TV series review – “24” (2002) – first series

I finally got around to watching this on DVD and really enjoyed it. I had been too intimidated to watch it on television – too much of a commitment and felt if I missed one episode that was it. I didn’t realize a lot of episodes would be the same – Kiefer Sutherland shooting at someone, someone shooting at Kiefer, a confrontation, someone kidnapping Kiefer’s wife/daughter, a tense domestic situation involving David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert). It remains gripping stuff, though, with some incredibly clever writing and plotting – disposing of villains at the half way point and getting in new villains, offering a genuine surprise mole at the end.
My favourite scene was the senator’s aide-tries-to-bug-her-assassin-lover scene – it’s marvelous writing: you think she’s going to be killed, then he’s going to be killed, but then… oh, see it.
The vision of the show is terrific, with its split screen and moody look and feel (the main director was semi-Aussie Stephen Hopkins and it’s the best work he’s done to date). Kiefer doesn’t really have much of a character to play – a good man in a bad world, and that’s about it, really. I couldn’t recognize any of the other cast except for Haysbert and the special guest stars towards the end – presumably this was intentional because it greatly adds to the spooky feel of the show: you don’t know who to trust, etc.
My favourite character was Nina, Kiefer’s assistant who carries a torch for him – hungry for love! It’s not that ground breaking in many of its characterizations – I note how most of the assassins are still very sexy, drug dealers have long hair, sex usually results in death – but that doesn’t really matter. Kiefer’s daughter was a little annoying – Elisha Cuthbert is cute, but is a bit too much “I’m playing a determined girl and I can’t really act” and her character is annoying (her mother says she’s pregnant and Elisha goes into a sulk – after they’ve been kidnapped together!).
Around the four-fifths mark it felt a little slack – Elisha’s women-in-prison sequence, the Lady Macbeth antics of David Palmer which didn’t seem to really strike true somehow. But all in all invigorating television.