24: Season One

Starring: Kiefer Sutherland, Elisha Cuthbert, Sarah Clark and Dennis Haysbert

And now for a nice change of pace, I’m writing a review of a TV on DVD box set!

A few years ago, some of the people I worked with at the time started to go nuts over this new show called 24. I had heard a little bit about it but since I rarely actually watch TV shows I never really paid much attention. Then last month, DVDEmpire.com ran a sale of quite a few different TV on DVD box sets for $15 a piece. Now since this is at least 50% off the retail price, and in some cases (as with 24) as much as 75% of the retail price I was quite interested to see what they had. One of the first sets I noticed was 24 and since I had heard from quite a few reliable sources that it was in fact very good I decided to take the plunge. Besides, I figured that if I didn’t like it I could always turn around and sell it on eBay for at least what I paid for it.

Anyway, getting to the point! 24 completely and totally blew me away. Period. I have never in my life seen this kind of intense material on Network TV. And watching it all together episode after episode made it feel more like a killer 18 hour movie and not at all like a TV show. I have always liked Kiefer Sutherland even when his career wasn’t exactly at its pinnacle but I can say with no reservation that this is Kiefer at his absolute peak. He plays agent Jack Bauer who is the head of the Los Angeles CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) who is assigned to protect Senator David Palmer. And the entire season takes place over a mere 24-hour period…hence the title of the show.

As soon as 24 starts its first episode things start to get crazy and don’t slow down until long after the last episode ends. You NEVER know who to trust and even when you think you FINALLY have it figured out then 24 just drops the next bomb on you. This show has plotting fit for any Frank Herbert novel. Jack is in it up to his neck through out every single episode and always has that sense of urgent desperation mixed with methodical anger that made the first Die Hard so great. One thing that I especially liked was the way Jack’s opening monologue changed with each episode to reflect the events that were currently taking place.

I do have to point out, though, that while I loved 95% of this show there were a few things that rubbed me the wrong way, which mostly had to do with the last couple of episodes. Once you get to the last disc you start to get the feeling that maybe they were writing the script as they went and the last couple of twists just felt a little over the top and unnecessary,but when you consider they had to come up with nearly 20 hours of hard core plotting then it's not so bad. All in all, I feel that 24: Season One is most definitely worth the expense and I WILL be picking up the remaining seasons as soon as funds permit. You should do the same.

- Mike

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