Before my actual review, let me say this first. I don’t usually review TV shows season by season, but halfway through season two (and now in the first half of season three), I have realised it would make sense to do this for 24. Given its nature, it’s a different “beast” in each season, albeit with the same characters, more or less. That means you should see my reviews for all seasons of this show go up at some point.

I remember being a kid when the first season premiered in the Czech Republic, and the show was a phenomenon, even there. Especially the first season, people talked about it a lot, there was no escape from it, and it bothered me so much I could not watch it (I was 10/11 years old, so it makes sense why I couldn’t watch it). But even that tells you something about how this show came and dominated pop culture for some time. And I wondered how it would play today, more than 20 years later, after its initial run and with many more outstanding shows at our disposal. The answer is… not bad, but it’s definitely showing its age.

The first season is mostly seat-gripping stuff about Kiefer Sutherland having the worst day ever, from his family getting kidnapped to him trying to stop the assassination attempt on the presidential nominee. Of course, here is where I must mention the “gimmick” that made 24 so unique – it’s all in real time. Well, if you by real-time, you mean around 40 minutes minus the ad breaks. And as you might suspect, a lot happens during those 40 minutes.

To show my hand a bit, I am currently watching season three of this show, and I am guessing this will be a narrative throughout my reviews for each season, but this “events happen in real time” gimmick is what is stopping this show from being amazing. Because if you are displaying one day “in real time”, you will get some storylines that you don’t care for that much and plenty of “filler” that might lead somewhere or not. In the first season, there was a storyline about Jack Bauer’s (Kiefer’s character) family getting kidnapped and ok, you go along for the ride at first. But then, when it happens again, and it’s only his daughter Kim (portrayed by Elisha Cuthbert) this time, you are left wondering: “Wait, how did they know where she was?” You understand they have to be involved somehow, but often the show takes a shortcut to get from point A to point B and is almost banking on you not questioning it and “just go with it”.

I liked most of the drama surrounding the family of Dennis Haysbert (he is awesome in this show) and how the show keeps on testing his morals to see whether he “cracks” or not. I like that his character (at least from what I have seen so far) is almost the moral centre of this show, where no matter what the situation is, he is always trying to do the right thing. I don’t know; it’s nice to see politicians having some moral compass, at least in the land of fiction.

And when you think there is nothing this more than 20 years old show can surprise you with, there is a twist towards the very end of this season I will admit I didn’t see coming. Without spoiling anything (I know it’s more than 20 years old, but still), if you have seen it, you 100% know what I am talking about. 24 is definitely still a great show that ultimately does the best it can with the gimmick it chooses for itself. But I am afraid that gimmick will ultimately be this show’s downfall as you must have 24 episodes each season because of this “real-time” stuff. And you can’t have “non-eventful” episodes, so many times there will be repeating storylines or characters that might get on your nerves. Without getting too ahead of myself, season two would have been an excellent season and one of the best seasons of TV I have seen had it not been for one character. Spoiler alert, Kim, I am looking at you. Or, to be more precise, I am looking at writers that seemed to have no clue what to do with her character.

Overall, 24 still holds up after 20+ years. There was a reason it made a “dent” in pop culture at the very beginning of the new millennium, and that is because of its tempo, gimmick and casting. The show is a constant adrenaline ride that rarely slows down and keeps you hooked up for more. The only tiny problem I had with the first season was that some episodes (or storylines) felt unnecessary (repeated kidnapping), and that is where I could see the first glimpses of this “gimmick” of real-time events possibly being the biggest problem with 24. I wonder whether there will be at least one season I will 100% love; only time will tell.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke