Recently a friend leant me the first box set of 24, with the warning that I may be glued to my TV set for a few consecutive nights. He was right. Having missed the first series of 24 when it was on TV, I had heard some friends talking about it, and saying how compulsive they found it. I found the series so gripping that the promise I had made to myself to only watch the first episode and see how much I enjoyed it was blown out of the water. The first night of watching 24, I suddenly realised that I had watched 6 hours of TV, a very unusual occurrence for me.

24 is an American made thriller. It has a complex and involved storyline, but essentially it is about the 24 hours beginning at midnight, on the day of the California Presidential Primary. It follows the story of a few main characters, and the way that their lives become intertwined over the 24 hour period. The first series of 24 is largely set in CTU (The Counter Terrorist Unit) in Los Angeles. CTU is fictional, and is supposed to be a branch of the CIA. One of the main briefs of CTU is to protect America, and Americans from terrorist threats.

24 is set in “real time” which means that each minute on screen relates to each minute of action in the storyline. The first three episodes start with an announcement that the “events happen in real time” but this is dropped for subsequent episodes, and you do not need to be reminded of that fact. Each episode corresponds to one hour of the story, but there are “missing minutes” on the DVD where advertisement breaks would have been, so when you watch an episode it is actually about 45 minutes.

The story begins at midnight on the day of the California presidential primary. Jack Bauer, played magnificently by Keifer Sutherland, is seen at home with his daughter Kimberley and wife, Teri. These family shots help to set the scene for what will eventually turn into the longest day of Jack Bauer’s life. Kimberley appears to have an easy, open relationship with her father, but the relationship with her mother is strained and altogether more difficult. As the first episode develops Kimberley absconds from her family home, and Jack is called into work. Jack is based in CTU, where he leads a counter terrorism team. The first episode sees Jack working closely with Nina Meyers, his chief of staff. In this episode we are also introduced to Senator David Palmer, an African-American presidential candidate, played by Dennis Haysburt.

My thoughts

At the beginning of each episode there is a short catch up from the previous episode, which is easy to skip through on DVD. The catch up is useful when you have had a break between watching episodes, as it manages to squeeze all the key features of the previous episode into a couple of minutes. It also helps to clarify any parts of the program that you may have missed. However, when watching one episode after the next, in true addictive style, I found that I just skipped through the catch ups.

The only piece of acting I took real exception to was that of Dennis Hopper, who plays the villain Victor Drazen. His accent was not realistic, his acting was a little cardboard, and I felt it let part of the storyline down.

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