24 Season 1

According to Wiki, 24 is “an American conspiracy thriller television series”. But it is much more than that. It is not merely a television series; it became a way of life for 24 episodes a year over the last nine years (nine years, eight seasons, thanks writer’s strike!). Whole years of TV viewing were based around the broadcast schedule of 24. Things would be put aside. Life was placed on hold. Friends told to fuck off. Phones taken off the hook. Nothing was allowed to prevent the experience – until now. After nine years of the most enjoyable TV of my life, 24 has come to an end. In reality, it was the only thing that could stop it. Now it is all over.

There are so many things about 24 that will remain with me; the characters, events and stories. If you put a gun to my head and asked me to mention some memorable characters from 24 you may need to be prepared to pull the trigger. Every character served a purpose, had intentions and emotions.

24 Season 2

President David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) was a character of such strength that at times he nearly stole the show. His character was so honourable and respectable despite the evils he was forced to face. Haysbert played him with a strength of character, will and honour that would lead me to vote for him without a second’s thought.

As Palmer became president and presided in that capacity for the first few seasons, he was always a constant. Whilst the shit hit the fan and Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland’s best work) and his Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) buddies had to save the day, Palmer remained a constant. Whilst he was not always solid in his conviction, he always made the right decisions; the right calls were made when he was put in a fucking horrible position. Some of Jack’s CTU buddies would change from season to season. The amount of people running the CTU offices changed a lot, but a few stand out.

24 Season 3

George Mason (Xander Berkley) started off as an annoying weasel-y boss that kept the book in between Jack and saving the world. It was great to see such a by-the-book guy transformed into a national (international?) hero. Following on from Mason were many other people stepping into the director of CTU chair. Some died, some were fired and all had to deal with JACK FUCKING BAUER.

Another guy that had a similar start but redemption was swift and rewarding was Bill Buchanan (James Morrison). Whereas Mason had a slow burning redemption path, Bill rode the way to redeeming his officialdom attitude with a clever mix of protocols and presence. Another hero for us all. And who could forget Secret Service Agent Aaron Pierce (Glenn Morshower from Transformers – cut the hard lines!!!). He would take a bullet for the president – regardless of who it was – and then put that bullet in his gun and shoot himself again just to make sure it didn’t hit the main man.

24 Season 4

CTU was full of interesting characters. Some were tought bastards (never as much as Jack) such as Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard), Curtis Manning, Chase Edmunds and Cole Ortiz. The only one of those I just mentioned that was coo was Tony, but more on him later. Its kinda funny because Jack actually kills Curtis and cuts Chase’s hand off. From memory Chase was putting one in Kim Bauer (Elisha Cuthbert SCHWING!), Jack’s big-breasted blonde daughter. The fact that she ended up at CTU was hilarious and Chase chose the wrong hairy cave to explore cause Jack was not happy! Speaking of girls, Jack certainly had his share after season one. Moving on from the tragic death of his wife, Jack managed to get his end into quite a few birds. The most recent couple of seasons he had been getting the leg over Renee Walker (Annie Wersching) an FBI agent with big cans, freckles, a huge forehead (we are soul mates!) and red hair. Still give her one I reckons.

24 Season 5

24 had some strong female characters as well, such as the aforementiond Renee. Kim ended up being a bit stronger. President Taylor was a strong woman however she didn’t have the strength of character of David Palmer. The most important female character in the whole show was Chloe O’Brien (Mary Lynn Rajskub). Chloe, much like the other secondary characters, almost stole the show from Jack. Chloe would have to be the second main star. She started off on Jack’s bad side, however she ended up becoming the most important person in Jack’s life on so many occasions.

Chloe had an attitude that was just hilarious. She was never content with being told what to do when she knew that the ‘boss’ was being a dickhead and this invariably meant she was doing things for Jack on the down-low. The amount of times Jack had to call Chloe and say “Chloe its Jack. I need you to upload that to my PDA. But there is a mole in CTU” would be huge. So awesome.

24 Season 6

And Chloe would make us all laugh when she looked disgruntled and upset with the goings on. She would always stick up for Jack, the point where she would often be “put in holding” and grilled by her superiors. She did the right thing by Jack, which was the right thing for the world. I mentioned Tony Almeida before and need to explain why this guy was also awesome. Tony was one of Jack’s fellow CTU agents and the shit he has been through is incredibly similar to Jack. He has lost love ones, hated America, blamed himself but always, always, was with Jack. In a later season he was painted as the bad guy but eventually it became the Jack and Tony show. It was great because we could never accept that Tony would turn on the USA, CTU, Jack and the ‘right’ thing to do. Tony, like Chloe, would often be forced to choose between the CTU way, the wrong way and finally the Jack way. Inevitably, he chose the Jack way, as he should.

24 Season 7

Jack Bauer. Jack. Agent Bauer. Call him what you will, but know that if he has to, he will torture you for information. I have seen Jack torture so many people that it became a way of life. Jack has tortured terrorists, double agents and women. Jack has killed thousands of people. Jack has killed his superiors when he had to, his fellow CTU agents when called upon and many goons. Jack did what he had to do to get the job done. His single focus to protect the USA and the President never faltered. Sure, he felt the weight of the world on his shoulders, but instead of bitching about it, he just chucked some more ammo in his satchel bag (so awesome) and headed off into the chaos. I have never seen a dude go through that many different phones and PDAs either. That isn’t a really fair summation of him though, because as the seasons progressed, Jack seemed to become more and more detached from this single vision and the impact all of these days had on him eventually took their toll.

24 Season 8

24 had anything and everything bad happen. Nuclear bombs went off. Planes were crashed. Viruses were released. People were assassinated. Shit hit the fan. And it did not matter what Jack was doing at the time, but he would be kicked into action. Whilst he may have had concerns about saving the world again and again, he always managed to fit right back in. He was the man and the one people should have listened to, which makes me think, if people did what he said when he said it, the show would have been over in only a few hours. NOW! I need the codes NOW! I need the location of the terrorist NOW! Give me the access key NOW! Where are the hostages NOW! So much Jack needed and wanted NOW! that it almost became one long frustrating day for him that would never end. But I mentioned before that the show has ended. It seems to have ended on it’s own terms, which is ideal. Events no longer occur in real time, and that is really sad.

The show was exceptional, enjoyable, engrossing, exciting and energetic. But I think the thing that will remain with me the longest was the shared experience I had whilst watching the show. To be able to share the above emotions with my friends and family have given these memories an unbreakable and impregnable hold on my mind. I will miss Jack, yes. I will miss the adventure. But what I will miss the most is dedicating a weekend to watch it in large chunks with those closest to me and sharing that. And those experiences have all been thanks to what has been the longest days in Jack Bauer’s life.

The saying goes if it aint broke dont fix it. And yes, that makes sense. But what if the saying was if its fucked, then get a new one? I am guessing my little brother is from the second school of thought. You see we had tv like the one on the right *cough* that wasn’t broken, but it was, well, fucked. Can’t go having a 68cm CRT in 2010. Can’t expect to be able to play X-Box, enjoy hi-def on one of those. So Griff changed all that.

In the space of an hour, a quick drive to a JB Hi Fi netted us with our latest and greatest technological investment. The funny thing was the box was so massive for this thing that we had to cut about 20cm of the end of the box, take out the stand, and tape it up just to fit in the back of the car. Can’t be buying a new fuckin’ TV and NOT bring the bastard home. The dudes at JB tried their darnedest to convince us that we ‘needed’ the ultra-expensive HDMI cables from the ‘best brand’. Pfft. Internet has taught me many things like how many fingers a midget can-actually I did read an article about HDMI and it said “dont get fooled” get something mid-range. So we did.

And there it is right there. 55 inches of LCD glory. It has more cables plugged into it right now than New Zealand. Its the best. It even sings to us when we turn it on. Thanks Sony! X-Box looks fucking amazing. Blu-Rays are mind-blowing. Foxtel HD is the bomb (we only watch the HD channels now). Watching a tv so big you have to move your eyes is the best and hooked up the the home theatre its even betterer.

The only problems with having such a kickass TV is that it exposes the errors, problems and failings of Australia’s HDTV broadcasts. The free-to-air networks are on the most part just scraping in with the quality. I cannot understand or fathom why the regulator (ACMA) decided to not license broadcast signals big enough for 1080p from these channels. That has left us with 1080i broadcasts. And you can only notice the difference between 1080i and 1080p on screens 50 inches and above. Thing is, this puppy is 55 inches, and the 1080i still looks good. Except Channel 7.

Channel 7 is a joke of a station. Their broadcasts of my beloved AFL are third-world standard. Honestly, they should be ashamed of themselves. The AFL would want to ensure that the next rights demand the highest quality possible. You just have to compare Fox Sports HD to Channel 7. At least Fox (on the most part) has good quality HD for us. Channel 7 has let Australia down with is sub-standard (even though our standard is already low and my standards are unreachably high) broadcasts. One is better, thankfully. But still, not good enough.

Another impact this has had is the acquiring of downloaded movies and TV shows. No longer is a DVD rip sufficient. No, it must be 720p or more. Hooray for hi-def. Boo Channel 7. Hooray for little brother having heaps of money. Boo me having to buy blu-ray. Speaking of which, HD METALLICA is by far the greatest thing ever. Oh and expect some Metallica news here shortly.