behold.”

Nerdcore Movement: “This episode also perfectly set up what I believe will be another season of ’24′ because this kind of action definitely warrants another year of Jack Bauer kicking terrorist ass and he has to get back together with Audrey, right? Yeah, I’ll just tell myself that to keep warm at night until FOX officially announces that Jack will be back in our lives this time again next year.”

TVRuckus: “Now Chloe’s with Cheng on the run and Jack’s heading their way with Kate, completely oblivious to what an American ship has done. Who ya’ got in this one? Two episodes left in the series and the action has been breathless. Stay tuned, dammit.”

Geek Binge: “After ten episodes of basic 24 drama, Live Another Day has finally become the season everyone wanted it to be.”

Bitch Stole My Remote: “Best moment of the night, by far: Audrey is in the middle of chastising her father for taking alcohol with his pills, and – in mid-swallow – he gives her the thumbs up sign. I love Heller.”

Geeks Unleashed: “Now that 24: Live Another Day doesn’t have to play coy with plot lines, episodes like “8pm – 9pm” (along with last week’s episode) can just run on pure adrenaline, and work all the better for it. There’s just a better balance to the proceedings in “8pm – 9pm”: action sequences lead to mostly exposition-light, character-heavy scenes, zeroing in on Kate and Chloe and the professional and personal struggles they’ve been facing since before Live Another Day started. As it’s been all season, these twists and turns certainly don’t feel new – but executed at such a high level, it’s no surprise it feels like 24 is back on it’s game again.”

Pop-Topia: “The entire twist in the Open Cell narrative was well played and I have to say when Cheng walked into the room, my jaw dropped. That is going to be a really big confrontation should he and Jack meet in the last two episodes.”

The Guardian: “the Chinese use the device to blow up a Chinese warship with an American submarine. World War Three has literally been initiated, and the man in charge of the planet’s biggest superpower is a demob-happy, Alzheimer’s-ridden almost-former president with a ridiculous mixture of drugs and alcohol in his system. To repeat, I bloody love 24.”

Digital Spy: “Bringing back Cheng is a masterstroke on the part of the 24 team – he’s not only one of the show’s all-time great villains, but his last appearance in the underwhelming sixth season didn’t exactly provide the character with the send-off he deserved. Cheng has unfinished business with not only Jack but also Kim Raver’s Audrey Boudreau, which I look forward to seeing play out in the coming weeks.”

Flickering Myth: “It’s a stroke of genius bringing an old foe back, and adds a wonderful sense of excitement to the remaining hours, with so many unanswered questions left to resolve? Will World War III really start? Will the Russians capture Jack? Is Jack going to survive? Time, as always, is ticking.”

The London Film Review (4/5): “We’re getting close to the end now. Two episodes remain and it seems all out war is inevitable. I’m glad to say my concerns about what would come after Margot had been dealt with have been spectacularly put to rest. 24 is going for the throat with the climax and it’s really hard to see a positive result when we hit 11pm. Full marks to the writers for bringing Cheng back, that’s going to really spice things up.”

The Scruffy Nerf Herder (4.5/5): “This season of 24 has been fantastic as a one off, the story continuously employing and playing on our expectations for the show, using every trick and storytelling technique essential to the series to create this great, nostalgic season which could possibly be the final wave of 24. Not only are we being given the best of Jack Bauer in one short season, but we are also being given what appears to be a “greatest hits” of the bad guys of 24. Everyone is represented: the Islamic terrorists, the agency moles, the naïve middlemen, the Russians, and now the Chinese. It’s a brilliant way to gear up for the end of the series, and we still have two episodes and a time jump to go.”

Sound on Sight: “One of the best things about this event series version of 24 is that the narrative is more tightly scripted. With 12 episodes instead of 24, there is no room for fluff. There hasn’t been much of it so far, and the producers have been able to keep the tension high almost the entire way. It’s also difficult at this stage in the game for it to spring genuine surprises. So it is very satisfying to see the unexpected return of a man who has had such an impact on both Jack’s and Audrey’s lives in the past: Cheng.”

Cultbox: “24: Live Another Day is moving at a frantic pace now. With only two episodes to go, this hour provides more plot points, action and reveals than perhaps all the previous combined.”

Other Recaps

Note: these are mostly just straight-up recaps with little or no critical analysis.

• HollywoodLife
• Zap2It
• The Baltimore Sun
• Hypable
• Celeb Dirty Laundry
• Examiner
• Crave Online
• Mania

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