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Jack Bauer's back in DVD release

Fox TV's critical and ratings hit 24, a fast-moving espionage drama about global terrorism, premiered just two months after the Sept. 11 attacks and struck a cord with viewers.

DVDFEA03 – Kiefer Sutherland returns as maverick federal agent Jack Bauer in a revival of the popular FOX TV show “24.” Titled “24: Live Another Day,” it is set eight years after the regular series ended. Photo shows star Sutherland and Mary Lynn Rajskub, who plays his old friend and fellow agent Chloe.
DVDFEA03 – Kiefer Sutherland returns as maverick federal agent Jack Bauer in a revival of the popular FOX TV show “24.” Titled “24: Live Another Day,” it is set eight years after the regular series ended. Photo shows star Sutherland and Mary Lynn Rajskub, who plays his old friend and fellow agent Chloe.Read more
    by Tirdad Derakhshani, Inquirer Staff Writer
    Published 

Fox TV's critical and ratings hit 24, a fast-moving espionage drama about global terrorism, premiered just two months after the Sept. 11 attacks and struck a cord with viewers.

Its premise - each season would be set over one 24-hour period, with each episode moving almost in real time through a single hour. (Admittedly, it was an hour filled with about a year's worth of action.)

The series owed much of its success to star Kiefer Sutherland's remarkably dynamic performance as a maverick antiterrorism federal agent, Jack Bauer, who attacks his job with such all-consuming passion he rarely bothers following protocol or the law. The show lasted for eight beautiful seasons though 2010.

Fans rejoiced when it was brought back in the spring as a 12-hour mini-series.

24: Live Another Day is about a group of quasi-anarchist hackers in London who preach freedom of information - and who have recruited Jack's former sister-in-arms, Chloe Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub). Jack goes into action after word surfaces the group may be involved in an assassination plot against the U.S. president (William Devane).

(www.foxconnect.com; $49.98 DVD; $59.99 Blu-ray; not rated)

Other titles of note

Blackbird. Connor Jessup (Falling Skies) gives a powerful, understated performance in writer-director Jason Buxton's feature debut as a shy, withdrawn goth teen in a small town who is bullied for looking different. Even his best friend, popular beauty Deana (Alexia Fast), refuses to acknowledge him in public. He's arrested when authorities take his fictional writings - about taking Columbine-style revenge on his school - as a plan of action. (http://bgpics.com/. $24.99; not rated)

Hemlock Grove: Season 1. Famke Janssen goes all Morticia Addams in this Netflix original TV show from horrormeister Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel). Due Tuesday, the 13-episode thriller is about shape-shifers (vampires, werewolves, and their sort) who live in a tiny Pennsylvania town. (www.shoutfactory.com; $29.93 DVD; $49.97 Blu-ray; not rated)

Mom: The Complete First Season. TV giant Chuck Lorre (Dharma & Greg, The Big Bang Theory) cast two exceptional actors - Anna Faris and Allison Janney - for this edgy CBS sitcom. Faris stars as a recovering alcoholic who moves with her teen daughter - who is having a baby of her own - to California's wine country to start anew. Janney plays Faris' mother, a recovering drug addict. This is dark material, but Mom is quite funny. (www.wbshop.com; $44.98; not rated)