24: Season One
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Movie Reviews of 24: Season One
Movie Review: Television Doesn't Get Much Better
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been a fan of The 4400 and Lost and when talking to others they kept saying, "If you like those shows then you'll like 24." So, I finally hit he local video store and picked it up.
And if you can't tell from my five star rating, I'm very glad I did.
Keifer Sutherland plays Jack Bauer, the director of the CTU (Counter-Terrorism Unit), a division of the CIA. His mission is to find a group of people determined to assassinate a potential presidential candidate. However, word has also gotten to Jack that a leak may be present within the CTU. To top it all off, Jack's personal life isn't going well as his daughter has ran off for a night of fun with a friend.
The interesting thing about this show is that each episode is done in real time. A one hour episode is one hour of Jack Bauer's life. Each episode runs back to back of each other so the 24 episodes is a one-day, 24-hour period of Jack Bauer's life.
One thing that I like this concept is that by the end of the "day" (season), nearly everything is wrapped up. There is no hanging on the edge of your seats waiting for the next season to come along. Nearly everything (everything important, anyways) is resolved. You can tell that the entire season is thought out from beginning to end so the fear that I have with Lost and The 4400 doesn't exist with this show (there is a chance those shows will be taken off the air and the mysterys will remain unsolved).
This is also a fairly smart show. It definately keeps you on your feet wondering what is going to happen next. If you think you can predict how the season ends halfway through, you will be completely wrong.
This show is also pretty intense and with a lot of action. The last episode has you on the edge of your seat the entire hour (I think I would have benefited form the commercials so I could catch my breath).
There are really only two shortcomings. One is the real-time aspect of the show. It amazes me how Jack Bauer can get anywhere in LA at anytime within 10 minutes without dealing with gridlock traffic. Sometimes it seemed that things were done much more quickly than humanly possible. Sometimes it seemed, especially between commercial breaks, that some things too continuous.
The other shortcoming is the reality of the show. Deeper into the season the show gets a little bit more unrealistic and Jack Bauer seems to pull of the impossible way too often. But there weren't too many so I still think the show deserves five stars.
So, like my friends, I highly recommend this show. I've since watched the second season as well and found it just as enjoyable. I can't wait to catch up and start following the show on TV. I think this show will be fantastic when I am forced to wait a week or so between episodes.
Movie Review: No Time to Lose... No Lives to Spare
Summary: 5 Stars
If you want to talk about one intense and unnerving experience, "24" is just that. One of the most popular shows on Fox is now available to own on DVD. They're all right here, waiting for you. "24" is an explosive series that brings non-stop action and nail-biting drama right to your door.Jack Bauer is the head of the Los Angeles Counter Terrorist Unit, CTU. He is about to have one bad day, as there is an assassination plot in the works that targets a presidential candidate. What's worse is that the same group behind the plot wants Jack and his family dead, as well. Presented to us in real time (with each show representing an hour), we are plunged directly into the crisis with front-row seats. The results are unbelievable; that much I can tell you. These twenty-four episodes will drain every bit of energy out of you... and you'll love every minute.
Once you start with the very fist episode, you are hooked. Every one of them is a cliff-hanger, which makes it very hard for you to stop watching when you need to. Trust me when I say this; this show does NOT let you off the hook for one second. Anything you think that can't go wrong, does; anything that you think cannot get compromised, does. You have to be prepared to be caught off guard every single moment. You also have to expect that you're going to have to endure horrifying tragedies along with the short and triumphant victories.
This is a wonderful and addicting show, as hard as it is to watch at times. The storyline is ingenious, delivering one explosive and mesmerizing plot. The acting is extremely superb and makes everything work. Kiefer Sutherland does a terrific job at playing the lead role of a resourceful agent and a caring father. You want to believe that he'll be able to overtake anybody or anything that gets in his way.
There are some neat special features included, as well. One of the best things about this show is that it is widescreen (and it's even enhanced for 16:4 televisions). The picture and sound quality is really great; making you feel that you are watching a real movie. While the DVD set isn't explosive when it comes to special features, the set includes an intro from Kiefer Sutherland, an alternate ending to the season finale, and an episode booklet.
"24" is a powerful and suspenseful series that will knock the air right out of your body. There's no going back once you start. No matter how many times you may not want to know what happens next (for fear that you will experience something terrible), you press on and continue with the next episode. This is ADDICTING; be for warned. From start to finish, this is one explosive and unpredictable machine that strikes with full furry and unquestionable force. The clock is ticking... what decision will you make?
Movie Review: Yes, 24 is that good.
Summary: 5 Stars
Alright, I admit I ignored the entire first season when it originaly aired. "Kiefer Sutherland, on a Fox program? mmm...yeah he was alright in Young Guns, but... I feel pretty safe in saying I can live without ever seeing this show."...(or so I thought.) Then it started getting all these great reviews. Even still, I didn't know anyone who had ever seen it. The night the season 2 premiere episode aired, there was nothing else on tv worth watching. So, I asked my wife since there was nothing else worth watching, if she would mind if we went ahead and gave the season opener a shot, sit through it for an hour so we could say we had seen it, and know for sure that we weren't missing anything. So we sat down and watched, not expecting much, just something to watch while eating dinner. You know, ho hum. Get it over with. But then we started watching it. Impressive. Original. Good character development. And then comes the end with the signature 24 cliff hanger ... We just turned and looked at each other with our jaws dropped... "Wow!" "I can't believe we missed the entire first season!" Needless to say, we were completely hooked.
Yes, 24 is that good.
I'm not sure what I can add that hasn't already been said. Except if you have given the show, the first season DVD, or the second season DVD thought, but hesitate because your not Kiefers biggest fan or don't care for shows on Fox, You are missing out. Like Novels? Think Tom Clancy. Are you a gamer? Think Syphon Filter. Like thriller tv shows that leave you on the edge of your seat, are worth racing home too, and worth telling your buds that Tuesday nights are not a good night for guys night out? Think 24. Both Season one and two are great, and I can't wait for season three to start.
During a three week break during the second season, we went back and rented season one. We would watch 2 or 3 episodes at a time, staying up much later than normal. How could anyone not, with the great cliff hangers?
The are only a couple of drawbacks. As others have commented, Jack's daughter Kim, is just not real bright. So much that the character gets annoying. The only other thing being, for being real time, it's intersting that Jack is constantly on his cell phone, yet the phone never dies, so it must have a pretty good battery life. That, and he never goes to the restroom. I guess he doesn't need to, because (as best as I can recall), you never see him eat either. But these are minor details for a great show.
Whether you are watching it on tv, or renting the first or second season on DVD, 24 is great. It's an exhilerating, heart pounding, plot twisting and turning on the edge of your seat show, that should not be missed.
Movie Review: A Tale of Three Families
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to admit that when I heard about 24's format -- the entire season's output focusing on the events of one day -- I was skeptical. No matter how intricate or exciting the storyline was, surely television audiences would not be patient enough to watch the hour-by-hour account of one federal agent's mission to prevent the assasination of a presidential candidate on the day of the California Democratic primary.Unsure about this concept, I tuned in to the first episode in the fall of 2001...and became an instant fan of 24. I watched about 22 episodes on first run...missing only a couple due to outside obligations or cable TV outages. Now that I own the boxed set of Season One, I have seen the entire series and can now write a few words about it.
Although it is very much an action-suspense thriller (closer to Tom Clancy than to Ian Fleming), 24's tale of vendetta-driven terrorists plotting to kill Sen. David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert)on the day of the California primary is also the intimate story of the implosion of three families.
First, the Bauer family. When we first see Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), the setting is almost dully domestic -- he's playing a game of chess with his teenage daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert). But shortly before he gets a call from one of his fellow agents in the Counter Terrorist Unit, we see the domestic tranquility is belied by some tension. Kim is openly rude to her mother, Teri (Leslie Hope) and will soon sneak out to go partying with her friend Janet....which will be one of the worst choices she's ever made. And as we watch the series unfold, we'll learn about the straining effects of Jack's job on the marriage and of Jack's affair with fellow CTU agent Nina Myers (Sarah Clarke).
The second family implosion involves the Palmer family. Just as it seems everything is going perfectly for Sen. Palmer and his picture perfect family, we see as 24 unfolds that all is not well here, either. Skeletons from the Palmer children's past are surfacing on the very day that David Palmer seems poised to win his party's nomination for the Presidency, and he is forced to see how far his ambitious wife Sherry (Penny Jerald Johnson) will go to keep ugly family secrets out of the public eye.
And finally, there is the Drazen clan. Serb nationalists who supported Milosevic's iron-fisted rule, they were targeted by American forces and lost several family members as a result of a covert operation to take out the Drazen patriarch. Now they are bent on revenge and will do anything and kill anyone to get it.
Yes, 24 does have its flaws (the travails of wayward Kim and Teri's amnesia are a bit over-the-top for some viewers), but overall this is a fine piece of television drama.
Movie Review: Someone who is new to 24
Summary: 5 Stars
For the better part of the last six years I have heard people talking about "24" at work but had never watched it myself. Then two things happened, I got day 1 on DVD as a Christmas gift and I started watching day 7 on TV and was hooked almost immediately, which forced me to crack open my gift and dig in.
First off the concept of telling the story in real time is magnificent. What an idea by the writers who created this series. The concept does lead to some moments of down time to allow for travel and so on and that leads to some plot threads that may not be exciting as the others...but as a whole it was gripping television.
Kiefer Sutherland is brilliant as Jack Bauer. A patriotic man who had plenty of faults and is willing to do almost anything to accomplish his mission even if it skirts breaking the law himself. I found it compelling to think about, especially in this day and age...how far is too far? and when does the end not justify the means?
The story was a rollercoaster! By the time the Drazens entered the scene, I felt as if I had been pulled through enough drama for three regular TV shows. People you think are important at the beginning suddenly are gone without explanation (the parachuting plane wrecker!) and nobody is quite what you expect them to be.
The Nina Myers character and plot thread was magnificent! I almost fell off my chair when it was revealed that she was talking to Victor Drazen.
The escapades of Terri and Kim started to wear a little thin as the day went on but it never got to be too distracting. Sherri Palmer is deliciouosly rotten.
Dennis Hopper was great as Drazen, when he shoots the daughter of his friend in the head to get Jack under control I was speechless. The only problem I had was that the climax of the day seemed rushed. Victor was sure that Jack would come to him for revenge and the best plan that he had was to run out the back door and try to get away on an exposed dock with Jack on his tail...hardly a criminal mastermind.
Then when you think it's over and you go to take a breath...Nina is not working for the Drazens but someone else entirely!
The DVD edition I got as a gift had an alternate ending in which Teri lives. I for one like the original ending, not because I want to see a family ripped apart but rather because it seems a fitting climax gravity wise for the worst day in Jack's life. The happily ever after ending seemed too contrived and Teri's death gives Nina some weight as a villian.
All in all a great thrill ride, I watched it all in three days. I look forward to day 2!