All in a Days Work for Jack!
 Nov 22nd, 2006
(Aug 11th, 2008)
Advantages:
Will Grip You From Start to Finish
Disadvantages:
You Will Lose a Day of your Life
Recommendable:
Yes
Detailed rating:
Did you enjoy it?
Story
Characters / Performances
Special Effects
How does it compare to similar films?
more
  Scotsmanmatt
About me:
"Do What You Can, Where You Are, With What You Have"
Member since:19.09.2004
Reviews:35
Members who trust:34
Review rated by 62 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
Main Review:
Jack Bauer [Kiefer Sutherland] is a field agent for the Los Angelos CTU - Counter Terrorism Unit. He is also a husband to Teri [Leslie Hope] and father to Kim [Elisha Cuthbert] whose relationship together can only be described as, at best, strained. With things coming to a head in that situation Jack is called in to CTU to deal with an assassination threat against Presidential Candidate Senator David Palmer [Dennis Haysbert] and so his 24 hours of hell begin at precisely midnight. During that 24 hours Jack has to deal with internal treachery and mistrust, with family crisis, with coerced compliance with terrorists, with stopping the assassination, with betrayal and with pure, hands on gritty field agent work which he does in his own unorthodox, questionable and inimitable style. As each hour ticks by the situation intensifies, the stakes become higher, the methods more extreme and the outcome less certain. Will Jack and CTU be able to stop the assassination? Will Jacks family situation survive the day? Will Jack survive the day and even if so, will he do so as a free man? Who can be trusted and who cannot? Who will die and who will live? All these, and many more questions are answered in the riveting playing out of this day.
Personal
Opinion:
I thoroughly enjoyed this series. It grabs your attention from the onset and doesn't let you go until the very end, and even there it leaves you wanting more. I think that the key to this is first of all the events happening in real time aspect which really can draw you in to an almost minute by minute living with the characters experiences. Secondly, the depth of the characters is for the main excellently done and there are few that you are left not being able to identify with in some way. Certainly with all the main characters you get to know them with all their good and points and that creates an interest in them as they play out the roles in the series. Thirdly, there is the storyline itself. It has many twists and turns that really do catch you off-guard but more than that it gets to your emotions and mind, almost forcing you to think about the issues being screened and to feel a whole host of emotions as you witness brutality, betrayal, deceit, love, lust, greed, anger and fear. There are few films that I have watched that are capable of capturing you in that way for any length of time, let alone for the largest part of the time it runs. On the downside, if it really is a downside, some characters are really annoying. Jack with his condescending and dogmatic attitude towards Nina [Sarah Clarke] and his wife and daughter and nearly every other woman with whom he has dealings. David Palmer with his naivety against his always-conspiring wife Sheri [Penny Johnson]. Teri, with her ever-so annoying personality that just has you begging for her to shut up and go away and Kim, with her always-messing-things up approach to situations. As noted above, I'm not too sure these are really down-sides as they might actually be what helps keep you involved in the program, maybe because you can identify them as real people would be in the world, but trust me, it has you cursing under your breath at times.
A definite, unqualified downside is the character of Jack. He really should be wearing a red and blue Superman suit beneath his normal clothes and that doesn't come across as believable all the time. It might have been better if they'd showed him as more human with more failings or having more reliance on help from CTU but it doesn't detract from the over-all brilliance of the series. Finally, there is the time factor. Normally you'd watch a film in a couple of hours but with this being a series you'd better be prepared to give up the best part of a day to watch it from start to finish and trust me, once you start watching you'll be hard pressed to stop until it is finished!
In summary the positives far outweigh the negatives and I think you'll thoroughly enjoy 24 Season 1 hence I recommend it to you. Technical Stuff:
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Writers: Robert Cochrane, Joel Surnow, Michael Loceff, Chip Johannessen, Howard Gordon, Andrew Newman, Virgil Williams, Lawrence Hertzog, Michale Chernuchin, Maurice Hurley.
Directors: Stephen Hopkins, Winrich Kolbe, Bryan Spicer, David Guggenheim, Jon Cassar, Fred Keller, Paul Shapiro. Main Cast: [Necessarily long]
Jack Bauer - Keifer Sutherland
Teri Bauer - Leslie Hope
Kim Bauer - Elisha Cuthbert
Nina Myers - Sarah Clarke
Senator David Palmer - Dennis Haysbert
Sheri Palmer - Penny Johnson
Tony Almeida - Carlos Bernad
Mandy - Mia Kirshner
George Mason - Xander Berkeley
Martin Belkin - Rudolf Martin
Alan York - Richard Burgi
Rick - Daniel Bess
Dan - Matthew Carey
Janet York - Jacqui Maxwell
Patty Brooks - Tanya Wright
Jamey Farrell - Karina Arroyave
Maureen Kingsley - Devika Parikh
Ira Gaines - Michael Massee
Richard Walsh - Micheal O'Neil
Keith Palmer - Vicellous Reon Shannon
Aaron Pierce - Glenn Morshower
Carl Webb - Zach Grenier
Bridget - Kim Murphy
Jessie Hampton - Yolanda Ross
Greg Penticoff - John Hawkes
Philips - David Barrera
Mike Novick - Jude Ciccolella
Milo Pressman - Eric Balfour
Eli - Silas Weir Mitchell
Jessica Abrams - Jackie Debatam
Frank Simes - Michael Bryan French
Alberta Green - Tamara Tunie
Ted Cofell - Currie Graham
Andre Drezan - Zeljko Ivanek
Dr. George Farragamo - John Prosky
Alexis Drezan - Misha Collins
Ryan Chappelle - Paul Schulze
Elizabeth Nash - Kara Zediker
Robert Ellis - Wade Williams
Tanya - Paula Perette
Melanie - Navi Rawat
Frank Allard - Edoardo Ballerini
Dr. Phil Parslow - Vincent Angell
Krugman - Darin Heames
Harris - Christian Svensson
Mila - Juliette Marquiss
Dana - Christina Moore
Nikola - Yevgeni Lazarev
Format: Boxset [6 Discs]
Region: Region 2
Classification: 15
DVD Release Date: 2002
Running time: Approx. 999 minutes DVD Features:
Main Language: English
Available Audio Tracks: Dolby Digital 2.0
Hearing Impaired: English
Alternate Ending
Preview of Season 2
Availability:
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Amazon - £11.50
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by (2%):
by (85%):
25.03.2009 12:48
good review
14.11.2008 17:26
Superb review!
14.08.2008 12:45
I've always wanted to see this series, your review is very detail. Great Review :-)