From Robert Bidinotto:
Time to rush out and buy a stack of blank videotapes, then crank up the VCR…
If have only heard about the sensational TV thriller series “24”…or if you are already a fan, and have missed important episodes…now is your chance to tape/see all four seasons of the best damned series on television.
Starting today, Sept. 13, the A&E cable television network is airing back-to-back episodes of “24,” starring Kiefer Sutherland, for a solid month. Copy/click the preceding link and/or check your local listings for the exact time in your area.
“24” — produced by Fox TV, but with the previous seasons now rerun on A&E — has become an addiction for me and for millions of viewers. The ingenious premise is that every season of the series consists of 24 episodes, with each episode representing one hour of a single 24-hour day, shown in “real time.” During that day, as a digital clock ticks down on the bottom of the screen, a terrorist plot is uncovered that will wreak enormous damage on the nation. That is, unless the highly secret Counter Terrorism Unit, or “CTU,” and its Los Angeles-based agent extraordinaire Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) can find out where the terrorists are and stop them.
We’re talking serious WMD here, folks. I mean like nuking L. A. Setting off biological warfare cannisters in urban hotels. Melting down nuclear power plants. Shooting down Air Force One.
That kind of stuff.
While dealing with such crises, the personal lives of CTU agents and that of the President of the United States get all entangled in the machinations. The plot convolutions are myriad, and always throw viewers for a loop. The writers gleefully violate just about every convention you have ever seen on TV: veteran good guys get killed or turn out to be traitors; Our Hero is forced to do some of the most ruthless and unexpected things imaginable. You never know whom you can trust — or trust to survive the day.
Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer is like some magnificent hybrid Achilles and Job, both terrifically heroic and terribly long-suffering. Even during the weaker moments of Seasons Two and Three, that character held the show together and glued viewers to the TV screen each week. Season One (starting tonight) and Season Four, however, were unqualified knockouts, providing some of the most exciting, riveting television ever produced.
So check out your TV listings, then set your VCR in slow-record mode. I absolutely guarantee that if you watch the first three episodes, you will become hooked for good.
And after you watch these four seasons, you’ll have Season Five to look forward to in January…