24 - Series 3 - Complete (DVD)

...rest of the characters in 24. Prepare for another suspense and action filled 24 weeks.

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What is 24?
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If you follow my reviews you should know by now. I am a huge fan after all. But for those who don't know, 24 is set in a single day of Jack Bauer’s life.

Over 24 episodes (each taking place in real time) we see how the day unfolds. Jack is, of course, ...
...Angeles.

24 is all about action, cliff hangers and suspense. There's a deeply imbedded storyline following all the way through and many subplots along the way.

Season 1 focused on a threat to a presidential candidates life, season 2 focused on a nuclear bomb threat.

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Season 3
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This time around it focuses on a bio threat. Not ... more

National health services in Los Angeles have a dead body dropped off - infected with the Cordila Virus. Jack Bauer and Chase Edmunds are about to sign a deal with Victor Salazar when he stabs a pen into his lawyers throat. President Palmer is preparing for a debate with Senator Keele in LA.

We know this is going to be one long day for CTU, Jack Bauer, President Palmer and the rest of the characters in 24. Prepare for another suspense and action filled 24 weeks.

-------------------
What is 24?
-------------------

If you follow my reviews you should know by now. I am a huge fan after all. But for those who don't know, 24 is set in a single day of Jack Bauer’s life.

Over 24 episodes (each taking place in real time) we see how the day unfolds. Jack is, of course, not an ordinary person. He's a special agent for the Counter Terrorist Unit in Los Angeles.

24 is all about action, cliff hangers and suspense. There's a deeply imbedded storyline following all the way through and many subplots along the way.

Season 1 focused on a threat to a presidential candidates life, season 2 focused on a nuclear bomb threat.

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Season 3
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This time around it focuses on a bio threat. Not only will it affect Los Angeles, but the whole of America.

It's 3 years after the events from season 2 and the characters have move forward a bit. Jack is now more senior in his role. He's got a new partner - Chase Edmunds. Kim is now working at CTU on a desk. Toni and Michelle are married. There's a new annoying assistant and another technical guy (reminiscent of Milo from series one)

The story (as usual) takes place across a few different roads which are intertwined yet still separate. This time they've reduced the number considerably though.

At the start we have CTU, Jack Bauer, the bad guys and the President storylines. These merge and separate throughout. But the president is (as always) separate from Jack almost completely (bar some phone calls).

They introduce us to the characters in a far over-dramatised manor. For instance, the president gets out of the car facing the other way and then a huge uproar of music as he turns around to reveal palmer (it was suspected he died at the end of season 2).

But I did like the way it just zoomed into Toni and Michelle’s Wedding rings to reveal their union. It was just subtle and didn't impede on the action element.

That's what I like about 24. They go through explanation very subtly without taking time out in the dialogue to narrate things.

A lot has happened between season 2 and 3. They give clues to this (and the connections to the characters in season 3) throughout. For instance, Jack has run into the bad guys before. There's many problems that have been created by their previous encounter.

At the start the operation is to find and contain the virus. But we learn more as the storyline progresses and takes some twists and turns to reveal that there's a much larger operation afoot.

However, I think that the big twist around in episode 7 or 8 is just ridiculous and badly written. I wish I could tell you what it is but that would spoil the show. It basically says "everything that happened before this episode was completely pointless".

Be prepared for some surprise twists, shocking deaths and rather shoddy re-appearances.

The pace in series 3 picks up more towards the end with the best episode being the final episode. But from about episode 18 onwards it's all good action and fits very well.

This time the clock starts at 1pm. That way you can explain whey everyone is out of bed and when you say "episode 2" there is no confusion as to whether you mean 2am or the 2nd episode. This is a far better start time I think.

In this series they even try and bring a little more realism in. For instance, president palmer asks his secret service guy half way through "isn't your shift over?" and he replies "It's a time of crisis, I decided to stick by you" and they do show a couple of characters having a rest! But not good old jack.

Much like the other series, this one kind of changes half way through. The purpose of the operation and the bad guy changes. Perhaps because actors want a break, I don't know.

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The Science Bit
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As with all series of 24 there's lots of complicated language used. Especially computer language. I don't know much about computers, but I'm pretty sure that nobody says some of the mixture of jargon they come out with. I don't know much about agencies but I'm sure they don't use the word "protocol" as much as CTU. I think they slightly over do the nonsense jargon in this series!

The virus is called the Cordila virus. It has a 100% fatality rate once infected and a 95% infection rate (this isn't 100% so that everyone at least has a chance and it becomes important further on in the story). It causes symptoms like boils on the face and bleeding noses.

Of course, this virus doesn't really exist. No virus can kill as fast as this one does. No virus could be that easily engineered. Neither does the testing equipment that can identify it within about 30 minutes (as is done in the show). So it's all a load of science fiction. But that's what's great about 24! It's all about making you think "that could actually happen" when your common sense knows it couldn't.

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Characters
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The returning cast put on a good performance the third time round. Keither in particular shows far more emotion and personal conflict in this series. We start to see a more multi-dimensional character come out. Someone who isn’t' just "I always get the bad guy". There's a particular scene that I think was the best possibly way to display this. Again, I wish I could tell you more.

You have Jack Bauer - the agent who seems to be indestructible and always gets the bad guy (after 24 hours anyway). Played by Keither Sutherland.

Kim Bauer - His daughter now working at CTU and doing a good job on the computers.

Toni Almeda - Now the head of CTU and doing a damn good job, married to Michelle.

President Palmer - The senator turned president. But now his presidency is under threat from more than one angle. His storylines are often separate to CTU.

And two more surprise appearances from the 1st series (any fan would have guessed) which I wont reveal.

From the second series we have Michelle returning, now married to Toni and second in command.

Plus there's a whole load of new characters:

Wayne Palmer - the presidents chief of staff and brother. He almost replaces sherry's character by advising and trying to change David’s opinions

Anne Packer - the presidents new love interest and his doctor.

Chase Edmunds - Going out with Kim and Jacks partner. He's almost like an aspiring Jack Bauer. But of course, he's realising the dangers of the job.

Chloe - the rather annoying secretary / computer person. She's nosy, she tells you stuff you don't want to know and always plays things by the book.

The bad guys - Victor and Ramone Salazar, Amadore and Steven Saunders are all new characters. Amadore and Saunders are British.

I think it's great acting all round.

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The Final Episode
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Season one had the best ever final episode. The fight sequence was rubbish, but the actual ending was so perfect that it had to happen that way. If it wasn't for the final episode then I don't think they would have made a second series.

Season two also had a good final episode. There was a fantastic fight sequence and a very surprising (and completely out of the blue) surprise ending which bought back a character from season one. However, they didn't follow it up. It was almost completely forgotten about in season three. Had they incorporated it into season three (which I assume was the original intention) then it would have been as good as season one. So for it's very pointlessness it is the worst ending episode.

Season three had a strange ending. They introduced a new bad character in episode 23. It just didn't seem to have the lead up that the other series did. The sort of winding down + final big action sequence where we see the main bad guy go face to face with Jack. I mean it seemed to end at about episode 22 and suddenly introduce a new bit of plot. Almost like it over ran. Though I see why this was required, otherwise you couldn't have had the closure that was required because the threat went beyond just LA. Capturing the main bad guy wouldn't be the end of the threat like it was for previous series.

But still I think it was a good ending. Especially the final scene. It just summed up the whole day nicely and Jack Bauer’s character.

There wasn't any lead-in to the next series. Hints were made as to what might be in it, how characters might evolve. It was a GOOD ending. As long as the follow up on the hints then it will be good. But somehow it didn't quite hold the excitement of the last two endings. More of an emotional end.

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Extras
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Season 1 has sh*t extras. Season 2 vastly improved and season 3 has prolonged the improvement.

You have deleted scenes which you can splice into the episodes (however many are elongated scenes so it kind of repeats a scene again and gets annoying, I suggest you look at them separately). A nice little feature.

There's interviews with the cast and crew of 24. And a few "making of" documentaries.

In this season there are a few special effects and a few interesting stories behind them. They have some of this in the making of documentaries.

There's also a multi scene analysis bit. This is where you see how it is filmed by kind of editing it yourself. There's a scene and you can choose the angle (1 camera, another camera or the classic 24 split screen). Very good idea but not really that interesting.

What I do wish they had put on it are the interviews with the cast done on the American version of Pure 24. Although the UK no longer funds our "Pure 24" (a 1 hour show after the 1 hour episode which breaks down the episode and has an audience give their views but also do a lot of interviews with the cast etc.) America still has it's version. They do some good interviews and I would have liked to have seen them.

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Soundtrack
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Pretty much same as season 2. They've taken the brilliant 24 theme and managed to turn it into several emotional incarnations for any occasion. They also use several other scores of music throughout. It all works nicely.

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Conclusion
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This series started good and ended good. Some of the bits in-between weren't as good as they've done in the past. It really got better after Steven Saunders took over as the main bad guy. But it's still a fantastic series.

24 is the only series that I watch without fail every week. It's the only TV series that I own every season on DVD. Not only do I own them, they were all pre-ordered weeks before their release. It's the only TV series that's had me setting 2 video recorders to record the episodes while I'm on holiday!

The acting, the characters and the storylines are great. Yeah, it couldn't all happen in a day and yeah, the virus couldn't be real. But that's the beauty of it. In Jacks world it can happen.

I haven't mentioned the format in any detail. Because it's gone beyond that now. It's all about the plotline now. The split screens and the clock are almost forgotten about in this series and just "there". It still has a great style to it but that's a given now.

24 is the best TV show on this planet. It's full of suspense, plot and betrayal. It is simply great and the DVD box set is filled with extras and a must have for any fan.

Currently priced at £45 however, you can buy the season 1-3 box set (out soon) for £75.

That is annoying, because I paid around £140 for my 3 seasons separately. Oh well!

Thanks for reading another 24 review.

Dean
 

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