Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1241 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-09-17
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 1152 minutes

Amazon.com
Such a simple idea--yet so fiendishly complex in the execution. 24, as surely everyone knows by now, is a thriller that takes places over 24 hours, midnight to midnight, in 24 one-hour episodes (well, 45-minute episodes if you subtract the commercials). Everything takes place in real time, which means no flashbacks, no flash-forwards, no handy time-dissolves. Every strand of the plot has to be dovetailed and interlocked so things happen just when they should, in the right amount of time. Not that easy.

Creator Robert Cochran and his team of writers and directors have done an impressive job of putting the jigsaw together and keeping the tension ratcheted up high, as federal agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) runs around L.A. trying to stall an assassination attempt on an African American presidential candidate and rescue his wife and daughter from the clutches of the Balkan baddies. Twists, turns, revelations, and cliffhangers are tossed at us with satisfying regularity. It's not perfect: we get some hokey plot devices (instant amnesia, anybody?); the final twist makes no sense whatsoever; there are altogether too many huggy family moments; and as for Dennis Hopper's "Serbian" accent....

Even so, this is undeniably mold-breaking TV. Sutherland, rescuing his career from the doldrums in one heroic leap, fully deserves his Golden Globe. Sets and locations are artfully deployed, and Sean Callery's score is a powerful, brooding presence. Like Murder One and The Sopranos, 24 is one of those series that future TV thrillers will be measured against. --Philip Kemp

Customer Reviews

You MUST watch this season first!!!
If you have skipped ahead and seen other seasons on TV, you will not be surprised at many of the twists this show masterfully takes in its first season.

Let me state: I have lent my copy to over a dozen friends and family. I warn them to set aside a lot of time to watch this because it is so addictive, they really should have listened.

The next thing I know is that I am receiving phone calls at 8 in the morning "I freakin stayed up all night watching this damn show!" I feel like a drug dealer pushing the first amazing hit of 24 on them, then they get addicted and can't possibly have enough.

I say this because you will undoubtledly do the same when you watch it. If you have not seen it, buy this and watch, but please set aside 16 hours...trust me...and don't call me in the morning to yell at me!

FYI Here is my input about the rank of the seasons as far as enjoyability (do NOT watch in this order!)

Season 3 - Best
Season 1
Season 2
Season 5
Season 6
Season 4

Awesome!!!
I watched season 1 of 24 and I have to say I could breathe for the last 3 episodes especially. There are so many twists and turns and the end leaves you shocked and wanting more. I can't wait to get my hands on season 2.

watch your back
Let's face it, you've heard the phrase 'a new kind of television' enough times to make you go numb in the buttocks. Every two-bit wanna'be Seinfeld pilot gets styled that way, too often to cover up a lack of talent with the siren song of novelty.

But you'd be mistaken to be dubious about *24*. This show in its first season was about as *new* as television can get.

Packed into a format of take-on-day-an-hour-at-a-time, skillfully weaving parallel story lines into one coherent, bracing whole, Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer and his long-suffering, occasionally corrupt colleagues at CTU pretty much reached out and grabbed us by the throat.

Four seasons into the deal, one wonders how much more is left of a narrative with the structural limitations its writers have built into it. Yet Season One was not about 'how long' but about 'what if'.

And, to abuse a phrase, did it ever!

Who could have guessed that the ubiquitous 'Nina' would turn out to be not only the mole inside CTU but also a relentless disciplined Queen of Evil?

That revelation doesn't go down until the final episode of a stunning first season.

Buy 24, Season One. Trust no one. Watch your back.