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STREET DATE: DECEMBER 4
Official Synopsis:
After twenty months in a Chinese prison, Jack Bauer is suddenly returned to the United States. But instead of being free, Jack’s release is part of a secret deal: his life in return for the location of Hamri Al-Assad, the leader of a terrorist organization that has unleashed a wave of terror across the country. A broken man, physically and mentally, Jack agrees to the exchange. But when he learns that his new captor, Abu Fayed, is actually the man behind the attacks and that his own sacrifice is meaningless, Jack lashes out and escapes. Now he must convince the President and CTU that the man they are trying to kill may be the only man who can end the rapidly escalating violence.
Our Take:
24 was a bit of a ride for me – not just a ride with the intense story but a ride of ups and downs of good and bad filmmaking. If I could have just watched the first episode of Season Six and never watched another episode again, I would have been okay with that. The premiere episode was awful: the acting, the dialogue, the set up, all of it. And don’t even get me started on how ridiculously awful Jack Bauer looked when they first retrieved him from the Chinese. Luckily, my hand was forced into watching more and the next 17 or so episodes were fantastic.
I know just about every fan of this show considers Season Six to be the weakest season, and to that I will say that Season Six is the only season I have seen, so for me it’s the best. I really enjoyed the overall plot about the suitcase nukes and having one of the most notorious and brutal terrorists in the world flip sides to help stop future attacks. It all worked nicely and kept me on the edge of my seat for two days as I plowed through the seven disc set.
Just about all the way through until the last disc I only had a few minor complaints. And those complaints rested solely on the way certain characters were written. Both Regina King (as the President’s sister) and Powers Boothe (as the Vice President) annoyed me to no end. Every time they popped up on screen and started ranting and crying about who cares what, I was seriously tempted to turn my DVD player, off or at the very least fast forward till they weren’t on screen anymore. I can pretty much guarantee I’ll never go back to rewatch this season as a whole and I can put that completely on those two characters. This almost happened with a third character as well, that of Peter MacNicol (who plays the President’s right hand man) but he actually turned out to be one of my favorite characters with what was by far the best dialogue of the season.
After the major plot found resolution with about a disc and a half left, I kind of smelled trouble, and I was right. As soon as the threat to America was over (and I’m not giving anything away by saying that; this is 24, after all) everything went to crap. The intensity was gone and it felt like they just had to jam a few more episodes in just to fill out the day as well as tie up loose ends from both this season and last. It doesn’t work. But hey, 17 great episodes out of 24 is still a win in my column.
The DVD set comes with some nice special features spread out through six discs as well as a seventh disc with just special features on it.
Disc 1:
* Commentary and Deleted Scenes and Alternate Takes on episode 6:00 AM – 7:00AM
* Commentary and Deleted Scenes and Alternate Takes on episode 7:00 AM – 8:00 AM
* Deleted Scenes and Alternate Takes on episode 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Disc 2:
* Deleted Scenes and Alternate Takes on episode 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
* Commentary on episode 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
* Commentary on episode 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Disc 3:
* Commentary and Deleted Scenes and Alternate Takes on episode 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
* Deleted Scenes and Alternate Takes on episode 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
* Deleted Scenes and Alternate Takes on episode 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
* Commentary and Deleted Scenes and Alternate Takes on episode 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Disc 4:
* Commentary on episode 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
* Commentary on episode 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
* Deleted Scenes and Alternate Takes on episode 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Disc 5:
* Two Separate Commentary Tracks on episode 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM
* Commentary and Deleted Scenes and Alternate Takes on episode 11:00PM 12:00 AM
* Commentary and Deleted Scenes and Alternate Takes on episode 12:00 AM – 1:00 AM
* Deleted Scenes and Alternate Takes on episode 1:00 AM – 2:00 AM
Disc 6:
* Deleted Scenes and Alternate Takes on episode 5:00 AM – 6:00 AM
Disc 7:
* Season 7 Preview (17 seconds) – Really? 17 seconds?
* Extended and Deleted Scenes (30 minutes) – All with optional commentary.
* Master Illusionist: 24 Special Effects Make-Up (11 minutes).
* 24 Season 6: Inside The Writers Room (18 minutes).
* 24 Season 6: Opening with a Bang (13 minutes).
* Cameo: Ricky Gervais (2 minutes) – A spoof of a scene where Ricky Gervais steps in and mocks things up.
* 24 Webcast Diaries (60 minutes) – This is the stuff special feature watchers are looking for.
* 24 Mobisodes: “Day Six Debrief” (15 minutes) – A short story originally produced as serials for cel phone viewers.
* PSA from Kiefer Sutherland (1 minute) – How convenient, a PSA from Kiefer.
* DVD-ROM Exclusives – Not sure what these are as I cannot access the feature through the check discs I received.
Watching Season Six of 24 has piqued my interest enough to want to go back and watch the other seasons, but I also can’t help but think that I might get burned out on the concept after awhile.
Overall Picture:
Show: B+
DVD: A+
- Landen Chase Pelish
Staff Writer
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