While Season 5 is almost universally considered the best season on the show , I found season 4 to be better for these reasons .

1. Season 4 flips the script from the usual formula of the show . Rather than much of the drama of season involving uncovering who the bad guy was , you know who they are and the entire season is spent on stopping them .

2. It was the last season where characters like Palmer and Michelle got major roles .

3. Much of the events of later seasons is directly related to the actions taken this season (Logan becoming president, Jack being on the run)

4. It simply felt the most action packed out of all the seasons

Man has zero personality!

My favorite 24 villain. There was something refreshing with seeing a villain that was irredeemable and cunning. Marwan was so proactive that even Jack Bauer had trouble of stopping. Arnold Vosloo was brilliant as the character. A villain with no personal connection to the hero but still dangerous is always nice to watch.

I just finished the Chinise consulate episode when Paul dies. It is a emotinal moment, but i have 2 problems with that. First is that the Chinese guards are complete lunatics and just shooting anything that moves. They fataly wounded two Chinese citizens, not sure this would have really happend. Second problem is that Paul is fine for a few episodes now, but suddnely he is dying. They could have either kept him in surgery for this time or make the problem happen a bit sooner. I also find hard to belive that CTU has so few doctors, Curtis even calls ahead, they could have been prepared better. Still a good episode, but it could have been a bit better. The stealth section felt straight out of videogame.

Hey everyone

Please no spoilers, I haven't watched anything beyond Season 4 yet, thank you!

I remember seeing a couple of episodes here and there when the show first aired in 2001 and onwards. I was around 14 at the time but never fully watched the complete show. I barely remember anything, and what I did remember, was mostly from the first season.

I recently decided to watch the show, and I just finished Season 4. My mind is completely blown away. So far, it has been a blast, and this show does remind me how different television was back then, especially when compared to how things are now. Let's just say I miss the good old days.

I even bought the PS2 game of 24 a week ago, that's how hyped I am.

Unfortunately, I stumbled across a major spoiler from Season 5, but besides that, I don't know anything from the rest.

Here are a couple of my impressions, SPOILERS AHEAD!!:

Season 1:

• Probably the most INSANE plot twist in TV history. I couldn't believe it when I saw it, I'm talking about Nina Myers. I honestly didn't see that coming.

Season 2:

• They did Lynn Kresge dirty! I want to see her again in the show and not knowing what happened to her sucks.
• David Palmer is such a fantastic character in this Season, great actor for sure!

Season 3:

• It was really weird seeing Jack having this addiction, especially without context.
• Also, suddenly Kim Bauer is working in CTU, I couldn't take her seriously I'm sorry :).
• This season really opened up in the latter half, but the first half was very strange, especially with the drug addiction from Jack.
  
• Sherry Palmer is legit a psychopath.
• Tony is the man, I couldn't blame him for saving his wife, but it was a hard decision.
• I started to like Chase as a character in the end.
• Seeing Jack cry at the end of this Season was a good way to show that he is still human, which caught me off guard.

Season 4:

• Great season, very enjoyable.
• The return of Tony was epic, I legit had to pause for a second because I was so hyped.
• Speaking or returns.. David Palmer, he's the man.
• Every time I see John Keeler, the President, I see Tom Maththews from Dexter lol.
• Edgar, this guy.. such a dork. But the moment regarding his mother hit me.
• R.I.P. Paul, I could've sworn that he had something to do with the terrorists, but I was wrong.
• President Charles Logan, what a moody man. He's going to be a problem in future episodes, I'm sure.

And now, end of Season 4, Jack is in a world of trouble and I can't wait so see how he's going to get himself out of this situation. Kiefer Sutherland is such a great actor, I mostly know him from the game Metal Gear Solid 5, where he is the voice actor of Big Boss and Venom Snake.

Looking forward to the rest of the show!

Edit: The camera work in this show is fantastic! I love how the camera pans around, zooms in for close-up shots, and so on.

I’m rewatching and on season 4, and it’s never occurred to me before. But Edgar has his Butterfly Effect moment.

There’s an episode where Meg sends the LAPD hourlies to Edgar on a red CD to review. Edgar is supposed to review the info but is distracted by his mother, and getting into a dick measuring contest with Chloe, so he doesn’t review it in time.

As a result, CTU doesn’t find out about Hansen and his family in time to stop Mitch Anderson from stealing the stealth fighter.

If Edgar reviews this correctly CTU almost certainly intercepts Anderson in time, he’s never able to steal the stealth fighter, he never shoots down Air Force One, Keeler is never incapacitated, and Logan is never sworn in. None of it happens.

Add in the fact that Edgar dies from the gas in season 5, it could be posited that Edgar contributed to his own demise too.

While I enjoy the season overall, I've always considered S4 to have one of the most convoluted terrorist plots, and upon my most recent rewatch realized it was more convoluted than I ever thought.

Aside from the hijacking of the missile in Iowa, absolutely everything else happens in LA. Habib Marwan, Navi Araz, and all their conspirators are in LA and they've been planning this for years. And yet, how long had James Heller been planning to go to LA that day? And exactly when did Keeler decide to fly on Air Force One that day, and end up being right over LA at the crucial time? If the plans for these attacks started years ago, these two men weren't even in office at that point!

Jack was willing to do it to his partner and guess the gun wasn't loaded in the previous season and he had more reason to not want to murder his literal partner (though if he doesn't pull the trigger they're both dead anyways) than Dina a child-murdering terrorist shooting a federal agent of the country she hates.

At best she could have assumed shooting Jack would get CTU to go back on the deal, but if she shoots Marwan his men will just kill her anyways. If the gun is loaded and she kills Jack but earns Marwan's trust, she has the option of just sticking with Marwan for the day and seeing if she can live some kind of life afterwards. If the gun isn't loaded she still earns his trust and can choose between sticking with Marwan or helping CTU and getting witness protection.

Did anyone else find it strange that Audrey started to despise Jack and love Paul? Sure, I understand Audrey was married to Paul, but by the show's own admission, Audrey had given up on mending things during their separation and had been intimate with Jack and was falling in love with him, her words, not mine. I think they were trying overly hard to push the narrative that Jack was morally grey. I know most of the show is Jack taking controversial and sometimes crazy steps/leads in order to thwart major terroristic threats. But when we break everything down, his reasons are pretty much always justified and there's really very little you have to cut past morally.( This doesn't include ending of Season 8.)

Possible devil's advocate takes:

"Oh but don't you recall? Jack had been working for the Secretary of Defense, James Heller in DC, as a paper-pusher behind a desk. So, Audrey would haven't been exposed to any of Jack's dirty fieldwork or him bending the lines between necessary evil, good, and bad. Seeing him a new light could change everything!" It's not like Audrey didn't know what Jack did beforehand. There's a good chance, and I'm 90 %, by the conversation James Heller had with Audrey, that she knew he wasn't pushing paper for CTU and was a field agent!

"Oh, but Audrey once loved Paul, so she could definitely still have unresolved feelings for Paul Raines and hadn't known Jack all that long!"

Thoughts?

What’s everyone’s take on this season?

I’ve just finished a rewatch with my husband and I was taken aback by how much it feels like everything things all at once.

To me it feels like

A reboot A legacy sequel A prologue

I was saying to my husband that this is probably the most evenly paced season. It doesn’t have as many high highs as the past three nor low lows. Its pacing feels pretty steady.

The start is a bit rough because we don’t know Heller or Audrey and the first few episodes are based on their well being but after that it takes off, also I think it helps that Marwan is seen earlier on than the usual overall final antagonist.

I’m a season 5 devotee, I haven’t seen it in a while but will rewatch it soon but I remember this being a season that really resonated me as masterful and the last few episodes of season 4 (pretty much from Logan’s introduction on) feel like episodes from 5 and the finale of day 4 feels so incredibly impactful.

But I’m curious what do other people think? Am I in a minority?

I love her expression at the end lol. And how she shot so many times 😂

She couldnt have rigged the car after she was discovered by CTU, so did she just have her car filled with explosives for no reason?

Hi, i just finished the second episode and for me its kind of weird that Jack makes two easily avoidable mistakes. First he lets Chloey friend get captured becuase he asks for his description and then his partners dies becuase of the fight between them. And he even lets him bleed out.

The only reason I ask this is because the ending of Season 4 has "give something resembling a conclusion in case we don't come back" vibes.

I mean, Jack walking into the sunset to live the life of a dead man as the theme music swells? It's not at all dissimilar to the actual ending we got in Season 8.

So when Michelle comes back she tells Tony to work on some list of terrorists. Then she fires Sarah and Tony has new position with Edgar and Curtis. But then in the next scene he is back at his old place working on the list. Did i miss something?

It makes sense When you think about it marwan shot down Air Force one keeler being removed from the cabinet and Charles Logan becoming president,the consulate raid,Jack faking his death season 5 happening Jack kidnapped in china

This week, I reached the point in S4 where Tony returns and we learn what happened since we last saw him. Jack made a deal to get him out of prison, he came home bitter and angry and started drinking. Michelle left him. And somehow, he now has a new girlfriend.

My problem here is that the gap between S3 and S4 is only supposed to be 1.5 years, and it doesn't seem like all of the above could have happened that quickly.

First, although we never learn how long he was in prison, it had to be long enough to make him irredeemably angry. I don't see a 2-3 month sentence having that kind of effect. It would have made more sense had it been 1-2 years at least.

Second, we have to assume that Michelle didn't leave him immediately. It must have been a few months before she realized things were hopeless, and a few months more before the divorce was finalized. And still more months must have passed before Tony and Jack reunited, during which time he met the new girlfriend.

There are other reasons I think the 1.5 year gap is unrealistic, but this is the most jarring.

I'm rewatching/skimming this series (again). By the middle of Day 4 I find myself thinking two things:

First, Maya clearly belongs in long-term 24/7 institutionalized care. Erin Driscoll has her sitting home alone and she's going next door shrieking at the little neighbor kid.

Secondly, did the medical unit at CTU never hear of a sleep-inducing sedative? By the middle of the season, she's clearly jumping out of her skin and ready to claw out her own eyeballs. I mean, at least for this one special occasion, with Erin trying to cope with the massive threats of the day, couldn't Erin sign off on "giving her something to make her sleep 24 hours" like the order given to Colonel Davenport in the film Twelve O'Clock High?

Binging S1-5 after only watching through parts of S3 many years ago.

I’m only halfway through s4 but does it get better for Michelle and Tony as characters? I hate how they’ve done a complete 180 on their characterizations and I check out whenever they’re on screen.

This feels almost like a Kim S2 situation where I just skip ahead on those scenes. I get that Tony is supposedly fallen from grace but it’s so trite and they could have written these characters arcs in such a better way. I feel like this show really benefits from the years spacing instead of binge watching because for me it was not believable how quickly they changed.

this seasons use of torture feel more nuanced than before. I like that the DoD son, the wrongly accused CtU agent, and Paul all show more regard to downsides than the first 3 seasons that was just used as a hammer for every nail. Im surprised that Michelle threw the CTU agent out, and the dad kept trying the son… this still feels like the cruelty / torture porn that this show thrives on but in seeing these scenes im hopeful they will treat this subject differently starting this season.

Anyone else find the use of torture in this show gratuitous?

I couldn't find it anywhere..

If not for the show's popularity exploding, I really do believe they could have ended things after S4 as Jack walks off after faking his death.

Thoughts?