Available Now

Rated TV-14

Review by Tom Johnson(tomjohnson@thecinemasource.com)

DVDs of popular television shows are the next big thing, now that number-crunching “geniuses” have finally figured out how to bring prices down to reasonable levels. Take, for instance, “The X-Files”, which first appeared on the format a few years ago at a whopping $150. Anyone with a limited cash flow and a decent brain obviously scoffed, and somewhere down the line, someone finally got smart. Now, with titles like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “Friends” and “The Simpsons” priced from $30 to $45, not only can longtime fans relive their favorite shows without going broke, but old series can gain new fans willing to fork over a bit more cash for a 22 hour experience instead of a 2 hour one.

In my pathetically slavish “Buffy” reviews, I urge casual viewers who missed the show to buy the set and see what they’ve been missing out on. Careful to avoid hypocrisy, I recently put my money where my mouth is and bought the first season of “24”, a show I always had a casual interest in, but never got into, as it didn’t seem to be the type of experience you jump into the middle of. Because of this, someone at Fox Home Video got really smart and decided to release the first season of “24” the summer after it originally aired, then do the same with the second. While this doesn’t leave a lot of room to create a fully stocked, top quality DVD, it certainly is convenient for people like me, who want to watch in the Fall up to date on the show’s history. Before dropping 50 bucks, I gathered the opinions of some of my friends, who all assured me that I’d love it. Despite this, I still had some doubt as I made my purchase, cautiously optimistic. But I had no reason to fear. To put it simply, “24” blew me away.

The show’s plot is either simple or ridiculously complex, depending on your definition of “plot”. I’ll go the simpler route in explaining it all here, as part of the joy in watching “24” is seeing its intricate story twist and unfold. Jack Bauer(Kiefer Sutherland) is having a very bad day. It’s midnight, and he’s been called into office at the Counter-Terrorist Unit(a fictional CIA offshoot) to thwart an assassination attempt on Senator David Palmer(Dennis Haysbert). His teenage daughter, Kim(Elisha Cuthbert) has snuck out on a school night, and tensions between him and his wife, Teri(Leslie Hope) are bubbling beneath a calm surface.

Things quickly get worse when he learns hidden moles