24 : Series 1 & 2 (Limited Edition Box Set) [DVD] [2002]

Season 1 is obviously very good or I wouldn't have been obliged to watch the second and third. The storylines which are seemingly unrelated intertwine fabulously and there are so many twists and turns you'll be on the edge of your seat for the entire ride, but the twists are seldom unbelievable. The real-time formula is fresh and exciting, one of the things which had drawn me to the show in the first place. Emotional and thrilling, this is superb. And it's worth buying this boxset just for the shocker ending to this series.

Season 2 is perhaps weaker but still superb television. One storyline involving Kim Bauer (Elisha Cuthbert) is detached from the rest of the story throughout the entire story and so reduces the quality a little. However the introduction of new, likeable characters and the welcome return of some old ones ensure the show is far from getting boring. The ending of this may be slightly disappointing and surely infuriating for those who were forced to wait months between the television air-dates of seasons 2 and 3.

Season 3 is a return to form, however, and the real-time formula is showing no signs of becoming old, even if it perhaps is less exciting than during the first season. There are, also, no cougars whatsoever in this series, fans will be delighted to know. With some more new characters and more old ones returning, this is similar to season 2 although the 2-part story is as exciting as ever. This season in particular has a body-count unsurpassed by any other television show. The climactic finale is excellent and the emotional final few minutes are so tense I defy you not to shed a tear.

Kiefer Sutherland is excellent as the near-invincible Jack Bauer, and there are endless exceptional performances throughout the series. Sarah Clarke is also a particularly good actress whose talents are shown clearly in the show.

In spite of the fact that logic is often ignored, no characters seemingly need toilet breaks or food and twists can sometimes be slightly too unrealistic, this is pound-for-pound exceptional entertainment. Beware, after the first few episodes you will be hooked until the very final minute. And the beeping clock sound will stay with you forever.

The shows format of the 1 hour per episode in real time is executed perfectly with the majority of episodes ending on excellent cliffhangers so you have to keep watching, although by the third series the format is getting pushed to its limits but it still is one of the most orginal things seen in years.

Kiefer Sutherland excels as Jack Bauer who can be in an office one minute and then invovled in a car chase the next so we are always on our toes. The emotional arcs of Jack Bauer are extremely affecting as in series 1 he has to balance the task of doing his job and protecting his family and if you don't get upset at one specific point you are dead inside.

The most impressive feature I found about 24 was that even though I knew the big twist finale to season 1 (my idiot brother who was a seasoned 24 fan felt the need to tell me) the show still managed to convince me buy all three series because it sucks you in so much you have to know what happens after the SHOCKING end to series 1.

If you haven't seen 24 and are a fan of the best thrillers around then this purchase is for you but do not let anyone tell you how it all ends.

I would agree with the general view on this forum that Series 2 is the weakest of the three. I think that's largely because the two threads of the story -- the nuclear threat to LA and the father's threat to Kim -- stay completely apart throughout. In Series 1, every thread contributed to the overall story. Series 2 finishes particularly unsatisfactorily, with the master crooks revealed to us only minutes before the end, and no resolution there, or at the start ofSeries 3, to tell us how they were captured.

Series 3 has two largely unrelated stories -- the presidential re-election and the viral threat to the USA -- but it is somehow much better done than Series 2: it's clearly got a bigger budget (for two jet fighters and a cast of hundreds in the hotel and the metro stration), and the music is better. Every key character compromises themself in some way or other -- even the President. The only problem with Series 3 is that the entire story in Mexico could be detached from the LA outbreak story that dominates the second half. And the fake courier plot that starts off the series seems largely irrelevant to everything else. Constructing a 24-episode day is clearly a very difficult thing to do.

I can't help thinking that the central character, Jack Bauer, is a US attempt to create a James Bond equivalent. (Maybe I'm being deluded by the initials.) But it works well.