24 - A Review

Recently, I started watching 24 (A TV series). And what a wonderful experience it has been!

Something about the serial - Each season covers one full day. With 24 episodes apiece, it translates to each episode dedicated to one hour. It means, events happen in real time, with the space for commercial breaks made where the characters are doing some monotnous activity, like driving, waiting etc. In fact, each episode starts with a announcement to this effect, "The following events happen between 7AM and 8AM". Major thrilllaps!!!

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The series involves a fictious US government agency, Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU), with the protagonist being Jack Bauer. In each season, this guy, along with the agency, tackles a major terrorist threat, ranging from assasination attempt on the would-be president, a nuclear attack to the terrorist threat of letting loose a deadly virus on the common public. The stakes are indeed high, where the casuality estimates generallly run into percentages of the total population of Los Angeles where the CTU unit is based. The storyline itself is full of action scenes which even beat the Bond movie climaxes. High tech equipment like infrared scanning and satellite surveillance are the order of the day. The plot develops quickly in the first couple of episodes, and often completely new angles are introduced at the end of each episode. Sheer violence and loss of human life is common.

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Perhaps, the most intriguing aspect is the theory of consequentialism, i.e. Ends justify the means, which is the hallmark of every action the protagonist Jack Bauer takes, be it being dedicated to his profession at the cost of his personal life, defying orders coming from as high as the presidential office itself, forcing the lone doctor at gunpoint to attend to a criminal (who happens to be the only lead in a case) leading to death of someone close, assualting peers and superiors when he deems fit and so on. Personal conflicts abound, where CTU employees have to make difficult choices between work and people they care about. Office feuds too are in plenty, where power struggles amongst the superiors often threatens to jeopardise the mission objectives.

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Couple of things that I didn't like - Jack's daughter has to be involved in some or the other way in almost every season, where she runs into trouble and Jack has to spend considerable time getting her out of it - kind of a force-fit. Also, CTU is in direct contact with the President of US himself on almost an hourly basis, which agains doesn't go very well. One can accept that critical decision points need to be referred to the highest office, but hourly updates to white house bypassing the entire chain of command doesn't fly.

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Still, this series rocks. If you are in need for some real action, thrill, drama, emotions, politics stuff in one go, this one is for you. One caution though, this stuff is highly addictive - you might want to finish off the entire season in a single sitting, such is the atmosphere it creates around you with its captivating plot, real-time onscreen display and some real power action. Awesome stuff!