An older, scarred, tattooed Jack is indeed back, as is a goth Chloe, with black eyeliner and fingerless gloves, dour and competent as ever, now working for an underground hackers group. And 24, after a 4 year hiatus, is back, with the same ineffective, bumbling bureaucrats; a lone smart, maverick counter-terrorism agent who goes after Jack thinking he’s a bad guy; a United States President and his lieutenant who follows orders but has his own agenda; a shadowy villain, identity unknown, who sits behind a big desk; a foreign country that gets pissed off at the U.S. because of a fatal misunderstanding; flash drives with encrypted code and dangerous objects in steel briefcases; maddening bureaucracy that makes you want to throw something at the TV; and an unspeakable potential catastrophe with global implications that only one man is perceptive, selfless, and crazy enough to stop: Jack Bauer (with help from Chloe.) And that’s just the first two episodes.

So far the new 24 is formulaic and predictably unpredictable. If you want something more creatively risky, go watch HBO or AMC. But if you want an hour a week of the same, fast-paced, edge-of-your-seats jaw-dropping sequence after jaw-dropping sequence with the most competent professional in fiction, 24 is that same comfort food you’ve known and enjoyed since 2001. 24 is not Game of Thrones; it’s not The Walking Dead. At the end of the second episode, when Jack utters, “Damn it, Chloe,” I grinned. Welcome back.

Photo: Jack has them right where he wants them. (FOX)