Kiefer Sutherland Stars in New Drama "Touch"

Kiefer Sutherland has certainly earned his keep in the TV world with 24. But now, he is ready to turn to a role a little more dramatic, though perhaps equally interesting.

By Jay D. /

Kiefer Sutherland has certainly earned his keep in the TV world with 24. He was one of the first major movie actors to cross over to television, and dozens of actors followed him. But now, he is ready to turn to a role a little more dramatic, though perhaps equally interesting. In a new series "Touch," Sutherland will play Martin Bohm, a father who lost his wife to 9/11 and is left with his only son, David, an autistic boy who has trouble connecting socially to the world. But David also possesses a strange ability to connect to numbers that allow him to lay together the past and the future. Sutherland had this to say about how all of these pieces fit together. "In the course of our story, we realize he, in fact, is actually just a truly, truly evolved human being that is years and years beyond where my character is and our society is at." The cast will be joined by Danny Glover as a professor and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as a social worker, both trying to understand how to communicate with David and how he is able to see things that other people can't. It seems that at the heart of the show will lie the immediacy of personal loss and the troubled road it leads to. But the show adds an interesting twist with David's special abilities. It will create an even longer bridge that Martin will have to cross in order to connect with his son. So no more running violently for 24 hours straight for Kiefer Sutherland. He's decided to slow things down a bit, and with any luck, give us something we want to see. Touch will not officially premiere until March 19, but there will be a preview of the series tonight, 1/25, at 9/8c on Fox.