Happy New Year!

And now, we're just 16 days away from the premiere of the new season of '24.'

In case you missed this, here's something to get you through the Jack Bauer jonesin'.

Jack Bauer Interrogates Santa Claus - Watch more Funny Videos

I asked my husband whether he loved me enough to murder a federal agent, threaten the lives of thousands of citizens, terrorize an innocent man, and attach a bomb to a friend, if someone had had me killed.

He said yes.

Isn't that sweet?

Not Private Investigator. Perpetually Imperiled.

It's much cooler than the cougar incident, and it definitely is a nice twist. Wasn't Kim just supposed to come back to save Jack from a toxic death with her compatible stem cells?

These underground criminal types are master planners. They methodically planned the whole Tony defection/Muslim stealing/bomb on the subway plan and still had a plan B, in case it didn't work. Is it because Tony knows Jack as well as Jack thought he knew Tony that they knew Jack would send Kim away and that they should keep tabs on her?

How weird was it that after watching '24' last night, I flipped over to my favorite crazy drama "CSI:Miami" and there was Olivia Taylor being all vulnerable as a single mom named Tonya trying to get her children back.

Somebody's agent is working hard for that 10 percent.

So last night we learned that Miss Machiavelli actually has a conscience. Fueled by the deal her mother the president made that got evil/misguided Jonas Hodges in witness protection instead of on death row, she set out to have him killed. Which, I think, gets to the issue of how we deal with terrorists -- because make no mistake Jonas is a terrorist. Our justice system allows for deal-making as one of the ways to get information and avoid torture, but is that satisfactory punishment for the crime?

Is this really still the same day?

First Jack finds out his friend Tony is alive.

Then he finds out he's evil.

Then he finds out that he's just playing evil to do good.

Let's start by noting that Jon Voight does madman/villian very well.

So after tackling the torture issue, the great minds at "24" are now bringing us into the stem cell fray.

Man, this season, "24" has so much to teach us, so much to debate!

So Jack finally goes a little soft (or human) and what happens?

Tony's a hostage and JB ends up saturated in biological weapons vapor.

(How did he hold his breath that long?)

If you want an exciting "24" you need both. My breakdown of last night's 2-hour extravaganza:

Sublime: Tony Todd as General Juma. And the whole Osama-like vibe the writers gave him. He sends a tape, they don't know where he is, he's secretly planning an attack. And he's almost literally right under their noses. That's not like Osama, right? Right?

Ridiculous: That you could actually capture the White House by coming through underneath it. Right? Right?

Sublime: Janis ratting out Chloe. Usually, Chloe is the smartest person around, even though if you just look at her you can tell when she's feeling guilty about something. Janis' self-righteousness makes her even sweeter.

Ridiculous: Jack pulling a gun on Bill and rejecting his help to keep Bill out of trouble. Why is Jack always pulling guns on his friends? It's a wonder anyone still likes him. Bill goes to the mat for Jack every time and clearly Jack could use his commonsense. And why is it that when applying the sleeper hold, people always say you shouldn't fight it?