24 - First Season DVDs 1-3 - Jack Bauer is Fu@*%&

Jul

2

24 - First Season DVDs 1-3 - Jack Bauer is Fu@*%&

≡ Category: Action, Essential, Movie Reviews By Country, United States |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: United States
Genre: Action
Director: Various
Year: 2001

Rating:

TRASH CINEMA ESSENTIAL MOVIE

I can scarcely believe that I’m recommending a TV show at all, much less as a Trash Cinema Essential, but the spooks and terrorists melodrama 24 is primo, high grade 100% trash.

What makes 24 great trash? Well, let’s start with the incredibly ballsy premise. It’s a classic Perils of Pauline setup. The entire season takes place over 24 hours, more or less in real time, with each episode covering one hour.

Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) is having the worst day of his life. He works for the government agency CTU, an acronym for Counter Terrorist Unit. He’s just been told that there is going to be an attempt on the life of Senator David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) the first viable black presidential candidate in the history of the United States (talk about being prescient - I bet the show’s creators are giving each other high fives right about now that Obama is the Democratic candidate for president).

But that’s not the worst of it. There’s a mole somewhere in CTU who is cooperating with the terrorists, so Jack can’t trust anyone, including his subordinate, Nina Myers (Sarah Clarke) who he recently had an affair with while he was separated from his wife Teri (Leslie Hope). What’s more, many of his subordinates don’t trust Jack because he turned in several of his people who turned out to be dirty some time before the time frame of the show.

You think that’s enough to dump on poor Jack? Oh, no. Jack’s daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) decides to choose this night of all nights to sneak out of the house for a rendezvous with her friend and some college boys. These “college boys” are not what they appear to be, and soon enough it seems as though Kim will be living (and possibly dying) through a parent’s worst nightmare.

That’s enough conflict, ya think? Not for this series. Senator Palmer has his own problems. His daughter Sandra (Regina King) was raped several years earlier and evidence has just come to light that Senator Palmer’s son, Keith (Vicellous Reon Shannon) may have murdered her assailant. A reporter is threatening to break the story on the day of the California primary which is — you guessed it — today.

There’s more, but you get the idea. There’s enough plot for a dozen TV shows. Characters drop like flies. The sheer amount of stuff that happens makes 24 slightly ludicrous but relentlessly entertaining.

But it gets even more shameless. To snare the female demographic, the show’s creators amp up the Lifetime Channel aesthetic. Most of the show’s character’s have either been in relationships with each other, are threatened with sexual violence, are keeping secrets from their loved ones, or are party to a variety of other soap opera-ish shenanigans. It’s nuts and positively giddy.

Now, you may think I’ve been giving away spoilers in this review, but I assure you that’s not the case. There are so many revelations and reversals per episode, I couldn’t possibly give them all away.

Now, when a show like this starts out pedal to the metal, you can’t help but think it’s going to crash and burn. How long can you keep up an all-out sprint, after all? But I’m already 10 episodes into the first season, and so far neither the pace nor the energy are flagging.

But how does 24 avoid collapsing into sheer absurdity? By demonstrating a level of professionalism roughly equal to Jack Bauer’s.

The shows are superbly written, for this kind of thing. The dialog has a tinge of that made-for-TV quality (how could it not, written at such a blistering pace), but within those limits, it’s believable and stays within character. The characters, from Jack Bauer down to the bit parts are written consistently. So far, considering the dozens of reversals and surprises, not one character has done anything that rings false.

Then there are the plot mechanics of the crises and reversals themselves. Time after time, the writers paint Jack Bauer into seemingly impossible situations and get him out again in believable ways that depend on Jack’s ability to think on his feet, rather than some deus ex machina (okay, in episode 10 there were a couple of incidents that strained credibility, but not to the breaking point).

Then there are the performances. 24’s creators were very lucky to get Kiefer Sutherland to play Jack Bauer. He creates an indelible portrait of a borderline crazy, ruthless, resourceful, stressed out intelligence professional who is also a compassionate husband and father. (One slight criticism — the writers have him say “I promise” WAY too many times. It’s a wonder the characters don’t roll their eyes at him.) Dennis Haybert as Senator Palmer and Penny Johnson as his political wife Sherry are also very good.

From there, the major character performances take on a bit of that familiar tinny television quality we know so well, but the acting is just good enough for the material, and has the bonus of providing a possibly unintended layer of meta humor to the show. 24’s producers also have the wit to hire extraordinary character actors for secondary roles such as Xander Berkeley as Bauer’s agency nemesis George Mason.

Then there’s the directing. So far, the lion’s share of the episodes have been directed by feature film director Stephen Hopkins, whose past credits have included Blown Away, Predator 2, and Dangerous Game. Okay, so his taste in projects could be better, but he has the directing chops, and in 24, he has the support to put his skills to effective use.

In summary, 24 is a high wire balls-to-the-wall trash extravaganza that does nothing but take risks, but so far pulls off every last one.