Product Details

• Actors: Kiefer Sutherland, Dennis Haysbert
• Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 6
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Fox Network
• Run Time: 1152 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (705 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005JLF2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,551 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "24: Season One" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Twenty-four hours of a counter-terrorist agent's attempt to prevent the assassination of a presidential candidate.
Genre: Television
Rating: NR
Release Date: 17-SEP-2002
Media Type: DVD

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

243 of 266 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great show - but with missing scenes!., August 22, 2002

By 

Rayanne Graff (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 24: Season One (DVD)

The show itself is of course magnificent for the most part. Innovative, exciting and very well acted. A landmark in modern TV drama, despite a brief drop -off in quality in some of the late afternoon episodes. The DVD picture quality is wonderfully sharp, and the sound is nicely crisp.

Important to note if you are buying this package having not seen the show before (having heard about it from others but too late to join in watching it on TV) that there are spoilers all over the presentation. the enclosed booklet includes short summaries of every episode and not much else, so don't look at it until you've seen the whole show. Similarly the menus feature clips from the show which is nice to watch if you aren't worried about information being given away, as the clips on the menu for each disc tend to reveal major plot points.

Also, the DVD extras are actually pretty poor. The alternative ending is dull and obviously only shot to keep the true ending secret. The teaser for season 2 comprises only Kiefer Sutherland talking in very vague terms about the general concept of 24, with no real information about the second series.

Worst of all is the fact that the footage on the discs is only the footage that was originally broadcast IN THE US. In the UK the broadcast footage included an extra couple of minutes for each of the episodes 7pm - 12pm. This footage contained scenes that was cut from the US broadcast for adverts, whereas in the UK 24 was shown on the BBC where there are no adverts.

These scenes ranged from nice additions to important points: one cut scene had a major impact on the crucial events in the final episode and another even greatly improved the climactic battle between Jack and the bad guys.

Fox haven't included this footage on the DVD versions in either the UK or the US, meaning that us poor Brits have scenes that we miss and this has led to calls for a recall and replacement with the full footage. For the US viewer, this is actually worse, in that you are never going to see these great scenes. There are no running time issues on DVD, unlike on TV, so why not let those fans willing to pay for the box set have bonus footage integrated into their box sets?

Bizarrely, this doesn't affect the VHS British release of 24, only the DVD, so if you want those extra scenes you'll need a PAL compatible TV and VCR.

Why not drop Fox an email congratulating them on making such a great show and asking for them to include the full footage as was broadcast on the BBC?

107 of 118 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bet You Can't Watch Just One, January 23, 2003

By 

Mark Baker (Santa Clarita, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 24: Season One (DVD)

It's just after midnight at the Bauer home. They're getting ready for bed when Jack gets a phone call asking him to report to work at the Counter Terrorism Unit in Los Angeles. There he's briefed on a plot to assassinate Presidential candidate David Palmer. Meanwhile, his daughter Kim has snuck out of the house to meet some guys who are bad news. His wife Terri is finding trouble searching for Kim. And Palmer is facing a crisis of his own concerning something in his family's past he didn't even know about. It's going to be a long day for everyone.

This thriller series is innovative. Each episode represents just one hour in the day. I wasn't sure they could pull if off, but the writers managed to keep all the plots going and make the gaps between seeing characters believable. It quickly turned into a weekly addiction that had me glued to my seat and dreading commercials more then normal. Some of the plots loose steam in the afternoon, but it builds up tension again for the climax, which was the best hour of television last season, period.

Unfortunately, this set wasn't all it could have been. They removed the "previously on 24" recaps, which are very useful if you just want to pop a random disc into the machine. Ironically, they also don't have a play all feature, which would go well with no recaps. The worst thing, in my opinion, is the lack of chapter breaks in each episode. The season 1 intro (on the last disc) is ok and includes a mention of this season. Of course, at this point, we're far beyond anything they would have told us in the set. The best feature is the alternate ending. While (to my surprise) I prefer the original, it's nice to see what might have been. As you would expect, the picture and audio quality are top notch.

It's a shame this great show didn't get the DVD treatment it deserved. I'm willing to overlook the lack of extras because of timing, but the lack of the recap & chapter breaks really bothers me. Even so, it's a good set of a great show worth using to catch up or remember this innovative program.

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Keifer Sutherland as Jack Bauer, the modern Sisyphus, December 14, 2002

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 24: Season One (DVD)

My strongest memory of watching Season One of "24" was at the end of episode 12, where I thought that we had finally arrived at a moment where Jack Bauer could take a deep breath and catch his bearings for a moment. Of course, I was wrong, because this is a series where things go from bad to worse and well beyond as Jack Bauer experiences "the worst day of my life." Creator Robert Cochran worked brilliantly within the confines of his grand design, where events happen simultaneously and in real time. The official mission might be heading off an assassination attempt of presidential candidate Senator David Palmer on the day of the California primary, but there is always some pressing task at hand as the hits just keep on coming from start to finish in this show. "24" is a series where the obvious goal was to throw everything at Jack Bauer and the other candidates, including a large number of kitchen sinks, mostly with regards to his family.

I think the casting of Keifer Sutherland as Jack Bauer was strategic, because as the one "movie star" in the cast he stands out as larger than life against the rest of the ensemble. The Sisyphus analogy is not meant to be superficial, because any sense of success at any given moment in the series is transitory at best. Sutherland's performance holds the series together, but the true star is Cochran and his team of writers. It is the story that gets you hooked and sweeps you along for the roller coaster ride as the bad things just keep happening. Watching the show a second time (and in a shorter time span) gave me a better appreciation for how things were set up, which you do not really notice so much the first time through because you have to absorb all the rapid fire developments. The second season is following the same pattern, and I fear it will be disappointing simply because the ending cannot have the emotional impact of what happens with Season One. I would be surprised if Jack Bauer and company make it beyond 48 hours, but we shall see.

Finally: One of the "advantages" of watching the complete first season of "24" on DVD is that you can do it less to start watching it straight through some time (of course, you have to start at midnight). I am too old to engage in such a dedicated effort, but that is no reason for the rest of your not to give it a try.