TV Review: "24" Season 1
I not sure why, but I’ve been sitting on this review for awhile. Sometimes it’s a good thing to sit on a review. How I feel about a television show (or a movie) is influenced by what I read about the show, what others have said about it and simply what I remember about the show. A review is often better when I've had a little time to reflect on things that annoyed me initially but now seem less worthy of attention or what seemed worthy of attention should just be ignored. I can name a few reviews on TopFiveReviews that would benefited from not being written so quickly.
For those who do not know, “24” is a television show that is broadcast in real-time, with each episode equalling one hour of a twenty-four hour day that comprises a twenty-four episode season. Even the commercials are taken in to account. The real-time format of the show means they can’t use “time” as a prop to be manipulated at will, but it gives “24” is given a tension that wouldn’t normally be there since every second and every minute counts. Phone calls and driving time suddenly mean life and death.
A real time broadcast notwithstanding, this would be a gimmick without stories to tell and characters to tell them. First among the cast is Keifer Sutherland as Jack Bauer, a federal agent in charge of the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU). Here he is at his most humane, trying to carry out his job and protect his family. Keifer Sutherland does a great job as Jack Bauer, who is less a superman than a guy trying to get through the day intact.
Dennis Haysbert is another standout as the principled, if conflicted, presidential candidate David Palmer. The rest of the cast is comprised of fine actors as well with Penny Johnson Jerald as Sherry Palmer, Sarah Clarke as Nina Meyers, Carlos Bernard as Tony Almeida, Canadians Leslie Hope and Elisha Cuthbert as Terry and Kimberly Bauer.
Almost all of the cast members inhabit their roles, making it hard to see any of these characters being played by someone else. Sutherland and Haysbert are definitely the standouts, and I can’t imagine anyone else playing Jack Bauer or David Palmer.
Another great thing about the acting on “24” are the guest stars. This constant stream of “that girl!” or “that guy!” or “Hey! Its Bartlett’s secret service agent.” Mia Kirshner even has an appearance, and being the typecast actor she is, is promptly topless (in the PG way). Or the actor who has died in everything I’ve seen this particular actor in; dying of rabies, a car bombing, and a gunshot wound if anyone is curious.
Plot wise the first season revolves around a threat to the life of Senator David Palmer as he tries to clinch his party’s presidential nomination in California. Jack Bauer as the head of CTU is called in to run the main effort in trying to track down the assassins. Simple, right? Stop assassins, Palmer lives. Wrong. A few dozen fakeouts, red herrings and plot twists later prove that the crew of “24” know how to write a script and pace the plot.
The real-time aspect of “24” actually helps the plot in many instances. For one, the time is always shown at the beginning and end of the commercial breaks and characters are always ball parking figures for how long things will take. It helps to add tension to episodes when you know there is twenty-minutes left to the show, but Jack will be showing up somewhere in ten.
The need to keep the actors occupied also keeps the script writers busy. Where a normal show can toss a main character on the backburner and promptly forget about them for an episode or two until their needed, “24” can’t do this, obviously, which serves the plot well by giving the show an intricate web of subplots woven into and around the main plot. Yet where this gives David Palmer an interesting political subplot, the second half of the show sees some actors being put on the backburner in idiotic fashions. One of these subplots almost veers into science fiction. All to keep the actors occupied so they can be in place to do something important later.
Overall “24” first season is simply phenomenal. A well-acted, well put together television show that is hard to stop watching.
9.5/10