( CNN ) -- At first it may seem `` 24 's '' Jack Bauer did n't get the memo . In 2014 , our heroes now wear capes and fight the bad guys at the box office , while the small screen has been taken over by a gang of antiheroes . From `` Scandal '' and `` Mad Men '' to `` Breaking Bad '' and `` House of Cards , '' the recent slate of leading men are n't as interested in saving the world as they are in saving themselves . Yet on Monday night ( May 5 ) , counterterrorism agent Bauer will return in Fox 's `` 24 '' event series , `` 24 : Live Another Day . '' He 's once again played by Kiefer Sutherland and is as determined as ever to do the right thing . Those around Bauer may question which side he 's on , but viewers have always known him as the guy willing to do anything ( and we mean anything ) for what he sees as the greater good . In a TV world filled with monsters and Heisenbergs , where does Bauer fit in ? In a sense , the 12-episode `` 24 : Live Another Day '' is asking that very question . When `` 24 '' ended in 2010 , Bauer was still alive but a fugitive . In its two-hour premiere , `` 24 : Live Another Day '' picks up four years later with a hardened , angrier Bauer living in exile as a presumed threat to the U.S. government . `` He 's actually working on his own , but the people that he 's trying to help are actually hunting him and they 're trying to either kill him or arrest him , '' Sutherland told CNN in a press call . `` He 's had to hide in Eastern Europe for four years . He 's been estranged from his daughter and grandchildren , he has not been able to go back to the country that he feels he served . That kind of isolation has made him really hard . '' And yet , as executive producers Evan Katz and Manny Coto point out , he 'll still jump at the chance to stop another attempt on a president 's life without asking , as many of our favorite characters would today , what 's in it for him . `` Jack is an individual who has saved his country numerous times and now that country has turned his back on him , '' Coto said . `` On the outside ( he 's ) changed and has a darker view of humanity and the people around him , but at his core has maintained his love of country and what he 's always fought for . '' That core is undoubtedly part of what made audiences root for the impossibly unstoppable federal agent when `` 24 '' debuted in 2001 . With a premiere date that came just weeks after the September 11 attacks , `` 24 '' greeted TV viewers badly in need of a hero . `` He was a man who got things done at a time when that was all this country wanted , '' observed Los Angeles Times ' TV critic Mary McNamara . `` I do n't think Sutherland cracked a smile during the entire run of '24 . ' He was all business . '' At the time , the series was one of a few new programs focusing on the CIA , but `` 24 '' was unique in its setup . Each week 's episode covered one hour of a very long , very bad day for Jack Bauer , with the conceit that all the events viewers were watching were happening in real time . Although the series was shot five months prior to the September 11 attacks , that event seemed to rule out `` 24 's '' success , Sutherland said . ( It 's not surprising he assumed as much , given that `` 24 's '' premiere episode featured a terrorist placing a bomb on a plane . ) `` After that terrible day we personally thought the show was over and we should n't do it because it was too close to something that had really happened , '' Sutherland said . `` We were very surprised to see the audience reaction ... to the show early on . Somehow there was something that made Jack 's character quite cathartic . '' To producer Katz , audiences have connected with Bauer because he 's `` selfless in a way that a lot of the other characters are n't . He 's not ambitious , he does n't care about what happens to him , '' the producer said . While that may make him unique in today 's TV world , at the very least it 'll help him stand apart . `` He 's definitely a singular character , '' Katz noted . `` No one is occupying the same pace . '' Now with his return , there 's another fight that Bauer is facing that has nothing to do with a world leader . The question of whether audiences are interested in welcoming back this gun-toting archetype , and whether this event series will be a success or a disappointment for Fox , does n't have a straightforward answer , said Variety 's Brian Lowry . The TV critic was n't that impressed with `` 24 's '' new event series , noting that it `` does n't in any way reinvent the show . '' Although , Lowry continued , that may be enough for fans who are content to watch what they would 've seen in the mid-2000s `` in a more truncated form . '' For Sutherland , the concern is less about ratings and the possibility that there could be more `` 24 '' on the horizon as it is about doing justice to the man he brought to life for nine years . During production on the event series , which is set and shot in London , `` we became so focused on trying to make these the best episodes of '24 ' period , '' Sutherland said . `` I feel very , very strong about the first eight episodes that we have completed . Now we just need to really bring it home . ''
Jack Bauer returns to TV with event series `` 24 : Live Another Day '' which will air on the USA Network in 2015. But the reason he became so popular is because of his `` get it done '' attitude .