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24 - Season Two Customer Reviews (28 - 30 of 44 Reviews)

24 more hours of pure entertainment
Season One of 24 was near-perfect television: movie-quality, with great characters, great cinematography, inventive action, clever plot twists, heart-rending drama, and satisfying conclusions.

Season Two is even better.

The story picks up a little over a year after the events of Season One. Main character Jack Bauer, who was already a loose cannon in Season One, is now even more unhinged. He's just as crazily determined as Mel Gibson's character Riggs in "Lethal Weapon." Just as deadly too. This makes him the perfect candidate for the mission at hand: find a nuclear bomb, somewhere in the LA area, that is going to go off sometime in the next 24 hours. Bauer shows no mercy in his quest.

I understand that some viewers, many of whom enjoyed Season One, refused to watch Season Two just because they didn't buy it that the same character could go through yet another crazy day. I find this ridiculous. That everything happens within a 24-hour period is the show's premise. Not watching it because you think it's impossible is like not watching "Star Trek" because you don't believe in alien life, or not watching "Buffy" because you don't believe in vampires. You have to buy into this show, for sure, but once you do, you find yourself swept along with it.

Season One pushed the envelope of what can be shown on television, but Season Two tears the envelope to shreds. I'm mostly a jaded viewer, but still I was shocked by the amount of carnage and violence on display. I lost count of how many terrorists Bauer killed, and how many people were tortured. So be aware that this show doesn't skimp on the violence quotient, which is fine for action junkies such as myself.

The budget must have been significant for this season, as the quality of the production is high throughout. No expenses seem to have been spared. Let me just give you an idea. There is a scene where a terrorist is tearing down a runway in a plane that's holding the nuclear bomb. Bauer and his agents are in hot pursuit, in humvees. All of this is shown as it actually happens - the plane going super fast, the humvees right behind. Bauer gets on the roof of the humvee and shoots at the plane. All of this is shown in the same angle, so you can see that they are actually doing the stunt, that it's not camera trickery. Now, normally that would be something you'd see at the end of a big-budget film - but this was just the middle half of episode 13!

That's just one of the many great action scenes at hand. Episode 9 features a well-done combat sequence, in which Jack takes on a team of rogue US commandos. There's more machine gun and small arms fire in this one scene than in most big-budget feature films. There's another great night-time alley battle in Episode 20 or thereabouts, in which Bauer and two comrades are holed up in an abandoned building, while a squad of heavily armed terrorists track them down.

The show isn't just all action. There's lots of drama on hand, as well. Normally I shy from the stuff, I find too much of it comes off a bit Lifetime channel-ish. But the drama reached here is better handled than just about any other movie I can think of. The heights reached go way beyond the normal strands of television. Jack's yearning for reconciliation with his daughter, the President's resolve to stand firm, the reunion of Jack and Nina Myers, George Mason saying goodbye to his son, Jack saying goodbye to his daughter from an airplane, and the resolutions to all of these plot threads in the final episode; every one of these scenes, and more, are carried off effectively.

I considered Season One to be like a well-done feature film, stretched out over 24 episodes. Season Two is the same, but it could just as easily be compared to a novel. There's foreshadowing, set-ups, and resolutions, which each episode working as a chapter. Things mentioned in early episodes sometimes don't come into play until near the end of the series. That's one of my favorite things about the show. It never once insults the viewer's intelligence. It requires he or she to keep up with events, to remember things. Nothing is spoon-fed.

Season One was originally only greenlit for 12 episodes, but was expanded by Fox to 24 episodes mid-season, requiring the producers to sometimes grasp at straws to continue stretching the tension. However, Season Two was greenlit for 24 episodes from the get-go, meaning that there is no mid-season slump, this time around, and that the story evolves and expands naturally.

So, is everything perfect? Well, not exactly. Most reviewers will bring up the oft-ridiculed Kim Bauer plotline, in which Jack's nubile daughter runs from one bizarre encounter to the next, each more unbelievable than the last. Season One's mid-season downfall occurred when Jack's wife suffered from amnesia, a plot development that just about everyone hated, but in no way does Season Two slump so bad. I didn't mind the Kim plotline, because I enjoyed the dark comedy of it all. I mean, the girl goes from being chased by a maniacal guy who's gone buck wild for no reason at all, to being chased by cops, to meeting a deranged loner who lives in a bomb shelter, to getting involved in a hostage situation.

Now, most of the scenes with Kim involve her running around. She wears tight clothing throughout. The actress portraying Kim is a very shapely, beautiful young woman. 24 is a Fox Television program. Girl in tight clothes, running around. Fox program. NOW do you see why the Kim plotline was added?

The DVD release is flawless. Unlike Season One, there are actually chapter stops! This alone is cause for celebration. There are 6 audio commentaries spread throughout the season, and deleted/alternate scenes for most episodes. You have the option of integrating these scenes back into the episodes by selecting that feature on each episode's menu, or you can watch all of them, separated from the shows they're from, on the bonus 7th disc of the set. This is a nice feature, as I prefer watching the episodes without interruption, and then watching what was taken out later. The video and audio presentation is flawless.

In short, 24 is a fast-paced, action-packed, emotion-pulling tour de force; an intelligent, mature, supremely-crafted piece of entertainment that surpasses any other action TV program I've ever seen. The final episode is just as satisfying as the conclusions of "Die Hard," "Lethal Weapon," "The Rock," or any other action movie you could name. If you are a discerning viewer who believes there's nothing on TV worth watching, get ready to have all of your notions blown away.

The only way I can sum it all up is this: for years now, I've been a TV snob. Never watched "Friends," never watched "Law & Order," never watched "CSI." As far as I was concerned, the only show worth watching was "the Simpsons." I still think it's the best show in TV history, but that's a story/review/debate for another time. So when I say that I think Season Two of 24 is certainly equal to - and in a few ways better than - the Simpsons, please understand that this is the highest praise I can give.

24 well spent hours!
I'll admit it---I'm addicted. This show is amazing entertainment and kept me on the edge of my seat for the entire season. I'm so glad they are putting these episodes out quickly. I was a "johnny-come-lately", panning the first season and tuning in for the second season on a whim. I was hooked with the first episode and couldn't get enough. Thankfully, at the time I started watching, Season One was out on dvd, so I bought it and caught up on Jack Bauer's adventures. Now, I'm jonesing for Season Three but in the meantime I have this new dvd set to enjoy with lots of interesting features, such as 44 deleted scenes, commentary and featurettes that make this 7 disc set a worthy addition to your collection. Jack's next horrific day on the job starts with the threat of an atomic bomb smuggled into Los Angeles by an international terrorist organization. This sets of a chain of reactions that become one spell binding turn after another. I won't go into much detail about what happens but you'll be biting your nails by the end of each episode. Keifer Sutherland is great as Jack Bauer, the CTU agent that can handle almost ANY situation. Dennis Haysbert is perfect as David Palmer, a very charasmatic President, who uses Agent Bauer when he gets into a tight spot. My personal favorite, Penny Johnson, as the delightfully sneaky and scheming, Sherry Palmer, is back for Season Two, adding plenty of guessing and twists for the fans. Daughter Kim is back too (played by Elisha Cuthbert) stumbling into trouble and keeping her dad busy trying to save her, as well as the entire city of Los Angeles. I'm hoping they reduce her role in Season Three and make her a little less danger prone. Other than that, I have no complaints about this incredible show. Go get this dvd set...and don't take 24 hours to do it!!!!

Good, yes: but better than season one? You're on drugs...
Season two was indeed enjoyable. It was well-paced, with lots of twists and turns, some surprises and some good acting. Jack Bauer is even cooler, an emotionally wrecked, quasi-suicidal bad-ass terrorist-thumpin' secret agent man. Sutherland's performance is beyond reproach (although in the featurettes he seems like a soft-spoken girlie-man, the sort of guy who, when you reach out for a handshake, would hand you a wet fish). The character is much deeper this season, shattered by the events of season one.

BUT... (spoilers ahead)

The plot points and suppositions at times verge on the ludicrous, straining credulity even for an avid admirer like myself. Having just been privy to two CNN wars (as we all have here in the U.S.) the notion that Palmer's waiting for a few more hours before launching a military response would cause a mutiny within his administration struck me as completely ridiculous. Yet it was a pivotal plot point. That the whole cabinet would go along with deposing the president in a time of unparalleled national crisis came off as pure fantasy. Even Bush waited, what, a month before pummelling Afghanistan with Tomahawks? And Palmer was, if memory serves, a Democrat...

The first season was immeasurably better. I pride myself on being able to call out plot points before they happen (much to the delight of my fellow movie-goers) and I was completely taken aback by the death of Jack's wife the first time around. Granted, it's difficult to pull the same trick twice- the audience is expecting a curveball at the end- but I think they could have come up with something better than that femme fatale's lethal handshake. C'mon...

And what did this gain the bad guys anyway, killing Palmer? Unless they had the VP in their pocket, which they apparently didn't. Why bother? The war was already prevented. Revenge? It leaves a loose end, perhaps one that was tied up later, in season three, which hasn't been released. By contrast, in season one I was left with a great appreciation at the end, plus a revelation: you really CAN'T predict what's going to happen on this show. All you know is that Jack's in for a helluva day. Not so with season two, which seemed like the sort of storyline soap opera writers come up with twenty years after they've jumped the shark. I was waiting for Jack's evil twin brother to pop by for tea...

And Mrs. Palmer was involved with bringing a nuclear device onto U.S. soil just to get back at her husband? Bwaaa haa haaa! Stop it, Kiefer, yer killin' me.

Yes, it's well-made and well-acted enough to make it worth your while, even worth your money. I would disagree with another reviewer's take that the Palmer character was played badly. The actor was absolutely presidential, not so easy for a black guy who has few historical characters to emulate. He did well. And concept-wise there's really no other series like this (although it's almost a direct rip-off of "Nick of Time" starring Johnny Depp), and it's amazing how closely. although not flawlessly. they keep to the 24-hour clock. The dirty, handheld camerawork is fantastic, giving a sense of intimacy and of distance, each in turn. You're the insider, then the voyeur. So even with season two I was riveted. It's very good.

But it's a far, far cry from season one, which was hands-down great.

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