Yah, I don't suppose that ~every~ hour has to be of the same intensity. Sometimes you've got to fill in the backstory. I'm OK with that.
The other problem we talked about during the breaks is they've killed off all the characters we care about except Jack and Chloe. I have absolutely failed to bond with the new people at CTU, Buchanan is vanilla, and there is apparently no one in the president's administration that is remotely likable!