Still, when Hopper (Diggs) wakes up next to the beautiful Rita (Bloodgood), it seems a day like any other. It's 6:17. He gets up and then takes a shower. Brett heads off to his apartment, saving a woman from getting hit by a bus along the way. But when he gets home, someone has ransacked his place. Just as he's trying to figure out what's going on, the police break down his door and arrest him for the murder of District Attorney Alberto Garza.

At the police station, Hopper insists he has an alibi in Rita, but suddenly no one can find her, and they find the murder weapon used on Garza in his closet, with his fingerprints on it. He's arraigned for Garza's murder and locked away.

In the middle of the night, he's knocked unconscious and dragged from his cell. He wakes up in a rock quarry, tied up and surrounded by men he's never seen. One of them stays in the shadows. This Shadow Man (Jonathan Banks) tells Hopper he's going to take the fall for Garza's murder. One of the Shadow Man's thugs kicks him in the ribs repeatedly. Then they show him a videotape of Rita being murdered and another of his sister and her children walking. The Shadow Man tells Hopper there are consequences to his actions, and they stick a needle in his neck and give him a drug that knocks him out.

Hopper wakes up in Rita's apartment. It's 6:17, and Rita's lying next to him alive. He tries to shake it off, believing it must be a case of déjà vu, but his ribs are sore, as if he's taken a beating. Then things begin to play out exactly as they did before. Hopper races to stop the terrible events from repeating themselves, only to discover that his repeated day isn't a one-time event. His day repeats over and over again as he tries to put together the puzzle of why he's being framed, whom he can trust and how he can save the people he cares about and finally figure out a way to make his nightmare day come to an end.

Groundhog Day by way of 24

It's one thing to take Lost off the air for three months to avoid those pesky reruns, which can be problematic for a serialized show. But replacing the popular water-cooler series with a brand-new, untried show, and one about a never-ending, repeating day, is a scheduling experiment that could harm both shows. Lost might well lose its momentum, and Day Break stands a chance of losing by comparison whether it works or not.

First, the good news ... Day Break is an intense, action-packed series that drives through its story at a breakneck pace. ABC wisely decided to start the series off with a two-hour premiere that travels through several of Hopper's days so the audience can adapt to the storytelling. Any initial comparisons to the film Groundhog Day will vanish as Day Break delves into a world of conspiracies, mysteries and nonstop action that are more reminiscent of Fox's 24 than anything else on television.

The scripts are put together like a giant jigsaw puzzle, with each of Hopper's days giving him a bit more insight into the mysteries and those who seem determined to destroy him and the people he cares about. While Hopper is more off-balance than 24's Jack Bauer, he is a hero nonetheless, and one we can sympathize with.

The impressive cast is led by Taye Diggs, who is an ideal fit for Hopper, an imperfect but determined man who'll do what he has to to save those he cares about. The rest of the players are equally well cast, especially Victoria Pratt as Hopper's edgy partner, Adam Baldwin as his ex-partner and main foil and Moon Bloodgood as his grounded and beautiful girlfriend.

And now for the bad news ... well, maybe we should call it worrisome news. While Day Break does many things right, the key mystery of how this is happening to Hopper is barely hinted at. If we travel through 13 episodes with Hopper and there isn't a great payoff in the end, that ending will color the entire season. In the end, Day Break needs to play as a 13-episode miniseries with a satisfying but open-ended finale. It's a tough order to fill, but if the series can pull it off, it could just be the next great serial drama to come out of television.