Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: 24 - season 1 (2001)

7/05/2013

24 - season 1 (2001) - The TV action milestone

♥♥♥♥♥

The stars of Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran's 24 season 1

Counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer does whatever is necessary to prevent the assassination of presidential candidate David Palmer, the first black candidate in American history, in the hectic 24 hours in which his teenage girl is also kidnapped, his wife suffers amnesia etc. etc. etc.

24 is the great modern action suspense series. Its innovative real-time format heightens the show, and the multi-layered stories are often hugely captivating
Kiefer Sutherland's (Melancholia (2011)) great comeback role as Jack Bauer is a great modern hero, navigating between complex situations and threats with cut-throat determination and at the constant risk of making mistakes. Ultimately a warm present for the new, radical anti-terror legislation of presidents Bush and later Obama, 24 is a show where terrorists are often tortured or shot in the field with total justification. It is not a show with much after-thought or reflection in that regard, although the first seasons are more insightful and realistic than late ones. As such it is a perfect product for Fox.
Creators Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran (24 (2008), both) are veterans in TV; they did the Michael Chiklis-starring police comedy series The Commish together from 1991-95.
The role of Kim Bauer (Elisha Cuthbert (House of Wax (2005))) is an annoying know-it-all teen from episode 3 onward, a major problem for the season. Furthermore the dramatic situations that she gets into along the way become increasingly unbelievable. She is probably there for promotional and demographic reasons, but should clearly have been killed off in my opinion.
The show was not a sure hit: Fox initially commissioned just the first 13 episodes, treading into the expensive venture lightly. The plot line is a bit influenced by that unideal touch-and-go-policy.
Dennis Haysbert (Dear White People (2014)) and Penny Johnson Jerald (NCIS (2009-10)) as the future presidential couple are brilliant in the melodramatic political/family struggles in the second half of the season. In good supporting parts are Zach Grenier (Curb Your Enthusiasm (2001), TV-series) as a spin doctor swine, and Xander Berkeley (Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)) as an office-running minor psychopath.
24 is a great show and Haysbert and Sutherland are much of the reason for it, along with the show's exciting editing scheme, - as when video windows grow and diminish in multi-image layouts, - and great sound and composing work, by Sean Callery (Homeland (2011-15)). The first season is an extraordinary production and the start of the longest running espionage show in television history. - Great TV!

Best episodes:

8: 7 - 8 AM - written by Surnow, Cochran, Michael Loceff (La Femme Nikita (2000-01)); directed by Stephen Hopkins (The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004))
SPOILER Jack diverts the first assassination plot.

20 : 7 - 8 PM - written by Surnow, Cochran, Howard Gordon (Homeland (2011-15)); directed by Hopkins
SPOILER Jack is captured and taken to a secret prison, and the main villain, Victor Drazen, is revealed to be played by Dennis Hopper (Speed (1994))! - Quite a surprise treat!

Related posts:

24 - season 2 (2002-03) - The Bomb
24 - season 3 (2003-04) - Viral suspense peak of great show

Sarah Clarke (Twilight (2008)) as Nina Myers in Robert Cochran and Joel Surnow's 24 season 1

Kiefer Sutherland gives an interview about the first season here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: None - TV-series
= Uncertainty
[24 season 1 was originally shown 6 November 2001 - 21 May 2002 and runs 24 43-minute episodes, (approximately 1,032 minutes in total.) Cochran and Surnow got the idea for the show together in the IHoP in Woodland Hills, LA. The premiere was moved due to 9/11. After Sutherland won the Golden Globe for Best Actor - TV Drama, Fox decided to order the last 11 episodes. The season averaged 8.6 mil. viewers in the US. It was shown the world over; in the UK on BBC, where it was their biggest hit show ever. The DVD release was also #1 in the UK, and 24's strong DVD sales are thought to have been a big part of why the ratings for the later seasons increased. The season was nominated for 10 Emmys, winning 2: Best Writing for a TV-series and Outstanding Picture Editing for a Series. The show has ended its run now after 9 seasons and a TV-movie. It was remade in India in 2013. 24 season 1 is fresh at 100 % with an 8.85/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What is your favorite 24 season?
What do you think of the first season?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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7/05/2013

24 - season 1 (2001) - The TV action milestone

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