Customer Reviews

24: Season One DVD Collection [DVD]

5 star:		(190)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I never understood the hype around 24. I never got to see the first episode on TV of any series, and couldn't dedicate the time to it, so never gave it a chance.

Someone recently said it was like the Bourne Identity, which I loved and the box set was very reasonably priced on amazon at the time, so I thought I would give it a go.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! By the second episode I was hooked. The pace keeps on going through each episode, with more twists and turns than a roller coaster. OK so some of them are a little contrived, but you forgive the show, cos it is so clever. It sucks you in, to thinking you have worked out what is going on, then it twists the other way and you have to rethink everything.

Be warned though. It will take over your life, and you will not be able to turn it off

A short while ago, I was sat watching 24 on DVD. It was about twelve midnight and I was on disc four of the set. I went to sleep at 9am the next morning, having fed all the discs into my player one after the other. That's the power of this brilliant drama series.

24 begins straightforward enough: someone is plotting to assassinate an African - American senator who's on the doorstep to becoming President of the U.S. By the time the series ends, this is long forgotten...

The acting of the main players is flawless without exception, with Kiefer Sutherland being particularly brilliant in this series which was notoriously difficult to shoot. The 24 of the title refers to the fact that every event of the series occurs inside a day. I was constantly trying to grasp this concept while watching, but it is merely a device used to accelerate the action to warp speed; there is literally no dead space on the screen since every act, no matter how innocuous it may seem, is drenched in tension.

The plot rapidly becomes simply serpentine, with traitors being exposed and then replaced by other traitors, villains die and are replaced by even more insane and clever villains, bluff follows bluff, counter bluff follows counter bluff, and the series is capped by a shocking and yet somehow sickeningly "on the cards" ending.

Being on DVD has the sole advantage of making use of the 16:9 aspect ratio for those with widescreen TVs. There are no real "extras" to speak of, except for a lovely little spot with Sutherland explaining how the show was conceived and produced, and an alternate ending (although it's a good job they didn't use it). Be Warned: inside the DVD cover you'll find a small booklet. FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, DON'T READ IT UNTIL YOU'VE WATCHED THE SERIES, AS IT CONTAINS EACH HOUR'S EVENTS.

You will not be disappointed.

For those unfamiliar with the format, 24's "gimmick" is that each hour-long episode follows, in more or less real time, an hour in the life of Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), a Government agent working at the Counter-Terrorist Unit (CTU), in Los Angeles, as he races to avert a national crisis.

In this first series, Jack's wife and daughter are held hostage and he is blackmailed into helping a group of terrorists assassinate U.S. Presidential candidate Senator David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) on election day. The supporting characters have their own subplots as well, with Jack's daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) trying to escape her captors and Senator Palmer dealing with a family crisis.

The series has become known for its outlandish leaps of logic and plot twists which defy belief, and there are many, but all of these add to the drama and tension, and are handled in such a way that the viewer readily accepts them and at the end of each episode is left screaming for more.

24 has the uncanny power to grab your attention and not let go until that iconic clock ticks down to the end of another day. If you have the series on DVD, you will quite happily sit and watch four, five or even six episodes in succession because you just will not want to wait to find out how Jack gets himself out of ever more absurd and life threatening cliffhanger situations at the end of each episode. This show instantly became my favourite TV programme when I first watched it in 2001, and has remained so over the four subsequent series, right up to the gripping series 5 currently airing on Sky One.

For the first series, the writers kept to a fairly safe and familiar situation and set about telling it in a fresh and new way, saving the edgier stories for later series when the show had become a hit. The basic plot is as outlined above, with an important political figure under threat, the kidnapping of a government agent's family in order to force him to help the terrorists, a personal vendetta and a mole inside the agency feeding terrorists information. Oh, and a major twist right at the end, but you'll have to watch it to find out what it is.

The series, while brilliant, is not without its faults. The writers of the series never wrote more than four or five episodes ahead, so even they did not know how the show was going to end, which does show as the pacing is off in places, with some slow, lumbering episodes with not much happening sandwiched between high-drama shows with way too much going on. And of course the ubiquitous plot twists, which stretch the realms of belief to the limits but as I say are accepted because they enhance the drama.

This show is unmissable.

Quite simply amazing. You spend nearly a day of you life watching this, and then with an hour to go it blows you away. Don't even try to guess what is going to happen from one episode to the next, you can't. Sutherland is excellent, and the latest James Bond movies could learn a lot from convincing plotlines, and slick pacing - Daniel Craig plerase take note of how to be a modern day field agent.

Buy this DVD at your peril - you'll lose all contact with the outside world until you've finished!

We are now on season 6, but sometimes you have to remember your roots and this is where it all began for federal agent Jack Bauer. This season of 24 begins at midnight and from the moment the clock begins to tick down your eyes will be glued to thier screens until the dramatic season finale which is arguably the best episode of 24 and the best season finale of all time. This season really does provide the goods, i can guarantee you after the first episode you'll be hooked. 24s first season may not be the most explosive season, or the most explosive first season for any show but what 24 does do well is take its sucess right into the next season and always gets better, something which many shows have failed to do, the most easy example is lost. Lost came, made this big dramitic entrance to our screens but by the end of the second season the whole story seemed old and tired, but this is not the case with 24. You may as well buy all the other seasons now and pre-order season 6 while your at it, which comes out on the 5th november (24s most violent, explosive and hard hitting season) ENJOY your about to be kept wide awake for another 24 hours.

This is one of the best action/suspense series i have seen in a very long time. The action is all the way through and you don't know what is going to happen. You do not get bored at all it is a very adictive series you just cannot wait to see the next episode. great, fantastic, you will just love watching and want more and more

24 is such an addictive series that you feel compelled to watch the next episode. You are continually on the edge of your seat, with the majority of the episodes ending on cliff hangers.

I started watching 24 series one after the third epsiode and have become addicted. Basically Jack is a federal agent for the CTU, and at midnight he is called in to help protect a senator from a death threat. However, His daughter Kim has snuck out of the house and gone partying with her friend Janice and two guys. The guys turn out to be evil and working for the people who are trying to kill Senator David Palmer. Jack is torn between his duty as a federal agent and protecting his family.

It all takes part in real time and by the end of the 'day' you feel like you are actually there. The twists are shocking and make you want more.

The DVD box set is excellent providing you with numerous opportunities to watch it. If something had to be wrong with them, I would have to say that the series two trailer isn't that good. However the overall pure genious of the actual series is enough. Roll on series 2 on DVD.

I never watched the show on TV, just heard from a number of people that it was good. I also dont watch TV much, just an hour or two a week.

Have to say myself and my partner watched this within just a few nights. We couldnt switch off. Its very compeling, very entertaining.

Its also much better to have it on DVD than wait a week between episodes on the TV.

This is TV drama of the highest standard.

When I first heard about a tv show that lasted a full 24 one hour show that follow on I thought it was the worst idea EVER..... but got a cheap copy and now I cant get enough of it!

Jack Bauer (Sutherland) is by turns the hero and the villan who has some agonising chioces to make throughout the day of the presidential primary.

With his daughter and wife kidnapped and an attempt on the president it is all go with very little let up.

Supported by his collegues at CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) Los Angeles he tracks down those resbonsibly finds the traitors and gets his family back only for a final twist of the knife to be played at the end!

The gloves are off and the gauntlet thown down for the pace and genious of the 24 brand can the other series keep up?

If you like any form of film (except romance) you will like this it has action suspense and much more including 23 cliffhanging endings

I bought this after a friend bugged me for ages about it. Bought it to see what the hype was about, watched 1st episode and immediately hooked! Couldnt stop watching.

Buy this and you will not regret it!