Bond, schmond ... Jack is back!

The most efficient secret agent in the world will have just 120 minutes this weekend to avert yet another global calamity in what's being presented as a prelude to the seventh season of "24" in January.

The show hasn't been on the air since May 2007, which means it's been 18 months since Jack Bauer was called to the scene of an instant crisis or had to scream at anybody or was part of a torture scene (either giving or receiving).

That long hiatus, brought about by the Hollywood writers' strike, comes to an end with "24: Redemption," airing 7 p.m. CT Sunday on Fox 4 -- although you can just call it "2."

Filmed mainly in Africa, the two-hour "24: Redemption" does more than reacquaint fans with Bauer, played by the still ruggedly handsome and presumably sober Kiefer Sutherland. (Good thing the show was off the air, otherwise he would've had a hard time serving that 30-day sentence for DUI; he was collared after a Fox network party.)

It also reboots the program, which is a good thing. I'm detecting some pent-up interest among readers in seeing "24" again, but I'm pretty sure that interest would evaporate in a hurry if it started to look like just another season of Jack yelling into phones and CTU dweebs staring into computers and bizarro power struggles at the White House.

Judging from the transitional nature of "24: Redemption," however, the producers seem serious about shaking things up.

Thie program begins nearly four years after season six's end-date, and introduces -- how timely! -- another new presidential administration. We won't have another African-American president; I guess fictional America had enough excitement with the brothers Palmer. Instead, a woman will be taking the oath of office.

Madame President-Elect Taylor (Cherry Jones) is an idealist. We know this because her predecessor, Daniels (Powers Boothe), calls her one. And if anyone knows the definition of an idealist, it's the guy who once convinced his assistant to lie so that he could be named president and launch a nuclear attack.

Even before she's sworn in, Taylor swears to Daniels that she will take measures to avert a coup in Sengala, an African country so obscure that, in real life, it doesn't exist. Daniels tries to talk sense into her, saying it is a nation "not worth protecting ... (with) no natural resources ... nothing that threatens our national security."

True. But Sengala has one thing no other country in the world has right now: J. Bauer, rogue spy.

It's not clear why Jack is on the run, or why the U.S. government wants him back so badly that it flew Gil Bellows to Africa to serve him a subpoena. But you have to agree that's some commitment. For some reason, Bellows' character wears ugly black David Paymer glasses and sweats like he has malaria. When he finally reaches Jack, he raises his hand with the document -- whereupon Bauer, going on reflex, nearly breaks his arm.

But even if Dog the Bounty Hunter and his scary wife were sent on that mission, I doubt they'd fare any better. Our hero has no intention of returning stateside. In fact, he's enjoying seeing the world and catching up with old friends like Carl (Robert Carlyle), who runs a school for young Sengala-ese boys in a remote area of that war-torn country.

It doesn't take a screenwriter to know where this is headed: Jack's going to be caught up in some intrigue involving his host country, the U.S. and these lost boys that will take on personal and emotional meaning for him. Think locally, avert war globally - that's the "24" credo.

If it sounds like I'm making fun of "24," it's because I'm convinced the producers have embraced its campiness. This is the program that still insists, with a straight face, that everything we see is taking place "in real time."

My impression is only reinforced by the fact that two more comic actors have joined funnywoman Mary-Lynn Rajskub in the cast for season seven. Janeane Garofalo will play an FBI agent and sitcom grump Kurtwood Smith (currently the ever-tormented father on CBS's "Worst Week") gets to play a U.S. senator. What's next -- Al Franken as defense secretary?