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Product Description
The clock is ticking...
Midnight. Jack Bauer, head of the Los Angeles Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU), is suddenly thrust into a chaotic and exhausting 24-hour marathon of death, deception and terror as he struggles to prevent the assassination of a presidential candidate, find the traitor within his own organization, and save his kidnapped wife and daughter.
Amazon.com
Such a simple idea--yet so fiendishly complex in the execution. 24, as surely everyone knows by now, is a thriller that takes places over 24 hours, midnight to midnight, in 24 one-hour episodes (well, 45-minute episodes if you subtract the commercials). Everything takes place in real time, which means no flashbacks, no flash-forwards, no handy time-dissolves. Every strand of the plot has to be dovetailed and interlocked so things happen just when they should, in the right amount of time. Not that easy.
Creator Robert Cochran and his team of writers and directors have done an impressive job of putting the jigsaw together and keeping the tension ratcheted up high, as federal agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) runs around L.A. trying to stall an assassination attempt on an African American presidential candidate and rescue his wife and daughter from the clutches of the Balkan baddies. Twists, turns, revelations, and cliffhangers are tossed at us with satisfying regularity. It's not perfect: we get some hokey plot devices (instant amnesia, anybody?); the final twist makes no sense whatsoever; there are altogether too many huggy family moments; and as for Dennis Hopper's "Serbian" accent....
Even so, this is undeniably mold-breaking TV. Sutherland, rescuing his career from the doldrums in one heroic leap, fully deserves his Golden Globe. Sets and locations are artfully deployed, and Sean Callery's score is a powerful, brooding presence. Like Murder One and The Sopranos, 24 is one of those series that future TV thrillers will be measured against. --Philip Kemp
24: Season One Reviews
24: Season One Reviews
| 243 of 266 people found the following review helpful:  Great show - but with missing scenes!., By Rayanne Graff (London, UK) - See all my reviews This review is from: 24: Season One (DVD) The show itself is of course magnificent for the most part. Innovative, exciting and very well acted. A landmark in modern TV drama, despite a brief drop -off in quality in some of the late afternoon episodes. The DVD picture quality is wonderfully sharp, and the sound is nicely crisp. Important to note if you are buying this package having not seen the show before (having heard about it from others but too late to join in watching it on TV) that there are spoilers all over the presentation. the enclosed booklet includes short summaries of every episode and not much else, so don't look at it until you've seen the whole show. Similarly the menus feature clips from the show which is nice to watch if you aren't worried about information being given away, as the clips on the menu for each disc tend to reveal major plot points. Also, the DVD extras are actually pretty poor. The alternative ending is dull and obviously only shot to keep the true ending secret. The teaser for season 2... Read more 107 of 118 people found the following review helpful: Bet You Can't Watch Just One, By Amazon Verified Purchase This review is from: 24: Season One (DVD) It's just after midnight at the Bauer home. They're getting ready for bed when Jack gets a phone call asking him to report to work at the Counter Terrorism Unit in Los Angeles. There he's briefed on a plot to assassinate Presidential candidate David Palmer. Meanwhile, his daughter Kim has snuck out of the house to meet some guys who are bad news. His wife Terri is finding trouble searching for Kim. And Palmer is facing a crisis of his own concerning something in his family's past he didn't even know about. It's going to be a long day for everyone.This thriller series is innovative. Each episode represents just one hour in the day. I wasn't sure they could pull if off, but the writers managed to keep all the plots going and make the gaps between seeing characters believable. It quickly turned into a weekly addiction that had me glued to my seat and dreading commercials more then normal. Some of the plots loose steam in the afternoon, but it builds up tension again for the... Read more 36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:  Keifer Sutherland as Jack Bauer, the modern Sisyphus, By This review is from: 24: Season One (DVD) My strongest memory of watching Season One of "24" was at the end of episode 12, where I thought that we had finally arrived at a moment where Jack Bauer could take a deep breath and catch his bearings for a moment. Of course, I was wrong, because this is a series where things go from bad to worse and well beyond as Jack Bauer experiences "the worst day of my life." Creator Robert Cochran worked brilliantly within the confines of his grand design, where events happen simultaneously and in real time. The official mission might be heading off an assassination attempt of presidential candidate Senator David Palmer on the day of the California primary, but there is always some pressing task at hand as the hits just keep on coming from start to finish in this show. "24" is a series where the obvious goal was to throw everything at Jack Bauer and the other candidates, including a large number of kitchen sinks, mostly with regards to his family. I think... Read more |
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