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Rating:  -
This DVD gives you a good dose of the new 24 season which is the first four episodes and it also gives you a sneak peek of the next episode which is 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. So for some last thoughts I have to say three words about this DVD "c'est si bon!"
Rating:  -
For a suspense-driven TV show that attracts fans as polarizing as Dick Cheney and Barbra Streisand, "24" has sustained an impressive amount of momentum for the past five seasons based on its timely, post-9/11 premise of covering 24 hours in the derring-do life of federal agent Jack Bauer in his constant attempt to avert terrorist attacks in Los Angeles. The just-aired sixth-season premiere carries the same propulsive creative energy forward, and 20th Century Fox smartly seized a marketing opportunity to release the first four hours on DVD this week.
The action picks up twenty months after the end of season five when Jack was kidnapped and tortured by the Chinese for his role in killing the consulate dramatized in the prior season. A bedraggled Jack, looking like a palsied, late-period Howard Hughes, emerges from a plane looking and acting most fragile. An interesting plot development that has been dismissed for now, this vulnerability lasts roughly ten minutes as the old Jack comes back to form when it becomes clear that the country is being bombarded by small-scale terrorist attacks. As the key negotiating pawn, Jack has been freed to be the sacrificial lamb to terrorist Abu Fayed in return for mastermind al-Assad. After the departure of dastardly Charles Logan last season, the new U.S. President is David Palmer's callow young brother Wayne, who has haltingly brokered the deal. Meanwhile, complications occur when Jack finds out that al-Assad has decided to forsake terrorism for a pivotal role in his country's new government.
The first two hours are better than the next two, primarily because the set-up is so intriguingly far-fetched that the execution can't help but get somewhat perfunctory. The most egregious storyline involves a suburban family who get caught up in the day's activity through their connection with their seemingly innocent Islamic-American neighbor. Part of the problem is casting actor Kal Penn, star of "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle", as the poker-faced neighbor. The White House meetings also have a bit of a by-the-numbers feel to them, though a new character, White House Chief-of-Staff Thomas Lennox, livens the proceedings with his aggressive moves toward racial profiling, a most timely and controversial topic for the show to cover.
Familiar characters return - Bill Buchanan now officially heads up the CTU and is married to National Security Adviser Karen Hayes; and CTU analyst Chloe O'Brian, glammed up a bit more, is surrounded by a new supervisor and a co-worker who happens to be his ex-husband. New characters look promising, such as Lennox (an ideal part for Peter MacNichol's weasel-like persona) and Palmer's self-righteous sister Sandra, a civil rights attorney partnered with the head of the legal counselor for the Islamic-American Alliance. There is also a new CTU second-in-command, Nadia Yassir, who is helpfully fluent in Arabic. None of the actors particularly stand out, but Kiefer Sutherland's otherwise stoic turn is leavened by peeks into a more complex ambiguity this season. The rest of season looks promising especially with the sudden detonation at the climax. The DVD's sole extra is an extended preview of the fifth episode.
Rating: -
I love 24, and have the box sets to Seasons 1-5. Obviously I'm going to get Season 6 when it comes out, but now Fox has thrown this 'Premiere Set' of the first 4 Episodes of Season 6 into the mix. Now, I would normally blow this off and wait for the complete box set, but at a local retailer I saw that if you bought this 'Premiere Set' for $9.99, you get a $10.00 coupon off any season of 24, including the Season 6 box set when it comes out (the coupon doesn't expire until the end of February, 2008). Well, seeing how I am gonna buy the Season 6 box set anyways, and between the 'Premiere Set' and the coupon you break even, it's a pretty sweet deal! If you're a die hard J.B. fan like my wife and I, I say go for it......
Rating: -
24 is incredible. Every new season is so much better than the one that came before that it makes the previous season look downright dull by comparison. And last season won an Emmy! Best show on television. Kiefer Sutherland is amazing, as always. If you missed the season premiere, buy the DVD. It'll be well worth it.
Rating: -
It's January. Must be time for 24 to be off to another heart pounding start.
For the past 11 weeks, terrorists have been randomly attacking cities all over America with random suicide attacks. President Wayne Palmer (DB Woodside) is desperate, so when a man calls and claims he can turn in the mastermind behind the terror, he'll agree to anything, including turning Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) over to be killed.
As so Jack's return from a Chinese prison camp is arranged, and a very broken Jack is turned over to the terrorist. But if you think that this spells the end for our hero, you don't know Jack.
So far, this season seems to be a bit less exciting then the previous ones. Of course, part of that may be because I saw most of the plot points coming before they happened. There were one or two that took me by surprise, however. I'm not sure I like the civil rights storyline either. Kiefer's acting is amazing so far. I believed he was a very different man in the first episode. Of course, that changes far too quickly to be realistic. But the show wouldn't be fun if it were realistic.
For those wondering about the DVD, you get the first four episodes of season six. As a bonus, you get the first 12 minutes of episode five - basically until the first commercial break. And there's a coupon good through February 2008 for ten dollars off any season set of 24, including season six.
Whether you buy this disc now or wait until the full season comes out is up to you. All I know is I'll be tuning in Monday night to find out what happens next to Jack.
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