"24" Season 1
Well, I'm back. One marriage and a Caribbean honeymoon later, and I'm a bit older, a bit wiser, and more smart-assed. (Oh, wait, the older and wiser term for that is "more snarky". That's it, full of snark.) What better subject for my first review of the year (and my first as a married man) than the first season of one of the BDSOT (Best Damn Shows On Television), 24.
24 starts out with a really simple plot: There is a threat on the life of a senator David Palmer, played by Dennis Haysbert. This senator is so important because he is also a presidential candidate, who happens to be the first African-American candidate with a real shot at the White House. Since the senator is in Las Angeles today, investigation of the threat falls to the LA branch of CTU, or Counter-Terrorism Unit. Specifically, it falls to the head of this branch, Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). To make matters worse for Jack, he is informed by his supervisor and friend that there is a traitor in CTU, and he can't trust anyone. All in all, it's shaping up to be a long day.
I won't say anything else about the plot. Part of this show's charm is watching all the twists, turns, backstabs, red herrings, and interpersonal drama unfold. I will say that this show can get kind of ridiculous. While watching it, it seemed to me that the writers played a game of "How many crazy situations can we get Jack into before lunch?" The answer is "a lot". It can strain the believability of "24". It's no secret that I'm a big fan of "Angel", and while watching "24" I wondered how a show about a vampire with a soul can be more believable than this. It occurred to me that Angel takes place in a world that, while similar to ours, is very different and rarely strays from the rules set up for that world. "24" supposedly, takes place in the "real world". A little while later, it occurred to me that the real world on television still isn't quite our world. On television, people can outrun a hail of bullets. To quote Bruce Campbell, "sex always happens on the first date, and it's always great and never awkward." And, like my friend Doomgaze here mentioned, Jack never has to use the bathroom. Once that realization set in, I was able to suspend my disbelief and enjoy the show.
The performances are solid all around, most notably Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer. Kiefer
always puts in a good performance in everything I've seen him in, from "The Lost Boys" to "Dark City" to "The Three Musketeers". Interesting side note, when I was younger I didn't like Kiefer, as my only experience with his work was "The Lost Boys" and "Stand By Me", where he played the asshole badguy. Thank Jeebus "The Three Musketeers" came around and showed me he could be fun too. I also have to mention Elisha Cuthbert, as she was the flavor of the week when this show came out. She's easy on the eyes, but her character kind of annoyed me. I don't know if that's the fault of the writers or the actress, but her character was so stupid I expected Jason Voorhees to jump out and kill her.
I enjoyed the show. They do a good job of keeping you guessing as to what's going to happen next, who's going to live or die, and they keep it fairly exciting the whole way through. Unfortunately, I can say I would have enjoyed it a whole lot more if I didn't know one of the big events that happens at the end of the season, including the identity of the traitor. That's right, I got spoiled, and guess how. I was watching some show on FOX (probably a Simpson's rerun), and a commercial for "24" season 2 came on. The announcer said "the only person who can help solve this... is <a character>, the traitor who <did something> to <another character>". Those who have seen all of season 1 know what particulars to fill into that sentence, and you know it gives away a fairly major happening at the end of season 1. I
suppose if you had been following along with the saga of "24", that commercial would really wet your whistle. But for those like me, who hadn't seen it, they just ruined a large bit of season 1. As a result, I found myself wanting to skip past all of the parts building up to that incident, because I already knew the outcome. That’s not fair to the show or the writers. So FOX gets our version of the thumbs down (which I just invented), a big asshole pucker. Not only did they cancel a bunch of good shows (Firefly chief among them), they ruined part of “24”. Fuck them.
The show is damn good. Good enough to get me to watch season 2. Will it do like “Die Hard 2”, and have the same thing happen to the same guy twice? Will Jack pull an “Office Space” (every day is worse than the last day, so every time you see me, it’s the worst day of my life) and have a permanent case of “the Mondays”? Only time will tell.
A most excellent review, Ted.
I'm glad you finally got on the band wagon. 24 is not only one of the most watched shows in the US, but IMHO the only most watched show in the US that actually deserves to be the most watched show in the US. Get that?
I can tell that you're a bit skeptical on whether or not Fox can keep the quality up in the following seasons, but I assure you, they do. Season 2 begins with a terrorist threat of a nuclear attack on (what else?) Los Angeles and blossoms into an even bigger threat. In fact, one of the only things I can tell you with certainty about 24 (other than the fact that Jack will disobey orders and get away with it every time) is that the seasons almost always start small and end big.
It's worth mentioning that Season 5 seems to be messing with that formula by introducing the "big" much faster than usual. This leads me to believe that Season 5 will contain a third or even fourth level of "big". As odd as it is to attempt to make predictions like this, I think you will agree with me that the beat of the show starts to become familiar after you watch Season 2.
This is both to the show's credit and detriment. The detriment: you already know that there will be twists, turns and that peoples' civil rights will be suspended to serve the format. Knowing that allows you to predict the them a few minutes in advance, but never farther than that. The credit: the writers know all this and keep throwing the twists into unexpected directions. This is a very smart production pattern that forces you to consider all possible permutations of the story as the show hurtles towards its conclusion.
The clock is a harsh yet seductive mistress.