24: Season 1

I'm undergoing a self-inflicted 24 marathon. I have the first 4 seasons on DVD and if things go as planned I'll have Seasons 5 and 6 on my DVD shelf by the end of the month. I did not pick up "24" when it originally aired in 2001, although I had very much wanted to. In fact I didn't get to regularly watching it until Season 5 and after a few episodes was hooked. The shows' premise, that of watching a plot to assassinate a black Presidential candidate on the day of the California primary is most definitely ambitious, and somehow the producers of the show managed to make it work spectacularly.To attempt an in-depth review of the whole of Season 1 of "24" would take up several pages of Amazon's review board, so I'll condense. Jack Bauer(Kiefer Sutherland) is in charge of the LA branch of a government anti-terrorist outfit called CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit). His unit receives word from an outside source that an unnamed group has hired assassins to make an attempt on the life of Senator David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert, whom anyone who hasn't watched "24" will immediately recognize as the guy on the Allstate Insurance commercials) who is a leading candidate in the Democratic Presidental Primary to be held that day. Jack, along with the help of coworkers who may or may not be working against him, must race against time to reveal the plot against Palmer's life, as well as find and protect his wife and daughter, whom the assassins are using as bargaining chips to make Bauer do much of their dirty work for them.This is a very adrenaline packed program and the show is arranged so that each episode ends on the cusp of some cliffhanger type moment. That said, I think if the average person had a day anywhere near as convoluted as Jack or his family has they'd be ready for a lifetime supply of lithium and instant membership to their local mental health institute. The particulars of the plot change without warning and characters you thought were good turn out to be bad...and sometimes good again.There are some particular things I learned from watching this season of "24", some of which hold true for following seasons.-When Jack Bauer says "I give you my word" to anyone, that person is going to die a painful death, albeit probably not at Jack's hand-Jack is very proficient at making suspects talk-Kim Bauer, Jack's daughter, makes a great hostage. Easy on the eyes, probably smells nice, and manages to look good even when she hasn't showered in 24 hours. And she has a real knack for becoming a hostage multiple times just in a single season!-If you're nice to Kim Bauer and can make her laugh, even a little bit, she'll date you.-Ryan Chappelle, Director of CTU, is a perpetual dork.-Short term amnesia is a serious life-threatening issue for any good TV character. It would sure come in handy for days when I want to call in sick to work but can't. "Sorry boss, I have amnesia. I can't remember how to do my job"-CTU field agents are like the red shirts from "Star Trek". There are an endless supply of them and they always die.-No matter how far away a target is the CTU Tactical Team on their helicopter has an ETA of 15 minutes. And they will always appear *after* Jack has already neutralized all the hostiles.-Dennis Hopper does a great impression of Christopher Walken doing an impression of Boris Badenov doing an impression of a Serbian accent.-Dennis Hopper is amazingly buoyant.-CTU has more moles than a fallow farm field-Shooting a tranq dart in your bosses' leg is always a great idea when you're looking to get ahead on an investigation. I'll remember this next time I'm bucking for promotion at my job.-Jack Bauer is like an updated Dirty Harry. Love him or hate him, he gets the job done and very efficiently.All kidding aside this is a real action-packed, adrenaline pumping series to watch and you'll find yourself unable to stop watching the next episode, even when you know it'll cost you a couple of hours of good sleep you need for work the next day. I heartily recommend "24" Season 1 as a great start to a fantastic continuing series!

24 is a terrific TV series, no doubt about that. Sadly though, being a series also is its biggest problem, a series that needs to have its viewers glued to the screen for an entire season. Meaning, a lot needs to happen in these 24 hours.A great storyline built on a terrific idea. Just too much of it. Too many turns to keep us waiting for what happens next. A few less twists and episodes and I'd have given it six stars.You probably know all about it: A presidential candidate is targeted by terrorists. A special agent, Jack Bauer, tries to save both the senator and his own family which has been taken hostage by the same terrorists in order to force him to do their dirty work.Great acting, good solid camerawork, good storyline (at least in the beginning). Somewhere in the middle things start to feel too constructed.A few examples: The gangsters appear to have superhuman intelligence on their side, whereas CTU bathes in blunders. Of course you can also call it luck when the bad guys are able to recapture Kim, Jack's daughter, for the upteenth time when she is escorted from jail by the police. Funny enough, a few hours earlier, the same super gangsters were unable to find her after her car exploded a few miles down the road with a huge cloud of smoke attracting anybody's attention, except that of the talented terrorists.Of course there has to be a traitor amongst the good guys. This time it's the agent's best friend, the one he trusts the most (oh no, not again...) She turns into a deadly terrorist in the end. But her previous actions somehow never seemed to seriously interfere with Jack's work. I had the feeling that the screenwriter just turned her into a baddy at the last minute, adding constructed clues into the last four episodes to deliver the "necessary" tension. Sorry, but way over the top if you ask me.Other obvious mistakes: Jack's wife, after having been rescued, is being left to walk around as she pleases in the building of the Counter Terrorist Unit(she is a civilian)... a few hours earlier she said that often she does't exactly know what her husband is doing for most of the time. PLEASE!Jack, when hunting a suspect, often risks too much by unneccesarily breaking his own cover. This is most evident in the scene where he, together with a female police officer, chases a suspect in and around a warehouse in the dark. When he enters the unsecured building, he doesn't hide in the shadows but stays in the open. The officer is shot, Jack makes it through.A few scenes later, the police office building. This obviously is the dumbest bunch of cops around, the way they let the ganster escape. But they have to be, the gangster needs to pull us into a next episode.The list goes on and on. Now you're probably asking, why then five stars? Because of the idea, the acting and the basic construction behind the storyline. It's amazing. Even with all the flaws. You want to know what happens next - or what the screenwriters have come up with.Best acting by Kiefer Sutherland as Jack, Dennis Haysbert as Senator Palmer and Sarah Clarke as Nina Myers.The dvd set is o.k. Sharp most of the time with occasional bad mastering in large close-ups, grey walls etc. and no chapters.... O.k. for discs released in 2002 but you'd think Fox would have settled that problem by now.