"24": Dana apes "The Unusuals"

24
Fox
Mondays 9pm ET/PT

For all five of us who watched abc's New York-based cop drama The Unusuals last spring, the tale of the criminal-with-a-new-law-enforcement-identity is all too familiar. In the now-cancelled show, the NYPD officer became religious and was about to get married. His friend from back home blackmailed him into assisting him with a burglary or two. Now, Data Analyst Dana (about to get married) is visited by a friend from back home who wants a six-figure score, with help from her access to sensitive documents at her CTU office.

The solution is easy. She calls a criminal defense attorney and cuts a deal with the state's attorney: I'll lure my friend into an attempted robbery, and you'll let me off the hook for accessory to murder. In "24"'s compressed schedule, this could easily be accomplished in the space of a few hours. The problem with blackmail is it lasts forever unless the blackmailer ends up dead.

The main plot line seems a little weak--nuclear rods to the black sheep brother of a ruling family of a FSR breakaway -stan republic? I felt bad for the Russian mobster mutilated by Renée Walker, only to be shot point-blank by one of his mobster contacts. "Dump him in the river."