24 Season 1 Starring Kiefer Sutherland
Hit Television Drama in Which Events are Told in Real Time
Sep 21, 2009 Christopher Sharman
Jack Bauer is a CTU agent and he is about to have a very bad day. His wife and daughter have been kidnapped, and a presidential candidate is the target of an assassination plot. He discovers that people he works with might be involved in both.
24 Season 1's Plot and Characters
Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) Agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) has recently moved back into his home after a six month separation from his wife Teri (Leslie Hope). His family are beginning to put their lives back together when Jack is called into work after CTU discover that there is a plot to assassinate presidential candidate David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert). It also becomes clear that members of CTU have been compromised and are aiding those behind in the assassination plot.
Jack’s daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) has also snuck out to meet up with a friend and meet a couple of guys. What neither realise is that those behind the assassination of Palmer are also planning to kidnapping Kim and her mother in order to manipulate Jack.
Meanwhile David Palmer is informed that the man who raped his daughter might have been killed by his son 7 years earlier, and if that news comes out then it might destroy his chances of getting into the White House.
Within CTU Jack’s suspicions about who he can trust grow, his former lover Nina Myers (Sarah Clarke) and her current boyfriend/rebound guy Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard), would normally be his go-to people but now he doesn’t know if they are in on his wife and daughter’s kidnapping.
A Television Revolution
24 is a unique television series in which an entire season happens within 24 hours. Season 1 was the first time that the formula had been tried and as a result has a few teething problems, but it is still one of the best shows on television (second only to Dexter)
The fictional Counter Terrorist Unit is in Los Angeles and is the government organisation charged with preventing Palmer’s assassination. Jack is part of the field ops team, and has in the past exposed several members of CTU for embezzlement which means he is not exactly very popular to begin with.
Initially the series was written with 13 episodes which is why it seems as though things were nicely wrapped up at the end of the first dozen, however, the series was renewed and so the story ended up with two acts.
The main problem with the first series of 24 was that the writers hadn’t learned how to maintain the story through numerous major plots and minor sub plots. There are several episodes when Teri develops amnesia after an accident and is seen wandering around Los Angeles before regaining her memory a few hours (and episodes) later. The purpose of this tactic seems to be that Teri is important at the beginning of the series and at the end but flounders a bit in the middle so the writers had to come up with a way of just putting her to one side for a while until she is necessary again.
However, the criticisms of 24 are minor; on the whole it is a brilliantly original series in which the simple tasks that are almost never seen in films (like driving between locations or tracking someone to their destination) become major factors in the show's timeline. The twisting plot leaves the audience guessing until the last possible moment and makes 24 one of the great television shows. Each episode is linked to the others which means that unlike many other shows, the audeince cannot watch a single episode they have to watch the whole series.
3/5
Some teething problems but on the whole an excellent concept perfectly executed
24 Season 1
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