Allow me a minute to gush, mkay?  I’ve been a fan of Kiefer Sutherland for what feels like forever, so to be without him on TV, even for less than a year, has been horrible.  He returns to FOX tonight on TOUCH (special preview tonight after AMERICAN IDOL; it’s a Monday show when it airs for real, in March), and I’m excited to see where it goes.  Read on to learn more about his new show. TOUCH!

Martin Bohm (Sutherland) has a problem: his 11 year old son Jake (David Mazouz) doesn’t speak.  Or like to be touched.  And he has a tendency to climb cell phone towers because he needs to “hear” the numbers.  Other than that, Martin’s life as a single father (his wife died in one of the towers on 9/11) is average.  Run of the mill even – he holds various jobs at various times, and tries, desperately, and without success, to connect to his son. When Jake’s obsession with numbers finds him fixated on a certain combination, Martin comes to find, along with Jake’s new social worker Clea (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) that yes, much like the official FOX description says, “we are all interconnected.  Our lives are invisibly tied to those whose destinies touch ours.”

The pilot episode finds Jake fixated on a certain combination of numbers that, in some way either directly or indirectly, manage to impact seemingly unrelated people:  a fireman played by Titus Welliver; an aspiring pop singer in Ireland; a young boy with comedic aspirations in Baghdad; a man suffering a terrible loss.  The way that the story quickly connects and barrel rolls through how they’ve all impacted each other – it’s easy to get swept up in the emotion and excitement of Jake, in a way, saving the day.  What’s not so easy, though I love him, is to imagine Kiefer Sutherland as anyone but Jack Bauer right now – the pilot episode finds him racing against time, yelling into cell phones, while kicking and punching his way through New York.  Though he has some extremely emotional moments dealing with his son, it’s hard to put Jack out of my mind.  I haven’t seen any episodes beyond the pilot, which packs a few surprises, and an emotional punch that keeps me intrigued.  That said, I’m very interested to see A) where this goes, B) if it makes me forget Jack Bauer altogether, and C) if Tim Kring and company can keep this show on track unlike certain other shows (::cough::HEROES::cough::) in the past.

What about you?  Will you be watching TOUCH tonight at 9/8c?