The new TV show by Kiefer Sutherland

Kiefer Sutherland pursues two creative careers: film actor and country music artist. Due to a long film career, and then the consistently successful television series 24The 56-year-old is best known for his acting, but with three albums of authentic 1970s country rock in the past seven years and lengthy stints on a tour bus, Sutherland has earned his reputation as a respected singer-songwriter.

Now Sutherland returns to television with the stellar Paramount+ thriller rabbit hole, he sees his work in both mediums as fundamentally similar. Whether shooting a scene or editing a song, Sutherland sees himself as part of a tradition that stretches back to the dawn of television and popular music.

“Everything stems from the storytelling, so there has to be a lineage regardless of the technical expressions that change and evolve over time, whether it’s a streaming service as a means of delivery or the actual cameras and lenses we use, to make them,” says Sutherland. “The root of that is still history. Create a sequence of i love lucy and you will find it as relevant today as it was in 1950.”

Sutherland is a television veteran who wears a black sweater and keeps a thoughtful gaze through a day of advertising interviews. He’s a television veteran fascinated by the industry’s transformation. More than two decades have passed since then 24 debuted, a show whose real-time narrative squeezed an eventful day in the life of Sutherland’s US federal agent Jack Bauer into a 24-episode season, and he sees his new show as another step forward.

“What I find really interesting about the evolution of storytelling on television is that we’ve given ourselves more space. We’re not going to live by the strict standards and practices created by a network,” says Sutherland. “We’re going to take the liberties that the film industry has had and use language that’s current and on the street, we’re going to talk about current issues and we’re going to film them in a way that’s present.

“So ultimately the characters are different, but the basic tenets of the genre are the same. If you take a look The fugitive back in the ’60s and you’re watching our show now, the tent pole is a thrill when you take your main character and lay them face down on the ground and tell them, “Run for your life!” That was true then and it’s true now .”

In rabbit hole Sutherland plays John Weir, a savvy American corporate spy who gets the wrong job and is framed with his mug shot on news programs for murder. The character makes the rules and desperately tries to understand them, an about-face typical of creators Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, writers and directors whose Hollywood films, be it the Grifter drama, were focus or the romantic comedy crazy stupid loveDelight in showing the audience just enough to prepare them for a bold plot twist.

“What I learned about their writing, what attracted me from the first screenplay and what I enjoyed working on the next seven, is that they have big ideas, yet they keep a low profile,” says Sutherland. “Her sense of humor is like that too. There are lines that are really clever and fun, and those lines have to be handled very carefully because you can step on them so quickly and they don’t work. It’s interesting how delicate many of their materials are, even when running at 150 mph.”