24

The following post takes place between 9:00 pm and 10:00pm...

I have been a fan of 24 since it first came out. After the first few seasons I decided I'd prefer to rent them all at once rather than watch them on TV. That way I'd avoid commercials and wouldn't have to be strung along from week to week. It has been nice, but there are some disadvantages. I don't usually start watching until 10:30 or 11:00 at night. I tell myself I'm only going to watch one episode. Yah right! That's impossible since each episode leaves you hanging at the most intense moment. So I watch the next and next. There are 4 episodes on a disk and I have never been able to stop myself from watching an entire disk. In that past I have been known to stay up as late as 3:00 a.m. shaking like a drug addict watching episodes.

Apparently I was not the only one with the bright idea of renting the entire season at once. Several years ago when I was returning disk 3 of 6 to Blockbuster, I noticed a couple stressed out guys loitering at the entrance waiting for the store to open. I noticed they were also holding 24 DVD jackets. Even though we were strangers, it was like we were a close group of friends or brotherhood since we had mutual respect and understanding for what we were going through. I just hoped they weren't there for the same disk that I needed because they were going to have to get through me first.

24 takes the concept of leaving you hanging to a new level. It is almost ridiculous how they have to keep outdoing themselves each episode and every season. I now realize that it is just a man's formulaic soap opera featuring action, terrorists, violence, and suspense. My other problem is that I feel like such a slacker when I compare what I accomplish in one day to what Jack Bauer does in 24 hours. He should teach time management seminars. Despite these negative aspects, some of my favorite things about 24 are:

1. The phone system at TCU. I could never get sick of sound their phone ring.

2. I love the countdown noise that comes on before and after commercials.
3. I always get a kick out of Jack when he is about to interrogate a stubborn bad guy who won't talk. I love the look on their face when he turns off all the surveillance monitors in the interrogation room because he is about to get down to business. (I'm no fan of torture, but I am a fan of efficiency and results).
4. He chooses not to participate in political correctness in his world. The show takes stereotyping and profiling to the extreme.

I have decided that if I am going to have an authentic 24 viewing experience then I need to do it over a 24 hour period. So next time I am going to get the entire season on DVD and burn straight through all 24 episodes with no breaks. That's only fair since that's how Jack has to do it.