24 - Season One Review

On November 6, 2001, less than two months after the horrific events of September 11, the Fox television network premiered Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran's serialized adventure-suspense-political drama 24.

Cochran and Surnow, who have worked on such TV series as La Femme Nikita, The Equalizer, and JAG (just to name a few) and the Rupert Murdoch-owned network were taking a huge gamble; not only were they going to delve into potentially painful-to-the-viewers topics such as terrorism on American soil, but the show's format of depicting a single day's events over 24 hour-long episodes (with commercials factored in, of course) was unusual (if not unprecedented).

Indeed, there were those at Fox and elsewhere who were anxious not only about the unusual format and the violent content of the series, but also about the emotional impact of the show's pilot episode, in which (among other things) a 747 is blown up in midair by a cold-blooded assassin as part of the evildoers' nefarious scheme for the first season of 24.

Day One: 12 AM to 12:AM (2001-2002 Season)

"The following takes place between 12 AM and 1 AM on the day of the California Presidential primary. Events take place in real time."

The first season of 24, with its pilot episode written by series creators Cochran and Surnow, not only introduces the viewer to its protagonist, Counter-Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), his wife Teri (Leslie Hope) and daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) and the people he works with at CTU-Los Angeles, but it also lays out the series' basic premise of interweaving various story threads that keep the viewer not only spellbound but wanting to guess who is helping Jack and CTU foil the bad guys' plots and who isn't.  Sometimes, especially in Day One, the plot twists were straight out of old and cheesy suspense stories, but more often than not, the show's intricate web of plots, counter-plots and double-crosses kept viewers on their toes and wanting to see how Jack Bauer would get out of whatever bad situation he was in at the end of each hour.

Richard Walsh: If Palmer gets hit, the first African-American with a real shot at the White House, they'll tear this country apart.

Although it is very much an action-suspense thriller (closer to Tom Clancy than to Ian Fleming), 24's tale of vendetta-driven terrorists plotting to kill Sen. David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) on the day of the California primary is also the intimate story of the implosion of three families

Kimberly Bauer: So, is she still giving you the cold shoulder?
Jack Bauer: If by "she" you're referring to your mother, I'd appreciate if you called her by her name. Mom. And no, she's just busy.
Kimberly Bauer: She's busy a lot.

First, the Bauer family. When we first see Jack Bauer, the setting is almost dully domestic -- he's playing a game of chess with his teenage daughter Kim. But shortly before he gets a call from one of his fellow agents in the Counter Terrorist Unit, we see the domestic tranquility is belied by some tension. Kim is openly rude to her mother, Teri, and will soon sneak out to go partying with her friend Janet....which will be one of the worst choices she's ever made. And as we watch the series unfold, we'll learn about the straining effects of Jack's job on the marriage and of Jack's affair with fellow CTU agent Nina Myers (Sarah Clarke).

The second family implosion involves the Palmer family. Just as it seems everything is going perfectly for Sen. Palmer and his picture perfect family, we see as 24 unfolds that all is not well here, either. Skeletons from the Palmer children's past are surfacing on the very day that David Palmer seems poised to win his party's nomination for the Presidency, and he is forced to see how far his ambitious wife Sherry (Penny Jerald Johnson) will go to keep ugly family secrets out of the public eye.

And finally, there is the Drazen clan. Serb nationalists who supported Milosevic's iron-fisted rule, they were targeted by American forces and lost several family members as a result of a covert operation to take out the Drazen patriarch. Now they are bent on revenge and will do anything and kill anyone to get it.

Milo Pressman: What do you think they're going to do to Jack?
Tony Almeida: Not going to name a street after him, that's for sure.

My Viewpoint:  Although I don't watch much TV nowadays, there are a few series that I will make time for, and 24 is certainly one of them. I appreciate, for instance, its intricate plotting and better-than-the-average-TV-series character development.  In Dennis Haysbert's performance as Sen. Palmer, for instance, I had a sense of the character's ethical and moral fiber and totally bought into the premise of a straight-talking Presidential character with the courage to do the right thing, while equally accepting the contrasting actions of his ambitious wife Sherry.

I also found the show's necessity for hi-tech stuff such as cell phones and computers to be interesting.  Since much of the episodes usually have heroes and villains alike needing to stay in constant touch to carry out their activities, the ubitiquous cell phones and PCs, PDAs, and other toys are essentiall to the exposition of the story:

Kevin Carroll: [Calls Andre on his cellphone] Mr. Drazen?
Andre Drazen: [Picks up] Yes.
Kevin Carroll: We just got to the transfer point.
Andre Drazen: What about Gaines?

\ also absolutely love the way in which the creators refuse to go along with established TV storytelling norms by giving viewers a satisfying climax, then jarring the mood with a stab-like twist at the very end. 

I also like the way in which events from this season will carry over into the ones that follow, which comes pretty close to how Tom Clancy plots his Jack Ryan novels, and to some extent echoes reality, albeit in a more dramatic fashion.

Yes, 24 does have its flaws (the travails of wayward Kim and Teri's amnesia in the "late afternoon" episodes are a bit over-the-top for some viewers, including me), but overall this is a superlative masterpiece of television drama.

The Original Edition DVD: The 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Season One six-DVD collection presents all 24 episodes uncut and without commercials (the running times of which were factored into each episode's ticking clock timer). Each of the six DVDs contains four "hours" of Day 1; the episodes are shown on Widescreen format and have Spanish and English subtitle options as well as a 5.1 stereo surround audio mix, an attractive case with a slipcover box, a complete plot summary guide, and the unaired alternative ending plus a Season 2 promotional teaser.