This is without a doubt the best straight time depiction of a twenty-four hour suspense action drama that I have ever seen. It's also the worst. Best and worst rolled into one, that's because it's also the only straight time drama I've ever seen and to my knowledge, 24 is the only show that's ever done this. Do I like this style of presentation? Read on.

For starters I would like to qualify my review by saying that I did not watch 24, the TV show, on a weekly episode by episode basis as it was meant to be watched. No, I rented the DVD and watched it over three weekends, watching eight episodes at a sitting and so my perspective is probably skewed and not for the better.

I also did something I rarely do, being the positive individual I try to be, and that is pick the show apart, so the way I'm going to structure my report is to tell you what the show is about, then tell you what I liked and didn't like and finish with my conclusion.

DA PLOT

Unknown terrorists are about to assassinate a U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate, David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert)on the day of the California Presidential primary. A double agent in Kuala Lampur warns the C.T.U. in Los Angeles around midnight, that an assassin is enroute to LA for this assignment.

Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), the overseer of the LA office of the C.T.U. - Counter Terrorism Unit is called in from home for this emergency. After apologies to his wife Teri (Leslie Hope) and his teenage daughter Kimberly (Elisha Cuthbert), Bauer is off to catch some terrorists.

Seemingly unrelated to events, Kimberly sneaks off to meet a friend and later meets some boys at a furniture store, where one of them works. Teri discovers Kimberly is missing and calls Jack, who by now is deep into his investigation and can't get away. Eventually it becomes apparent that the terrorists have a mole in C.T.U. and that Kimberly is a hostage of the bad guys. Later Teri is tricked and is made a hostage as well and the plot thickens.

There is also two side stories, one involving the Senator's son and daughter and an alleged coverup two years previous and the second is that Jack and Nina, previously had an affair when he and Teri had separated for a couple months and I won't get further into it but it gets a substantial amount of play.

WHATZ GOOD

Action

It's not like a movie mind you but for a low budget TV show the action was decent, as were the sets Overall B-

Suspense

They managed to keep the show suspenseful as well. As the story unfolded almost all the main characters except Bauer and the Senator and Bauer's family seemed to be hiding something, in cahoots with the bad guys or out on their own agenda. Overall B+

Da Story pros

Here I'm ambivalent. The story was good in some places and weak in others. Obviously being a TV show the ending of each segment was seasoned with a teaser to get you to tune in next week. This was fine, as it made you go expeditiously to the next track or the next disc to find out what happened, as intended. The problems I had with the story will be discussed later. Overall it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Overall C+

WHATZ BAD

Cast

I can't say I really liked anyone in the cast and I actually disliked several actors. It wasn't their acting, I just couldn't warm up to them.

The actor that I liked best was Dennis Haysbert (Senator Palmer), he did a reasonably good job but I didn't like his wife who is a pushy hag. I realize I wasn't supposed to like her but I didn't like her before it was obvious she was a hag. I also thought the son Curt, was miscast. Haysbert is a tall well built imposing character. Curt was at least seven inches shorter, corpulent with no family resemblance.

Another actor who I liked was CTU's third in command Tony Alameda (Carlos Bernard)who did a good job of alternating between being helpful and looking suspicious. Bauer's second in command Nina Myers (Sarah Clark)never gained my interest. She looked too much like a Sunday School teacher to be believable as second in command of CTU.

I also didn't like the casting of Jack Bauer's wife and daughter. They were OK but not great.

As for Jack Bauer himself, hey I like Kiefer Sutherland alright, he's made some good movies but I had difficulty placing him as a big tough former special forces/swat team macho type. Overall D

Acting and Directing

Generally the acting was acceptable but because of the enormous length of the story there obviously was some dull places and the acting and directing slipped in these areas. Haysbert and Sutherland did the best acting. Most of the rest were situational so the acting was more passive. There were numerous other actors involved through the course of these twenty-four episodes who gave performances of fair to good. Overall C

Da Story cons

From a story stand point I think the writers tried to cram too much into their self imposed 24 hours. For instance Kimberly along with her friend gets kidnapped, then escapes, then gets caught, then meets up with her captured mom, rescued by Jack, sent to a safe house, almost killed, escapes again, then gets arrested, gets captured again and more all in twenty-four hours.

How about this, at approx. 8 am it appears Jack has gone rogue. Within two hours a temporary Director is appointed in his place. Then another and before four oclock a third temporary Director is on the job. I find it incongruous that Jack's boss could have even appointed a single replacement in that timeframe let alone implementing three such changes in eight hours. Where were these people hanging out at the corner coffee shop?

There were other exaggerations and inconsistencies but I need to move on. Overall F+

Other annoying things

Of course this is because it was a TV show but I really got tired of hearing Sutherland doing his this is the longest day of my life monologue. I think it coulda, shoulda been omitted after the intro for each four episode disc.

CTU, have you heard of it? Me either. Stands for Counter Terrorism Unit. That is the basis of the show. Maybe they weren't allowed to use a real agency but if they were I would have preferred it.

So What Do I Think?

After the first two four show discs of six total, 24 had me. It is a grabber and I would have given it five stars. After the next two discs I began to see cracks in the perfect facade. Of course these things are more noticeable when you watch eight episodes at a weekly sitting instead of one. After a while it seemed like we were rehashing old material. Like the travails of Kimberly, in, out, in, out, in, out, etc.

In the last eight hours we got to see head bad guy, played by Dennis Hooper, in whose hands Kimberly was, of course and he picked things up a little but the ending fell flat and I can't tell you more.

CONCLUSION

I know a lot of people raved about this show but then again a lot of people rave about Clive Cusslers silly books. What's the connection, nothing unless silliness is a connection.

Like I have intimated this series would fly a lot better as a TV show than as a DVD mini serial movie. But since it was released that way and that's the way I saw it, that's the way I have to review it. After all we're not reviewing TV shows. In summary, it was exciting but the excitement dragged on too long and was fraught with redundancy, The acting and directing were average and the story was inconsistent. And lastly, too much happened in their twenty four hour period than could have realistically happened in my world.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older