5
(Muslim characters)
5
(violence, some strong language, & brief nudity)
7
(gripping, worth seeing more than once)
I've said that "24" features some of the best writing on TV. With season 2 I'll say it again with more assurance. Part of the fun of "24" is how unpredictable it is. Nobody is safe. Well, I guess Jack is, but there's a chance that even he will meet an untimely end eventually. Besides that there's no telling what horrors he'll go through during a season. Anybody else, though, is fair game. They might live to the end, they might not, and if they do it still might not be a happy ending.
This is a show well worth seeing, but I need to convince you to start at the beginning. I say that a lot. I find most shows more enjoyable if you start from episode one and go forward in proper order (one reason I like having them available on TVD so much), but it's even more important than usual for this series. Any bit of information from a later season is a potential spoiler of high importance for what has come before. Just by reading a season summary of season 2 I completely killed one of the big surprises of #1. Don't make that same mistake. Don't read another comment about season 2 until you have seen #1 all the way to the very end.
One of my friends put it best when he said, "I can't believe they just did that!" It's part of the draw of the series. Don't ruin it by reading too far ahead. So my challenge then becomes giving you enough information to make a decision about checking it out without giving away anything that kills your surprise.
Before I get into the premise of the show, let me give you a little information about the format because it's so unusual and part of the draw. Hopefully you already know this much if you're moving ahead with this second review, but I'll say it anyway. 24 covers a period of 1 day, 24 hours. Season 1 went from 12 AM to 12 AM. This one goes from 8 to 8. Not that the times matter all that much; it's just to reiterate what I mean. So a minute of real time is a minute of show time.Obviously on DVD it doesn't work out quite that way since the commercial breaks are gone, you lose a few minutes each episode (meaning an hour of show time takes up about 42 minutes of real time), but the clock in the show keeps you in step with the timeframe.
You're not following one guy around for 24 hours, though, you're following multiple intersecting stories sometimes with the actions of multiple people on screen at once. That's why I'm so impressed with the storytelling. They get so many people in so many situations making them all intertwined and interesting. It's easy to get all that information across when you can flash back, show mental points of view, and that sort of thing, but keeping it all in real time is much more difficult.
While the presentation format is unusual and interesting it doesn't make the show. The real hook is that it’s like a book I can't put down. “Must watch one more. Who needs sleep? Must watch one more.” By the time three have gone by it becomes “there's one more left on this disc might as well watch one more.” Whenever I get a new season my life gets put on hold until I reach the end. I've never seen an episode on TV, and I don't think I could stand the waiting week-to-week if I tried to. So I rely on the TVD sets to satisfy my desire for nail-biting tension. The fact that it is one long continuous story is one of its strongest points but is also its drawback. If you miss an episode it's like missing a chapter of a book. Maybe you can fill in the blanks, but the more you miss the easier it will be to get completely lost.
The show's focus is on Jack Bauer, a highly trained government agent. Once in the military then heading up the Counter Terrorist Unit he's a man that can and will get the job done at all costs. He's also a family man but is having trouble in that department lately. David Palmer is the rarest of rare, the honest, straight-forward politician. In season 2 he's been elected president. He's had some family trouble of his own lately.
On this day a nuclear bomb has been smuggled into the U.S. and is set to decimate L.A. Terrorists, an underhanded foreign government, or traitorous Americans? Anything is possible. Pres. Palmer wants Jack to investigate, a journey that will open deep, personal wounds for both men and leave them scarred in unthinkable ways.
Meanwhile, Kim, Jack's daughter, is caught up in a family squabble that threatens to become deadly and could easily land Kim in prison for her efforts to help. The Kim plotline is fairly predictable and not as strong as the primary terrorist story, but it does manage to remain exciting throughout.
The production quality of the series is outstanding. Kiefer Sutherland and Dennis Haysbert, the two male leads, are fantastic, but really just about everyone is pretty impressive. I would put the overall quality of acting up against any show I've ever seen on TV. A few recognizable guest stars would be Harris Yulin, Tobin Bell, and one that I won't give away.
Morality
The biggest thing to watch out for here is violence. There are a lot of scenes of people getting shot and even tortured.
There's some strong language, but it's not particularly persistent – this is still a network TV show after all. Some episodes don't have any at all. DVD special features are another matter. When they say unrated they mean it. Some of the commentaries and behind the scenes features have R rated language.
There's also some brief, non-sexual male nudity in the deleted scenes. It's probably fair to put this in the PG13 range.
Spirituality
This is mostly about good vs. evil on a political level: the good guys must keep the bad guys from harming innocent people. The aspect that stands out the most to me is related to the consequences of the choices people make. While this is not a morality tale there are serious consequences when people lie and cheat. Families are torn apart, lives are damaged, people are hurt. Granted this is played up in the extreme for tension and is not approached with the notion of “sin” in mind, but I tend to think that God does not give us arbitrary rules for our lives. When we act maliciously for selfish gains we can try to justify it all day even to the point of trying to pass it off as something altruistic, but we are going to reap what we sow.
As far as more direct religious elements, some of the terrorists have Islamic beliefs. Jack as the task of finding one particular suspect as the man is presumably is worshipping in a mosque. I don't get the impression that the show is trying to make a statement that all Muslims are bad, in fact, in a later season such a person helps Jack find some relief from his inner turmoil. While Christian beliefs will define certain characters in the future, there is none of that in season 2.
Final Thoughts
The bottom line is that with "24" if you like intrigue and tense action in the vein of Tom Clancy (as in the Jack Ryan books/movies) you are probably going to love this. I don't do political thrillers too much. I prefer more aliens, monsters, and Kung Fu, but I definitely got sucked into season 2 of 24! It's very much worth seeing. (I will not write an episode guide for 24 since it would be too spoiler-ridden. )
Buying Guide
"24" season 2 is a simple choice as far as buying options go. Do you want it by itself or with other seasons?
This season has 1 DVD release and no Hi-def option as far as what I've seen. It is available in a variety of different combo packages. You can get the complete series, and various ranges of seasons from 1-2 to 1-5 to the complete series and undoubtedly more.
I can't tell you what you will get with the series box set. Usually they include all of the individual seasons' extras so most likely everything I've talked about (except for packaging) will be the same. There's also a box set for seasons 1-6. I haven't been able to find it for sale but will eventually update this guide with the details of it anyway just because I have access to it.
Final Recommendation:
There are some fascinating features here. I love seeing the faux ending, the botched attempt at a different ending, and the reshoot footage. I enjoy the extended fight scene, and some of the commentaries are good even though a few could be better. I particularly like how the behind-the-scenes features tell the stories behind the alternate and extended scenes with the scenes themselves accessible on their own. If you like the series this is an outstanding package definitely worth seeing and is a good example of why I still like getting TVD packages rather than streaming the episodes by themselves.
Season 2 is a 7 DVD set.
Video
1.78 widescreen:
It's fairly grainy with dull colors. There's some minor smudging around some of the action but I have rarely noticed it.
Audio
5.1 Dolby:
The audio is strong and clear. There isn't much rumble to it, but the mix is good. Surround sound is not bad though not impressive, either.
Packaging
Some of the product listings mention a slim case packaging while others do not, so based on that and an image I've seen older cases may be a cardboard folder in a box. The newer, more common packaging includes 4 slim plastic cases in a box. 3 of the cases hold 2 DVD’s. Individual cases like this are very handy packaging as opposed to stacking DVD's in a tray or having a really long folder.
The backs of the cases have episode lists with a few bits of information like air date and director and a summary of the extras. There are no episode summaries (which can be handy for figuring out which ones you've already seen if you get interrupted) and not much detail on the extras so an insert book like the first season set might have been more handy. Oh well.
The interface has some static images and a loop of the theme song. Each episode has a page with setup and extras options.
Extras
Extras are numerous this time around, and there's some good stuff here.
-Deleted Scenes: There are a whopping 44 deleted scenes. Some are short and slow, you’ll watch them and know immediately why they got cut. Others are fairly long and include some great and interesting moments. I’ll provide a few more specifics below. The scenes are accessible in two different ways. You can turn on the feature so that while watching the episode you can activate the deleted scene and thus watch an extended cut of the episode. On the last disc you can watch the scenes as their own feature, which includes a play all option, as well as listen to a commentary for them.
-Commentaries: Speaking of commentaries, there are 6 including directors, producers, and actors. I’ll give more details on those shortly as well.
-24 Exposed Production: The other big extra is a pair of lengthy behind the scenes videos. They primarily focus on the last two episodes (hopefully you have enough sense to watch the episodes first, but if you don’t these will be MAJOR spoilers so save them for last!) The first focuses mostly on preproduction: maintaining the secrecy of the story, working through the ideas and problems, plotting and planning, clothes and weapons, and things like that.
-24 Exposed Post-Production: The second has a little more preproduction but is mostly the production side. It looks at guest casting, filming, shooting the big hand-to-hand fight, fooling the extras so they wouldn’t give away the ending prematurely, and wrapping the season.
Episodes/Extras continued
The set offers 24 episodes. Most are exactly 44 minutes long though a couple are closer to 42, and the extended season premier episode is a little over 50.
Unlike the original season 1 TVD this set features chapters. I would like skipping past the “previously on 24” segments. Sure it’s great to have them for a refresher, but if you just got through watching the previous episode why do you need a refresher? One problem, though, sometimes chapter 2 starts further into the story requiring some backtracking. Why not be consistent with it? That’s pretty annoying.
Here are the extras you get for the episodes with some comments on the most notable ones.
1) 8:00 AM-9:00 AM
-4 interesting but slow deleted scenes.
2) 9:00 AM-10:00 AM
-3 deleted scenes.
3) 10:00 AM-11:00 AM
-This one has a behind the scenes feature looking at the big explosion. It’s a good look at the tricks and tools, the coordinating and practice, and finally the execution.
-There’s also a deleted scene.
4) 11:00 AM-12:00 PM
-This one has the first commentary featuring Carlos Bernard (Tony), Sarah Wynter (Kate), and Michelle Forbes (Lynne). It has its amusing moments, but they often seem to not know what to say.
5) 12:00 PM-1:00 PM
-A deleted scene with a little better tension than most of the cut scenes.
6) 1:00 PM-2:00 PM
-Another commentary this time with the director and Sarah Clarke (Nina). It has a lot of info about shooting and acting.
-An angle study provides a closer look at the unusual way in which this show is shot that being the use of multiple cameras to film scenes. Multiple takes of a particular scene play out with the viewpoint of each camera on screen.
-A small deleted scene rounds this one out.
7) 2:00 PM-3:00 PM
-A deleted scene with Kim and her boyfriend.
9) 4:00 PM-5:00 PM
-3 deleted scenes though nothing extraordinary.
10) 5:00 PM-6:00 PM
-Another commentary this one with one of the creators and Penny Johnson Jerald (Sherry). It’s quite interesting; Penny is amusing and smart. She turned out to be one of my favorite speakers of all the commentaries.
-A whopping 7 deleted scenes this time. There’s more blood, a rougher side of Jack, and some events we know happened in other rooms but didn’t actually see.
12) 7:00 PM-8:00 PM
-A deleted scene of poor conflict for this one.
13) 8:00 PM-9:00 PM
-A couple of deleted scenes.
14) 9:00 PM-10:00 PM
-A deleted scene with a short bit of conversation.
15) 10:00 PM-11:00 PM
-This commentary includes Xander Berkeley (Mason). It’s slow but has some good moments talking about the differences between doing movies and TV shows and looks at the time frame.
-There are 5 deleted scenes including a different configuration for the video boxes at the end.
16) 11:00 PM-12:00 AM
-A couple of deleted scenes.
17) 12:00 AM-1:00 AM
-A couple of deleted scenes.
19) 2:00 AM-3:00 AM
-3 interesting deleted scenes. One is just a quick, violent moment. The others show the process of change in the course of creating an episode. After filming, the consensus was that there needed to be another character in the scene, and so it was reshot with another guy. The comparison of the results and those with the actual episode is interesting.
20) 3:00 AM-4:00 AM
-This commentary features Kiefer Sutherland (Jack). It’s a little slow but interesting covering story elements and acting.
-A deleted scene shows a little more coldness from the villain.
21) 4:00 AM-5:00 AM
-This commentary features Dennis Haysbert (President Palmer). While it has some interesting moments it’s overall too slow.
23) 6:00 AM-7:00 AM
-A couple of deleted scenes provide some good moments with a few of the characters.
24) 7:00 AM-8:00 AM
-5 deleted scenes with some of the best material yet (though ep. 19 is a close second). The first is just an unnecessary lead-in to an existing scene. Next is an extended fight sequence, the one shown in the behind the scenes footage. This is a very well choreographed fight, and the performance is outstanding. As a Martial Artist who has done some stage choreography I enjoyed this as much as anything in the extra features. Next is an emotional but long moment with one of the characters. After that is an ending they decided to try with a surprise villain. It doesn’t work, but it’s interesting to see the thoughts behind it. And lastly, remember when I said the behind the scenes feature looks at how the people on set had to be fooled so that the true ending of the season didn’t get leaked before airtime? The scene they shot is included here. It’s a poorly done scene, but it is a brilliant idea in information control and therefore interesting to see.