Such a simple idea--yet so fiendishly complex in the execution. 24, as surely everyone knows by now, is a thriller that takes place over 24 hours, midnight to midnight, in 24 one-hour episodes (well, 45-minute episodes if you extract the ad breaks). Everything to take place in real time--on-screen and off-screen time the same--which means no flash-backs, no flash-forwards, no nice handy time-dissolves. Every strand of the plot has to be dovetailed and interlocked to make sure that 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 a pretty impressive job in putting the jigsaw together and keeping the tension ratcheted up high, as Federal Agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) hares around LA trying to stall an assassination attempt on a black 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?) and the final twist, once you start thinking back, makes no sense whatsoever. There are altogether too many huggy family moments ("I love you, Dad." "I love you, son"); and as for ??berbaddie Dennis Hopper???s "Serbian" accent???

Even so, this is undeniably mould-breaking TV. Sutherland, rescuing his career from the doldrums in one heroic leap, fully deserves his Golden Globe. Sets and locations are artfully deployed--we gain a real sense of LA???s splayed-out geography--and Sean Callery???s score is a powerful, brooding presence. Like Murder One and The Sopranos, 24 is one of those series future TV thrillers will have to measure themselves against.

On the DVDs: 24 is released in a six-disc box set. On discs 1- 5 there are no extras, but disc 6 includes the "alternative" ending and a preview of Series 2, presented by an urbane Kiefer Sutherland, that tells us precisely nothing. The transfer, in 16x9 widescreen and 2.0 Dolby Digital sound, does the high production values of the original every justice.--Philip Kemp

This is my favourite tv program ever and i wouldn't argue with someone who said this was the best season either.

Utterly brilliant, the concept of the show is genius and this series has in my opinion the greatest twist in the history of motion picture.

2pm and 11pm are my favourite hours.

This just simply has to be the best tv series i have seen to date... One major drawback about the dvd boxset though is that you'll end up watching it most of it in one night as it is SOOOOOOOO addictive! FABULOUS! in fact eveyone that has (since i recommended the show) watched it has been hooked! love it! well worth the money!

I bought this box set as i had heard so many good things about this series. After reading rave reviews i finally went ahead and purchased it in the hope of discovering another gripping and lovable tv entertainment, but i was bitterly dissapointed. The overall concept is unique and good i'll give it that and the first ten or so episodes are promising for anything but a passable drama series. Then the plot takes a turn for the worse and becomes tedious, repetative, fustrating and annoying. The constant kidnappings and truamatising events become extremly far fetched and unbelievable. Not only that it feels that half the time your watching the same scenes over and over again. None of the characters are likable, but all are just extremley annoying and it's like everyone is a bad guy. There is absolutly no humour or light heartedness, so it's just too depressing and gritty. I'm all for high tension, action and suspense, but this lacks the entertaibnment value of say 'Lost' or 'Prison break'. Not even Jack Bauer is a likable character, but more of a thuggish violent hullugan who goes around killing people with no remorse. The story becomes so annoying despite some good plot twists and in the end you just don't care whether they survive there ordeal or not. This is totally over rated and no where near as good as the critics and the public build it up to be. It's barley even average, perhaps the only stand out is some action scenes and kiefer sutherlands acting. Apart from that i felt this was a waste of money and i certainly won't be purchasing anymore of the other six series. Very dissapointing considering its reputation and i wouldn't recommend this to anyone!

Well for quite a while i have seen 24 all over the tv but i dared not watch it incase it ruined the whole show even though i had no plans to watch it.

Soon enough i stumbled across the season 1 dvd and took the dip of buying it and i loved it. It was so addicting that when i got it in the post, i popped the disc in the player quickly to see a bit of the first episode.

My name is ******* ****** and this was the longest day of my life!

The sofa had a few dents in it once i finished watching it all in one go i was ready to die i was so tired (don't know how the people on the show do it!) but what a great series. Sure parts of the plot may be un-realistic but you do have to take into account that it still is a tv show and how boring would the show be if it was 100% realistic!

24 had minor things that annoyed me, such as Kim's ability to do nothing apart from escape at the end. (SPOILER!)

To find out who the 2nd mole was in the end scared me, i really could'nt belive it. Bad and good, like sweet and sour sauce i did'nt know what to think. hmmmmmmm.....

I hated the fact that jack's wife got amnesia, that was just damn annoying. And i know that this sounds stupid but when Jack was trying to get away from the police why did'nt he just hide in a bush? I mean he had loads of good opputunities. Whatever.

Great series although at (some?) points unrealistic.

I watched this avidly, all the episodes, and concluded that the ending was written by someone who just did not see or read the scripts for the previous episodes. Nobody who watched the whole show had any chance of working out who the mole was.
I was so disappointed with this that I have not watched it since and am amazed that it got a second let alone a third series.