24

I was chatting to someone at a party the other night about 24 and it reminded me of how amazing it is so it deserves at least a mention - 24 in 24 sentences - starting now...

Jack Bauer is an agent working for CTU (Counter Terrorist unit), he's their best agent and will do whatever’s necessary to get results. This will often involve putting himself in harms way, torturing people, disobeying direct orders and undergoing torture himself.

The action in seasons 1 - 7 is phenomenal, which goes without saying, but in my opinion what gives 24 the edge over many action packed dramas and is the depth of Jack Bauer. To be the man he has become, an unstoppable sometimes out of control machine, he has become a very disturbed person, pushing away the people he cares about most, and hardly trusting anyone. Although watching Jack getting tortured and refusing to break is brilliant telly, it's the torture he causes within himself which makes the show. He will do anything to save the country from attack, which often means sacrificing himself, and on occasion putting his own family's neck on the line for the greater good.

The whole concept of 24, being set over 24 hours does add a great intensity, but can bring up a few questions. How can all this happen in just one day? What does Jack Bauer do the other 364 days of the year? When does he wee and poo? After watching a whole 6 seasons and now currently watching season 7, the poor bugger goes through so much in a day and doesn’t even stop to relieve himself - he never gets the chance.

Another thing that slightly annoys me is how they move from one season to another. Jack has died about 3 or so times now, right at the end of a season, then miraculously at the beginning of the following season, he either faked his own death, we misunderstood and he wasn't actually dead or found a cure to whatever he was dying of, when previously we'd been told there was no such thing.

I don't think I've given too much away by telling you he comes back to life, presumably you realize there's seven seasons with him in.

Don't get me wrong I love that they keep making more, but maybe they should stop killing him off and bringing him back to life. Just let him retire, and then come out of retirement again if they need another series.

Finally my last criticism and I don't want to dwell on any of these because I love the show to bits. The unpredictability of the show has ironically made some bits quite predictable. If Jack captures the baddy pretty early on you know that it'll either turn out there's a bigger baddy, or the baddy is actually a goody and that the real baddy is Jack's informant/mate/brother/mother/dog. It's like being told by a friend that there's a twist in a film "but don't worry I won't tell you what it is." Great, but now I know there's a twist I'm going to be looking out for it and probably guess it now anyway. But I guess that's apart of the 24 experience, guessing who's doing what for whom.

Overall though I recommend it to everyone, Keifer Sutherland's performance as Jack Bauer (probably the coolest character on t.v ever) is brilliant, he draws you to the edge of your seat in times of action and can also make you shed a tear in times of troubles. No scoring this time - just my highest recommendation.

Done - and yeah I know a couple of sentances are a bit too long, but cut me some slack, I immediatly regretted the 24 sentances idea, but I went through with it as I said I would - that's the kind of guy I am.