The Longest Day(s) of Jack's Life (24)

Member Name: alocin

Product:	24
Date:	13/04/03 (360 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 20 hours of plot twists and turns, Great acting and directing

Disadvantages: Have to keep with it for 24 weeks, Only get to keep up with it for 24 weeks!

People are divided into two camps - those who love every second of 24 or those who hate it. Regardless of which group you fall into once you start watching you just can't stop! This programme is highly addictive and you find yourself wondering which direction the story will twist to next, and believe me the writers twist the story into seriously complex and sometimes unlikely knots.

24 is a programme from the USA, as many great dramas are (eg West Wing, ER). It is now into it's second series in the UK on BBC2 on Sunday nights and won several awards for the first outing. It is based on a brilliant idea that is rarely used on tv - real time. There are 24 hour long episodes (in the USA, 50 mins on the BBC as there are no adverts) covering a day in the life of Counter Terrorist Unit's Jack Bauer. Although the 24 hour idea is somewhat spoilt by the episodes being shorter it does not seriously affect your viewing experience. There is some great directing and producing - often there is a split screen technique to show different characters at the same moment.

In the first series (warning - spoilers) Jack Bauer has a really bad day. There is a threat to the life of the first serious black presidential candidate on the California elections day, Jack's daughter and wife are kidnapped, there are moles inside the CTU, double crossing everywhere and at least 10 cell phone conversations every episode. There are explosions, shootings, suicides and even the actors did not know what would happen at the end. The mole (i'll keep it a secret for you) only found out they were the mole 5 episodes from the end of filming! 20 hours worth of tv plot cannot be covered by a paragraph so if you haven't seen it go buy it on video or dvd. The story is printed in more detail on www.bbc.co.uk/24.

I was glued to the screen for the whole of this series. It was impossible to see where the story would end, and you were kept guessing to the last minute.
There were some improbable bits. Jack's daugther was kidnapped, escaped, kidnapped, escaped till you didn't know what was going on. There was also a running joke about how Teri, Jack's wife, seemed to keep wearing her cardigan through explosions, kidnaps, and escapes. Still you could believe it though - I only felt that the plot was truly unbelievable when Teri developed amnesia after her daughter fell off a cliff in a burning car!

24 is now into it's second series which looks set to be as good as the first. Nothing much has changed - there are still 24 episodes, still split screens, still Jack's truly exhausting day (can't waste valuable screen time with sleep) and still his daughter is getting kidnapped, arrested, etc. However when the formula works this well why change it? I have heard that Kiefer Sutherland (Jack) has signed up for 7 series - an entire week's worth of disaster! Now that would be tiring!

If you have missed the episodes so far this season then BBC2 sometimes has an evening with 4 or 5 episode so you can catch up. If you have Sky or Digital tv then you can watch the next week's episode after the current one on BBC Three - just don't spoil it for your terrestrial friends by telling them what is going to happen!

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