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24
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picture to order this season on DVD
FOX network has been the place for bold
new series concepts from the very beginning. When everyone felt the genre
of nighttime-soap-opera was faded, they offered us the joyously decadent
bed-hopping apartment complex of Melrose Place. When
everyone felt all successful sci-fi had to come from the Star Trek
franchise, they offered the popular series The X-Files.
Sure, they often go a tad overboard, with TV specials like Who Wants
to Marry a Millionaire?, though more often they score an
Emmy-worthy smash hit. 24 is definitely such a series.
The storyline involved the head of an
anti-terrorist unit named Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland). He is called in
to his office soon after midnight, because his superiors just got word of
a possible threat on the life of a highly-popular Senator, on the day of
the presidential primary. Much like any good action drama, the viewer is
shown all sides of this situation, from Jack's family to his co-workers,
the Senator's family, and even the criminals themselves. Will Jack
succeed? Well, that will be made clearer in May, that's for sure.
Why is that so certain? Because this series
is called "24" for a reason; its 24 episodes are of each
hour of what Jack calls "the longest day of my life." The clock
always starts at the stroke of a new hour, and continues in real time,
right up to the very end. Sure, this means that all the main characters
are to be awake for these 24 hours straight, though there's a good reason
they should be. Jack's family, for one, were kidnapped, until Jack finally
saved them (just in time for February sweeps, of course). Meanwhile, no
sooner did Jack defeat the first hired gunman, then another "Plan
B" gunman takes his place. A man's life is at risk here, and the
maniacal masterminds of this plot have vowed to kill Senator Palmer before
midnight...i.e., before this series ends. Will Jack succeed? You'll have
to watch and see.
 The boldness of the series is apparent,
since the writers had to make every single moment of every single hour an
important one; otherwise, the viewer would be bored and switch off! So, a
plethora of occurrences have happened so far: Jack's daughter was
kidnapped, only to have his wife discover that the "father" of
her daughter's friend was really an accomplice, and she was soon
kidnapped, too. No sooner did Jack save them and defeat the apparent
mastermind of the operation, then it's clear there's a bigger mastermind
at work here...and their new assassin has just flown in. Meanwhile,
Senator Palmer is dealing with a possible scandal where his son killed a
man "in self defense" who just happens to be the same man who
raped his sister. Palmer soon realizes that some contributors to his campaign
are not as honest as he'd hope, and promptly silence the man who was to
leak the story...permanently. There's never a dull episode in this series,
and in a series where every second is "real time," that's pretty
amazing.
Edited to add: ...to help newcomers to
season 2 get up to speed, season one (reviewed above) is now offered
complete on DVD! Extras include the much-discussed alternate ending to the
season finale (the one used to keep gossip web sites off the trail), an
exclusive introduction by Kiefer Sutherland, and a Season two teaser. if
there was ever any reason for someone to not get started watching 24,
it just went out the window.
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