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24: The Complete First Season
Movie: 9/10
And here I thought The Sopranos was addicting. I hadn't seen 24 on it's first season television run, but I had heard quite a bit about it so I decided to pick up the DVD. I'm proud to say I couldn't stop watching them, I breezed through all 24 hour-long episodes in about 3 days. (I spent my Saturday going through twelve of them.) If you were unfortunate and did not catch the first season, buy it. It's truly great television. The plot revolves mainly around CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit) agent Jack Bauer (Golden Globe winner Kieffer Sutherland) who has just been phoned into the office at midnight to help protect a presidential candidate from assassination. The show is 24 hours in Jack's life, each episode is an hour of real time, so all 24 episodes equal one day. There are a few surprises here and there about moles in Jack's unit, his family being kidnapped, and other possible connections to a conspiracy that is more complicated than ever imagined. I would like to note that the first twelve episodes are pure genius and the second half, while not as good as the first, is some of the best TV available. However, some plot twists such as the memory loss of a character and some redundant suspense elements became tiresome. Overall however, 24 is one of the best television series ever produced. Let's hope the real time aspect doesn't limit it's second season, which begins October 29th commercial free on Fox.
Video: 8/10
Anamorphic widescreen which most of the time is very clear. No gripes in this department.
Audio: 7/10
This coulda been a Contenda. It's only stereo, granted that what it was on television, but it could have been a decent 5.1 track. However, the 2.0 provided is quite good and clean.
Extras: 2/10
Ouch. Granted, forty bucks is pretty cheap for 6 discs chock full of 24 hours of quality television, but the lack of extras here is kind of a blow. All we are given is an alternate ending to the first season (with and without commentary) which is "happy" and a brief monologue by Sutherland regarding how much "more" the second season will have. :( Something else would have been nice, even just a commentary on the pilot or something!
Overall: 8/10
The show is worth the forty bucks. I wish The Sopranos was this cheap.
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