We're not quite sure that it's safe to call the eighth season of 24 the final one yet, but all the signs seem to point to this being the final full length series for Jack Bauer and his team of redshirts. Given that season seven, while an improvement on the one that preceded it, seemed to ultimately struggle for ideas, it's going to be interesting to see whether there's much left in the tank. That said, the show's pulled things back before when we thought that it had peaked (President Logan and season five spring to mind), and the challenge will surely be now to come up with some more genuinely interesting side characters so we don't end up with 24 episodes of bullets bouncing off Kiefer Sutherland's body.

The first teaser trailer for the new season has now arrived, and it doesn't get off to the best part by featuring logic-bypass operation survivor Kim Bauer. However, it does set things up as Jack wanting to go home with his daughter and grandkid (who he's clearly found out about now), before an assassination plan emerges that needs to be sorted that very day. It was an assassination plot that springboarded the show into life back in the very first season, and we wonder whether there's a deliberate ploy to take things back to basics.

Anyway, for now, here's that trailer, and Jack Bauer will be returning in January.