How do the Five Days of 24 Rank?

Cafe Society
1

I was bit flabbergasted when I read this quote in an L.A. Times article:

In my mind it was not only not the best it is very close to being the worst of the five seasons (of course they just say “some critics and fans” meaning I guess more than two of each?)

Here’s how I would rank the five seasons:

  1. Day 1: Jack thwarts an assination attempt. Amazing ending.
  2. Day 3: Jack battles a drug addiction while try to defnd against a threatened bio-attack
  3. Day 2: A nuclear bomb explodes.
  4. Day 5: In a crazily convoluted story, Jack must go up against the PResident of the United States
  5. Day 4: Terrorists have a plot to steal and launch a missile, which includes kidnapping the Sec’y of Defense, derailing a train, stealing a stealth jet, downing Air Force One, melting down nuclear reactors, and diplomatic problems with China.
2

Day Four: Chloe with an assault rifle.

What more do you want?

3

I think the pinnacle of 24 was the beginning through middle of season 2. Season 2 would easily be the best season, except for the utterly anticlimactic final several episodes.
Overall, I find it hard to compare the seasons as a whole. Season 4, for instance, was a preposterous mess, plot-wise. But Marwan was an awesome villain, and having TerrorFamily as characters was a brilliant, and well-executed, decision. It also turned Chloe from Jar Jar into the-best-character-not-named-Jack. Season 1 started it all, but started kinda slow, and then hit the big slow patch with Terri getting amnesia. And let’s not forget seasons 1 and 2 with their stupid-Kim subplots.

4

In defense of the terrorists in season 4, they didn’t plan the the Chinese political entanglements.

Not much of a defense, I know.

5

I agree. I think the best 24, and especially the best Jack, was “Act 1” of season 2 – which comprised the first 15 episodes. The Kim subplot was silly, but served for comic relief of sorts. “Act 2” of season 2 wasn’t quite as strong. But the actual “Nuclear Bomb” plot itself was great.

The Jack/Nina interactions (few though those episodes were) in season 2 were excellent.

Plot-wise, I’d also rate season 4 at the bottom, just for all the unbelievable plot convolutions (or convulsions, perhaps?). Although character-wise, season 4 did have some good stuff. It’s when I started liking Chloe, for instance.

6

I’d rank Season 2 highest - interesting plot in general, the Kim subplot was so ridiculous that it served as comic relief, and all the side plots held my interest - Jack’s love interest and her family, Sherry’s dealings with the baddies in order to bring down the President, the few episodes with Nina, and in particular all the crazy politicking surrounding the Cabinet’s deposing of the President and the conflict between the loyal Lynn Kresge and the (surprisingly) disloyal Mike Novick. Just generally thrilling the whole way through.

I’d probably rank either Season 3 or Season 5 in second place. Unlike apparently everyone else, I thought Logan made a pretty compelling villain, and I enjoyed the general plottery by the various factions at CTU. Plus, while the plot was twisty, it still made pretty good sense overall, and doesn’t fall apart in hindsight. Season 3 had a great ending, but I thought the act I, with the Salazars, was pretty slow some of the time. On the other hand, it involved Nina and Sherry, and I love them both. They’re probably the biggest thing I miss from recent seasons - both of them were so compellingly wicked, and Sherry was an awesome foil for David, taking full advantage of his decency to exploit him at every opportunity. Plus it had Ryan Chapelle dying. I first started watching 24 when I was living with my dad and happened to wander by while he was watching. I got ensnared when I saw Jack actually made the decision to kill his boss. Was he really gonna turn a gun on a CTU agent? And he did. I was very impressed by the show’s willingness to explore some moral ambiguity on the part of the good guys. (Also, Stephen Saunders was one hot supervillain.) By the time I finished watching what I had missed, I couldn’t wait to get to the end of Season 3 to see Ryan Chapelle get his ass killed.

Season 1 is next; I don’t know - it didn’t grab me. The Kim and Terry plot bored me to tears, and the main Jack plot was confusing and scattered. I didn’t particularly care for the Serbian family as villains - they just weren’t very interesting. Though I did enjoy Nina; I found the actress who played her (can’t remember the name) compelling as both good guy and baddy. Even knowing what was gonna happen, it was still a disappointment when she was revealed as evil.

Season 4 is definitely the worst. I can barely remember what happened, the plot was so scattered. Great characters, particularly Shohreh Aghdashloo and family. But the storyline was such a confused mess that I didn’t enjoy it at all.

So I think Season 5 is about as good as the show has been all along. Except for Season 4, I think the show has remained fairly consistently good in quality over all five seasons. I didn’t find Season 5 any less believable than any of the other seasons - none of them are really plausible in the end, but that’s not really what I watch for, and Season 5 didn’t stretch my suspension of disbelief particularly far.

7

Another vote for Day 2 as Number 1. *“Kim vs The Mountain Lion” *will always live in the lore of 24.

8

Another thing I found a little less enjoyable about season 4 was the change in how the episodes ended. In previous seasons (Season 2 being the most memorable to me in this regard), episodes would end with a big “bang”, something very exciting, sometimes very unexpected, and almost always making me yell “NOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo!” that the episode was ending and leaving me hanging like that.

Season 4 episodes seemed to just wrap up the current subplot. Sure they would leave more things open, but the endings of episodes just didn’t seem to have the same urgency.

That’s one thing that “Day 5” got back to a number of times. The “leaving you hanging, desperate for more” endings. The one that brought “Act 1” to a close (the flaming debris falling on the car, when Jack had subdued Bierko), was reminiscient of the tension created by the “Day 2” episode endings.

Most notable endings (to me) from Day 2 were:

  • episode 8, which ended with the calm scene in the plane, Jack telling Nina little details about his wife’s character, what she took away from him… then the plane being hit by a missile. That one seriously made me leap out of my chair.
  • episode 15 (the end of Act 1, and a superb episode). The nuclear bomb actually detonating at the end – that was just… chilling.

Yep. Day 2 was definitely the best.

9

SPOILER WARNING

Day 1 - I don’t remember many of the details, but I think I found it the most gripping. I had it on DVD and watched the whole season in two days.

Day 2 - Mason sacrifices himself, nuke blows in the desert. Kim caught in a bear trap, only to be rescued by that dude from Viking Quest.

Day 5 - A nice return to form.

Day 3 - Nina dies, but WTF did Jack whisper to her on Day 2? I guess we’ll never know.

Day 4 - Otherwise known as the “We’re closing in on Marwan…oh fudgesicles! He escaped through an underground tunnel!” season.

Oh yeah, I guess that little muslim kid died, eh? We never got any closure on him. What was his name? Behrooz or something? His mom scared the f*** out of me.

10

The first half of Day 1 was easily my favorite.

11

I think Day/Season 1 was the best. The show went south from then on. I say this having seen a total of 95% of Seasons 1-4. I Stopped Watching Day 5 When We first learned that the President was Dirty. I don’t but that plot for a second.

“Events Occur in Real Time”

Does anyone else remember this phrase?! I mean, thats what sold 24 for me.
Now its just Fox’s Alias. I mean, How many more times can you have “Gun Fu” and or re-interpretations of power struggles?