A rollercoaster ride of drama of the highest quality is how I would describe this first series of the highly acclaimed TV drama 24 starring Keifer Sutherland as the now infamous Jack Bauer.
Let's see where to start:
The longest day of Jack Bauer's life begins at just turned midnight on the day of the presidential primaries, slowly at first, he is relaxing playing chess with his daughter Kimberly. There is no tension in these first scenes, we get some inclination that there is lots of history to this guy, this Jack Bauer guy, and over the course of the next 24 hours we learn a little of his history and how it figures into the course of the next 24 hours events too.
Kimberly heads off to bed and we feel an undercurrent of conflict between the mother and daughter as Jack gets a call from work.
Jack leads the team at CTU - the counter-terrorist unit of the government, he gets to work to find that there has been an assassination threat on one of the candidates for the presidential election, David Palmer.
The plot is massive and very complex, twisting and turning at every corner, early on his family are in danger and there is massive amounts of rising tension and panic as Bauer attempts firstly to thwart the threat on David Palmer's life while discovering who is behind the attack and why they seem to have targeted Bauer himself out and then attempting to keep himself and his family alive.
Each episode when aired on American prime time television lasted for one hour, but with commercial breaks taken out then I would reckon that one episode probably lasts something between 45 to 50 minutes. Everything happens in real time, which is an extraordinary and unusual premise for a television show, but it makes for exciting and stimulating viewing.
Split screen features quite heavily throughout the show, this enables the viewer to watch two or more events that are happening at the same time, or perhaps seeing one event from one person's perspective, while viewing another person's involvement in that event. This again is an innovative and fresh approach to cinematography on the small screen.
At the beginning of each consecutive episode there is a short introductory sequence that refreshes the viewer's memory of what has happened previously on the show, along with the iconic heartbeat type sound effect that accompanies the '24' caption.
Actors wise - the main leads are:
Jack Bauer - Keifer Sutherland Teri Bauer - Leslie Hope Kimberly Bauer - Elisha Cuthbert David Palmer - Dennis Haysbert Sherry Palmer - Penny Johnson Nina Myers - Sarah Clarke Tony Almeida - Carlos Bernhard
Most of these to me are unknowns, apart from Keifer Sutherland who has been in a number of films over the years. All of the cast are credible and convincing, I think myself that Keifer Sutherland and Sarah Clarke as Nina Myers are especially good in their respective roles. Sutherland shines as the beleagered Bauer, he moves with ease and confidence in the role, he is never strained or exaggerated in his acting and he presents a never-ending capacity for just looking dogged and determined but it's never too over the top.
The plot is complex, not over complicated, I found it easy to follow and thrilling, it's well paced and dynamic. Saying that I can remember watching the first couple of episodes and thinking to myself 'what else can happen?' and then another twist and you're floored again, and that just keeps happening throughout the 24 hours.
The momentum was maintained I think by the way that you would be watching one set of characters for a while and then it would switch to other characters, but I never felt bombarded with it, I never felt that we got too much information all at once, the story and plot just developed and each new twist and turn was unveiled pertinently and effortlessly without it being forced.
It is a fantastic rollercoaster ride of a show, I know I've used that rollercoaster analogy before, but it's so apt, it's addictive and compelling viewing, I loved the way it simply defied my expectations of it, I loved the way that the clock would come up and I'd think 'oh no only seven more minutes - what's going to happen next - what's the cliffhanger going to be'
It delivers, I remember starting out watching it thinking to myself that it would not be able to keep up the pace and the quality of the twists and turns throughout the 24 hours but it does, and I was certainly impressed with it's capacity to still thrill me after I'd been watching it for 8 or 9 hours, not many shows can do that.
Technical Info: Six discs Classification: 15 Discs 1 - 5 no extra features Disc 6 - extra features include an alternate ending and a Season 2 preview Price on Amazon: £17.00
Thanks for reading.
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24 : Complete Season 1
Such a simple idea--yet so fiendishly complex in the execution. 24, as surely everyone
... more
knows by now, is a thriller that takes place over 24 hours, midnight to midnight, in 24 one-hour episodes (well, 45-minute episodes if you extract the ad breaks). Ev...
24 : Complete Season 1
Such a simple idea--yet so fiendishly complex in the execution.24, as surely everyone
... more
knows by now, is a thriller that takes place over 24 hours, midnight to midnight, in 24 one-hour episodes (well, 45-minute episodes if you extract the ad breaks). Eve...
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