"24"

...the US series about 24 hours in LA's counter-terrorist unit in real time with Kiefer Sutherland... I'm just reaching the end of series 3, it's crazy tense

The first two series were shown on BBC2 but for some reason they dropped it after that. It's been on Sky if you have that, or you can download it from torrent sites which is what I did for series 3...

The first two series were amazingly brilliant thrillers. There's not much more to it than just a series of plot twists every week but it's really well done. Series three wasn't quite so good until about the 18th hour when it really livened up...

Anyone else seen it? What do you think?

 

I've dipped in and out of it when at home with Sky. It is very good, and can really pull you in. But they're on series 6 now, and I get the feeling they're running out of new ideas. Series 5 certainly seemed weaker than the others. I liked what I saw of series 3, quite emotional at points, and some bits are very disturbing. I like the moral ambiguity of it. Jack's a bit of an anti-hero, he gets the job done, but he's a bastard. But this is one of those programmes that raises the question of why every American leading character has to be called Jack....

 

Where do you get that every American lead character is called Jack?...

And I really didn't like 24, a lot of people here follow it religiously but I just never got into it, but I'm not really into these kind of shows anyway...

 

Jack from 24, Jack from Lost, Jack from Stargate are the first three to spring to mind, I'm pretty sure more would if I thought about it....

 

Well I finished series 3 ... quite a powerful ending. Started torrenting series 4 straightaway

It's not my normal cup of tea at all, but as guilty pleasure there are worse things to be hooked on...

 

The first half of the first series was really good! Then they ran out of ideas and it all got silly. It's remained unrealistic ever since, from the clips i've seen.

 

Well I'm into series 4 now ... and I think it's really lost something What I liked about the first two seasons especially was its ambiguity, it was perfectly possible to read it as being against the US's policy in the war on terror as being pro it, and you had the liberal President Palmer struggling with his principles in doing shady things out of necessity. Now they all torture people without thinking twice and have no qualms or doubts about "by any means necessary" in the war on terror. There was even a tribute to a real life dead marine at the end of one of the episodes, which just seemed hugely inappropriate... as if the writers and the whole ethos behind the programme have accepted and internalised the thinking of the Bush administration...

 

Don't forget Jack Ryan from the Tom Clancy genre ... played by Harrison Ford in Clear and Present Danger and various other book made movies.

 

I started watching Series 1 when I was living in the States. I liked it, but didn't like the fact that if you missed one episode you were totally lost. So, after only watching 3-4 weeks I sort of lost interest as I think it also aired on telly over there opposite OZ or the Sopranos or something and I was more into those.

Can't comment on any other Series of it as I never bothered to try to get back into it.

 

Yes, you do need to watch all the episodes, that's why it's probably good to get on DVD (well, download illegally for free!)... I did watch it religiously when the first two seasons were shown on the BBC, didn't miss a week, but that's not possible if you have a life! Not so much an issue with season 4, since Jack seems to find a convenient excuse to detail the whole story-so-far to one of the characters at the beginning of each episode

I would recommend anyone to watch the first two seasons, they are excellent if superficial thrillers, and it was actually quite an original idea, extremely well executed.

 

There's an episode in which the terrorists themselves call their good friends Amnesty international and have them delay CTU from torturing someone with information on the threat... the Amnesty representative is a powerful, slimy, heavy-handed lawyer doing everything he can to stop Jack from saving America!

This is now straight out of Fox News ... has to be seen to be believed!

 

Pretty close, yep, and since the Fox Network runs '24' you'll notice that all News reports shown are Fox News reports. Good example of the vertical integration of the mass media....

 

stargate? *cough* GEEK!

seriously tho I eat, breathe and shit 24, can't get enough of it. Ok the beginning of series 3 is a little dry, but if you play the PS2 game of it it actually bridges the gap between series 2 and 3, explains why there is a 3 year gap between the series and why somethings are different that are never explained in series 3 itself.
There are a couple of confusing points tho how does jack always end up back at CTU? how many excuses can the programme makers come up with to justify he doesn't get executed by the American government?

My favourite scene? Series 2, at the stadium when jack runs up a wall and snaps someones neck round at 180 degrees!

BRING IT ON!

ok maybe it doesn't explain everything, but its awesome!

 

Another thing is the lack of reality that's crept slowly in over the last few seasons... I'm pretty sure in the first couple of seasons, if someone had to get somewhere, they would spend an episode in transit and wouldn't appear much until the next hour. Now every terrorist in the world is conveniently holed up within five minutes' travelling time from CTU Los Angeles.

It didn't have this Fox News integration for seasons 1 and 2, and it didn't really flare up until it took a noticeable swing to the political right in season 4. It's such a shame, it was a great programme, but I'm starting to hate it... I wonder what happened ... the writing has gone totally to shit

 

Now working my way through season 5 The crapper it gets, the easier it is to watch more and more, like visual junk food!

 

Finished the latest season, number 6 - wondering why I bothered

This thread started out with me saying how brilliant it was, now I'm not sure why I watch it