Another 24 hours of twists

Tony Almeida looked like he was going to be a bad guy. He turned out to be a good guy. But you never know when he — or just about anybody else on "24" — could take a turn that might make him a bad guy.

And Carlos Bernard, the man who plays Tony, wouldn't have it any other way.

"Are you kidding?" he said. "This show is everything an actor could ask for."

And everything viewers could ask for, too. In its first two seasons, "24" became one of the best shows on television.

The format keeps viewers on the edge of their seats. Centering on CTU (Counter-Terrorism Unit) agent Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland), a season takes place in one particularly eventful 24-hour day; each episode runs (more or less) in real time and, at the end of each hour, there's a cliffhanger.

And the stakes are high. Season 1 found Jack fighting to prevent the assassination of presidential candidate Sen. David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert)— a plot that turned out to be a huge conspiracy. In Season 2, he had to stop a nuclear device from detonating in Los Angeles and prevent the overthrow of now-President Palmer.

As for Season 3, "I think it's the best setup yet," Bernard said. (On Tuesday, Fox will air the hourlong season premiere of "24" without commercial interruption.)

The action picks up three years after the end of Season 2. President Palmer, it turns out, survived the assassination attempt in the Season 2 finale — although he's not necessarily fully recovered. He's back in Los Angeles, about to debate his opponent in the upcoming general election. His evil ex-wife isn't around — she's presumably in prison at this point. Although rumor is that Sherry (Penny Johnson-Jerald) might show up later this season. And it's not like the president lacks for female company. . . .

But, as it turns out, L.A. isn't exactly a safe place to be. Jack, it seems, has spent the past year infiltrating a drug lord's organization because of the man's ties to terrorist cells. The drug lord is in prison, but his brother is demanding his release — or he'll release a killer virus into the general population, and in a week, more than a million people will be dead.

"I think they've done it again," said Bernard, who, like the other actors, entrusts himself and his character to the whims of the writers. "And they're flying by the seat of their pants. You never know exactly where they're going." (Which is true. In neither of the first two seasons did the writer/producers know where the story was going to end up when they wrote the first episodes.)

"How can you not trust them?" Bernard said. "Look what they've given us to this point."

Acting in "24" can be a challenge, however. The actors are given "some general idea" of what's in store for their characters, but they don't really know what to expect until they get each script. And they never know when they might suddenly discover that, yes, they're a bad guy instead of a good guy. Or vice versa.

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