Four and a half seasons of Fox’s 24 have taught us not to mess with Jack Bauer.

Apparently terrorist organizations have yet to take advantage of this information and stay away from Los Angeles, especially since the L.A. Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU) has Bauer on its side. All the better for viewers, since the fifth season has been even more complex and deadly than previous seasons.

Granted, it’s not perfect. The show’s realtime conceit – every episode is one hour of a season-long “day” – begets many problems. Main characters easily avoid rush-hour traffic in L.A; teleportation and miraculous healing of mortal wounds abound.

This season’s body count includes three veteran characters, an ex-president and several civilians, not to mention the wounded. No one is safe, not even former CTU Agent Bauer (played to grim perfection by Kiefer Sutherland), who died – but was resuscitated – near the end of the second season.

In the past, writers have made the terrorists’ objectives oblique because they seemingly haven’t planned ahead enough to know their endgame.

This season, the bad guys started as a group of anti-Russian terrorists hell-bent on acquiring weapons-grade nerve gas to use on Moscow. They got it, but as of Monday’s episode, we know who’s really backing them – the U.S. government.

The show is at its best when political commentary is minimal. With the news President Bush allegedly authorized an information leak in 2003, the idea of the White House behind terrorist attacks in another country “to protect our interests” is not too far-fetched. Fictional President Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin) spouts lines eerily similar to Bush’s soundbites, but the two are very different, making commentary more subtle.

Even in episodes like Monday’s, which lack shocking deaths or big revelations, the show keeps viewers’ attention through careful plotting, thrilling shootouts and Sutherland’s mesmerizing voice.

– Oriana Schwindt