Though professionally I have to watch a lot of television shows I really don’t care for very much, there are few that are truly must-see TV for me.  Fox’s 24 is one of those shows, and I have been happy to see that the producers have been able to continue a premise that could have easily been a two-season splash-and-crash like Stephen Bochco’s season-long murder trial series, Murder One.  The exploits of the maverick agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and his breaking-all-the-rules way of saving the world is a stream of action, drama, and seat-of-your-pants thrilling suspense that easily sucks people into watching each week.  Last season I knew that I would be unable to catch every episode week to week, so I taped the entire season and watched it almost within a two-week period.  All I can say is that it was hard not to watch all 24 episodes in one sitting, and I came as close to being an addict as I would wish.

If you haven’t had the chance to catch 24 yet and you like non-stop Energizer Bunny drama, then I oblige you to watch the four-hour, two-night premier beginning this Sunday and continuing Monday.  24 is probably the only show for which could extend a premier over two nights.  As you probably know or could guess, 24 follows a storyline that takes place in one day with each episode comprising one hour of that day.  If you can suspend the belief that in many episodes Jack or other characters seem to navigate the streets of Los Angeles in a record amount of time, the real-time scenario is quite compelling, and to the writers’ credit, the show seems to keep one step ahead of what is happening in the news each week.   When recent headlines dealt with U.S. torture policy and possible illegal wiretaps, viewers of 24 can’t help but think of Jack Bauer and his dubious exploits that usually circumvent regulations, treaties, and laws but always seem to get the bad guy.   For those who are critical of officials, like Jack, who overstep their bounds, the show doesn’t let him go unpunished — just look at all he’s gone through: wife and daughter kidnapped, wife killed, electric shock torture, having to kiss the woman who killed your wife, fired from your job, being shot at constantly, becoming a heroine addict undercover, demotion, having to fake your own death, and the list goes on.  It’s not a pretty sight.

The show’s center is the aforementioned government agent Jack Bauer who happily breaks every rule in the book to help prevent some kind of disaster from occurring, from assassinations to nuclear bomb attacks.  And the writers have thrown everything they could possibly think of at him to keep him from achieving his objective — which is what makes the show so exciting.  Besides Jack and a few key characters, the cast is ever changing but always revolves around Los Angeles’ Counter Terrorist Unit, or CTU, as the agency Jack always seems to return to work for and is somewhat of a character in itself.  I wonder if college students are playing drinking games like they used to do with The Bob Newhart Show where they would take a shot every time a character would say “Hi, Bob” on that 70s sitcom — in this case, it would be whenever a character says CTU.  I don’t think anyone would be conscious for too long.

It’s hard to find another show on television with as much stuff packed into each episode, including storylines, characters, and action.  According to Jon Cassar, series producer and director of most of the key episodes (including the four hour premier), “You have to understand that we do what amounts to about ten to twelve feature films each year and I would say that the quality of our shows are equal or better than anything in theaters right now.”

According to Cassar, the decision the writers and producers made at the end of season one was key in making 24 one of television’s best series.  “When they decided to kill off Jack’s wife Teri (Leslie Hope) it ended up being the best thing we could have done because after that anything could happen.  No character is safe no matter how loved they are by the fans.  It’s funny to see the actors all rush to see if they’re the next one voted off when they receive new scripts.”  Even Kiefer Sutherland has said in interviews that he knows that Jack Bauer himself will have to be killed off at some point in order for the show to keep its edge.

To understand the reach the show has made worldwide, there’s an interesting anecdote that Cassar related.  During the filming of a close-up of someone punching in phone numbers for season one, the prop man, doubling as the actor, dialed his own cell phone number.  Usually, in films and TV shows, the 555 exchange is used in place of a real phone number to prevent anyone dialing a real person.  The show aired as shot and no one thought much about it until one afternoon while in production on season two, the prop man’s phone rang and on the other line was a curious fan from Sweden who had just seen the episode in question and decided to see whose number the character dialed.  The prop man talked with the fan for a little bit and then passed the phone around the set.  They began getting more and more calls from around the world and what they found was that the fans were not only avid about the show but offered terrific feedback that helped the writers and producers in the development of future episodes.

24 is a cornucopia of action, suspense, thrills and chills, great drama, and some of the most interesting characters on television (or in movies, for that matter).  This season looks like an even bigger thrill ride, and I highly recommend you catch every episode of this terrific series.  I bet that you’ll be riveted to your television set and so disappointed each week when the hourly time counter rolls over to the next hour.  24 premiers on Fox this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET, continuing on Monday at 8 p.m. ET, and settles in its 9 p.m. ET Monday slot the following week without any preemptions until the season finale in May.

Rich Burlingham