Round Two: Rabbit Hole

Rabbit Hole: Season 1, Episode 2 “At Any Given Moment” (B-)

It’s interesting how much this role is perfect for Kiefer Sutherland given his past experience on “24” and also how it allows him to do something new. Though he didn’t have much time to waste on that show given the perpetually ticking clock, he’s verbalizing that even more here as he stops only to present Hailey a choice of blindfold or trunk when he needs to take her someone he doesn’t want her to see. Expressing that Patty Hearst had to be easier than this gives the show a sense of humor that Jack Bauer definitely didn’t have, and she’s all for throwing it back in his face and calling him on when he should just trust and more importantly not abandon her when someone is clearly after her. What I couldn’t quite buy was that a fake badge and an angry accented attitude would be enough to allow him - the prime suspect in a much-publicized double murder - to stroll right into a police station and, among other absurdities, sit down at a detective’s unlocked computer and sign evidence out without any proof of identity. Hacking a system electronically makes much more sense than this very old-school approach, which somehow worked and nearly enabled him to get away with all of it, had it not been for his skateboard-wielding assailant. After an entire episode devoted to showing how John’s father killed himself when John was young, finding out that Charles Dance was playing none other than that same father brings up a lot of questions that do suggest a third viewing might be, at the very least, enlightening.