# 24 question from a non-watcher **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 11, 2006, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-question-from-a-non-watcher/352189 "2006-04-11T04:05:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hedda\_Rosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hedda_rosa/32/1204_2.png) [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-question-from-a-non-watcher/352189/1 "2006-04-11T04:05:16Z")
Ok the premise behind **24** , in the broadest sense, is that each season is one day, right? So on the show is it still the year 2002 or something? Or have they somehow caught up to now? I don’t watch, don’t intend to watch and when I have seen moments of the show (just flipped past it) it does nothing for me. I’m more an HGTV kind of gal. But this question is making me _crazy_. Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time… ---
**Author:** ![PigBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/97f17d/32.png) [@PigBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigBoy)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-question-from-a-non-watcher/352189/2 "2006-04-11T04:11:56Z")
Actually, the current season would be somewhere in the future, although dates are never given explicitly. Time passes between each season; I think it’s generally been at least a year, and it was even three years between seasons 2 and 3. ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-question-from-a-non-watcher/352189/3 "2006-04-11T04:25:42Z")
It’s been a number of years since the first “day”. I think the gaps have been (approximately): a year between Day 1 and Day 2. 2 1/2, maybe 3, years between Day 2 and Day 3. 1 1/2 years (I think) between Day 3 and Day 4. 1 1/2 years (definitely) between Day 4 and Day 5. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-question-from-a-non-watcher/352189/4 "2006-04-11T04:31:05Z")
> [@Twiddle](#): > > Ok the premise behind **24** , in the broadest sense, is that each season is one day, right? Yes, but the days are not sequential, as has been explained. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-question-from-a-non-watcher/352189/5 "2006-04-11T04:42:04Z")
If you take the election in season three to be the 2004 election (they’re deliberately vague about that stuff), then I guess it’s probably 2007 on the show. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-question-from-a-non-watcher/352189/6 "2006-04-11T05:27:02Z")
Good episode, though I worry that Jack is going to have the army hot on his trail early in the next episode. And I get the idea that Gardener is definatly not in on the Evil Nerve Gas Plot, which means he could be a good ally for jack. Having Heller on their side will help too, particulary if he can call the army off Jack for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-question-from-a-non-watcher/352189/7 "2006-04-11T05:29:00Z")
I’ve only seen a few episodes of season 1, so please no unboxed spoilers, but is the basic idea that Jack lives a quiet life for a year and a half or so and then everything goes to hell for exactly one day? Not two days or half a day but, every time exactly one whole day?Does he ever comment on how weird that is? ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-question-from-a-non-watcher/352189/8 "2006-04-11T05:38:09Z")
Damn, wrong 24 thread. That’ll teach me to have both open at the same time… Mod, please remove my last post. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-question-from-a-non-watcher/352189/9 "2006-04-11T05:41:09Z")
I wouldn’t say he lives a quiet life; he does work in counter-terrorism. He spent the ‘down time’ between two seasons infiltrating a drug cartel, that can’t have been very quiet. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-question-from-a-non-watcher/352189/10 "2006-04-11T05:56:44Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I wouldn’t say he lives a quiet life; he does work in counter-terrorism. He spent the ‘down time’ between two seasons infiltrating a drug cartel, that can’t have been very quiet. I’d say he led a very quiet life between season 4 and 5, though. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RumMunkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@RumMunkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RumMunkey)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-question-from-a-non-watcher/352189/11 "2006-04-11T11:36:09Z")
> [@](#): > > Yes, but the days are not sequential, as has been explained. The days are \*sequential \*("1’, then “2”. then “3”, etc) but they’re not in _succeeding_ order (“1” immediatley followed by "2’ which is immediately followed by “3” and so on). ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-question-from-a-non-watcher/352189/12 "2006-04-11T11:59:43Z")
> [@Larry Borgia](#): > > I’ve only seen a few episodes of season 1, so please no unboxed spoilers, but is the basic idea that Jack lives a quiet life for a year and a half or so and then everything goes to hell for exactly one day? Not two days or half a day but, every time exactly one whole day?Does he ever comment on how weird that is? It doesn’t lay out quite that neatly. For one thing, there’s usually stressful stuff that is presumed to have happened before hour 1 of each season, and that’s left uncovered after the season finale, hour 24. So that makes it more than one day that a lot of the main characters are on the move. Also, the first few hours of the early seasons are not exactly ‘hell.’ But there have been a few self-referential comments, including the introductory voiceover on season 1: International terrorists are plotting to assasinate a presidential candidate, the people that I work with may be on the take, and my wife and daughter are being threatened. I’m federal agent Jack Bauer, and this is the longest day in my life. (probably misquoted, but that gives you the sense of it.) ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/24-question-from-a-non-watcher/352189/13 "2006-04-11T12:21:24Z")
> [@Twiddle](#): > > Ok the premise behind **24** , in the broadest sense, is that each season is one day, right? So on the show is it still the year 2002 or something? Or have they somehow caught up to now? By the way, you still have 21 more to go.