24 is an Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning American television series. Broadcast by Fox Network in the USA and syndicated worldwide, the show first aired on November 6, 2001, with an initial thirteen episodes. In January 2007, 24 was made available online to U.S. viewers through Fox on Demand. The first six seasons were all centered around the fictional Los Angeles branch of the U.S. government Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU). It has been announced through various official sources, including issue #11 of The Official 24 Magazine, that CTU will be completely absent during the upcoming seventh season. The main characters will still be working for the U.S. government, although it is as yet unclear which branches of the government will be involved.
24 is presented in real time, with each season depicting a 24-hour period in the life of Jack Bauer, who works with the U.S. government as it fights threats on U.S. soil. Bauer is often in the field for the fictional Los Angeles Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) as they try to safeguard the nation from terrorist threats. The show also follows the actions of other CTU agents, government officials and terrorists associated with the plot. The first six seasons of the show were all based in Los Angeles and nearby locations - both real and fictional - in California, although occasionally other locations have been featured as well - most notably, Washington, D.C., where a significant portion of the action took place during the fourth and sixth seasons. Promotional materials for the seventh season have already established that, departing from tradition, it will be set primarily in Washington, D.C. (It is worth mentioning that a 2005 24 spinoff made exclusively for cell phones, 24: Conspiracy, was also set in Washington, D.C.)
After leading actor Kiefer Sutherland won a Golden Globe for his role in the first 10 episodes, the ratings of the show increased, leading FOX to order the second half of the season. There have been six seasons of 24 produced. On May 15, 2007, it was confirmed that FOX has ordered seventh and eighth seasons. A motion picture based on the show has been written and was scheduled to be filmed in 2007 for a 2008 release but plans for production were put on hold to focus on the TV series.
The seventh season, originally scheduled to premiere on January 13, 2008, has been postponed in the wake of the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike to ensure a non stop season, a trademark of the show since the start of its fourth season in January 2005.
Elements
Real time
24 is a thriller which is shown in “real-time,” with each minute of airtime corresponding to a minute in the lives of the characters. Commercial breaks are placed at times when non-essential plot is taking place (e.g. characters driving somewhere will begin when a commercial break starts and arrive at their destination at the end of the commercial break.) This allows for the show to actually occur in real time without compromising action. The real time of the show continues to roll during the commercials throughout the show, emphasizing the reality of the 24 hours of the season which the characters work.
Actual show run time without commercials is between 42-44 minutes, as is typical for hour long television shows on many commercial stations. However, the effect only works if episodes are shown with commercial breaks during the show and then only if these are inserted at the right points in time and have the same length, which may not fit in with the normal programming of a commercial station.
Watched continuously each season would take approximately 18 hours to finish. This real-time nature is emphasized by an on-screen digital clock appearing before and after commercial breaks, with a distinct beeping noise for each second, alternating between C and D tones. This time corresponds to the in-universe time of the show. The characters will often place time windows (such as the common “within the hour”) on certain events such as terrorist threats, thus strongly hinting the attack/event will occur before the end of the episode.
The action switches between different locations tracing parallel adventures of different characters involved in the same overarching plot. As a result, there may be long sections of unseen narrative for each character, in which case a character may only be seen for a portion of an episode’s overall running time.
Storytelling and visual style
24 employs fast-paced and complex plots. Though each day’s events typically revolve around thwarting an impending terrorist attack, the series maintains an episodic format by requiring its characters to investigate leads on said terrorists, with each lead taking roughly an hour and introducing the next episode’s lead in its closing minutes. The exact objective of the day may also change over the course of the season, as the terrorists adapt their plans, execute contingencies, or are discovered to have been mere pawns in a larger, more insidious scheme.
A recurring theme of 24 has characters faced with the decision of whether to let something tragic happen for the sake of a greater good. In Season 2, a Dept. of Defense staffer has the chance to warn CTU of an imminent attack on their building, but argues doing so would put the culprits on alert and thus cause a valuable trail to go cold. A similar situation occurs in Season 5, when terrorists plan to release a canister of nerve gas inside a busy shopping mall. In Season 3, the President and CTU agents must choose between the life of a high-ranking CTU official and the imminent threat of further attacks, while Season 4 is notable for a scene in which two men — one of whom possesses crucial information about a nuclear missile strike, and the other is the husband of a major character — lie dying in an emergency room, creating the ethical dilemma of whom to save. In addition, the sitting President often has to deal with a similar quandary. For example, in Season 6, President Wayne Palmer asks Jack Bauer to sacrifice himself in exchange for the location of a known terrorist.
The first season began and ended at midnight, and during its eighth episode (7 AM to 8 AM) Jack mentioned that he had already been awake for 24 hours. Later seasons have tended to use a different time window, starting in the morning or early afternoon to allow filming to begin in the summer when there are more daylight hours available.
For the first two seasons, 24 frequently used split-screen action to follow multiple plots, although from Season 3 onward this was scaled back somewhat and confined mostly to phone conversations and shots leading into and out of commercial breaks.
Creative influences
Immediately prior to 24, series co-creators Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran executive-produced La Femme Nikita for its entire five-year run on USA Network. Both series deal with anti-terrorist operations, and the lead characters of both series are placed in situations where they must make a tragic choice in order to serve the greater good. As a result, the on- and off-screen creative connections between 24 and La Femme Nikita are highly pronounced. Numerous actors from La Femme Nikita have portrayed similar roles on 24, a number of story concepts from La Femme Nikita have been revisited on 24, and many of the creative personnel from La Femme Nikita currently work (or have worked) on 24 in the same capacity.
In addition, 24 borrows some aspects of the 1997 film Air Force One. In Seasons 2, 4 and 6, Air Force One can be seen and the series reused the same set as the one featured in the movie. Additionally, three actors featured on 24 — Xander Berkeley, Wendy Crewson and Glenn Morshower — played roles in Air Force One.
Counter Terrorist Unit
Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) is a fictional U.S. government anti-terrorist agency and similar to the real-life FBI/NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force, the CIA Counterterrorist Center’s Special Activities Division and the National Counterterrorism Center. Its headquarters are in Washington, D.C. with satellite operations in major cities where threats are likely. CTU’s primary mission is to disrupt and destroy foreign and domestic terror cells hostile to the United States, as well as protect it from terrorist attacks. With an office in nearly every major city, CTU also has a role in creating security policy and fighting groups of organized crime which fund terrorism.
CTU offices are run by a Director, also called the Special Agent in Charge, to whom the Director of Field Operations and the Chief of Staff report. Departments within a CTU office include Communications (”Comm”), Logistics, and Tactical (”Field Ops”). Communications and Logistics personnel report directly to the Chief of Staff, whereas Tactical personnel are deployed into Tactical Teams (”Tac Teams”) by the Director of Field Operations.
The Los Angeles CTU Field Office houses several areas. The first floor contains the Situation Room, as well as the main communications complex and command center, often referred to as “The Floor.” On the second floor is the Director’s office and Field Ops office. Situated elsewhere in the building are the Information Technology department (I.T.), an in-house Medical clinic, Meteorology department, several Holding Rooms used for interrogation and confinement, and Tech Rooms, which contain the bulk of the physical computer hardware used by CTU.
The CTU offices within a region report to a Divisional Office, overseen by the Division Director. Divisional offices cover a larger amount of territory in their jurisdiction. Finally, the Divisional office and all other offices report to a District Headquarters, overseen by a Regional Director. This title implies each District Headquarters has jurisdiction over an entire region of the United States. However, in Season 1, the reverse was implied: the District Director, George Mason, reported to District Manager Richard Walsh (who was killed in the second episode), and then Ryan Chappelle, the Regional Director from Division. However, in the Season 2 finale, Chappelle referred to a Mr. Vaughn, the District Director, as his superior.
CTU often suffers setbacks for the sake of plot. Despite the high-profile and high-risk nature of its duties, it is frequently infiltrated by double agents, and several times has been attacked or seized by terrorist forces.
It has been confirmed by the Season 7 Trailer that “CTU is gone” and Jack Bauer is on his own while Chloe has to help him. According to issue #11 of The Official 24 Magazine, CTU has been disbanded at some point between Day 6 and Day 7, although it is possible that this is only a ruse, and that the organization has actually gone underground.
Recurring plot devices
There are some plot devices which are used frequently on 24.
- Weapons of Mass Destruction: WMDs, especially nuclear weapons, are constant threats on the show. Seasons 2 and 6 have been based around the threat of nuclear weapons. In Season 3, it was a weaponized virus. Day 5 was a fictional nerve gas variant. Day 4 featured the threat of a nuclear weapon also, but the entire season did not center around this plot.
- Traitors in the government: CTU is often compromised by moles. A major subplot in Day 1 was the presence of a so-called “dirty agent” working with terrorists. As it turned out, there were 2 dirty agents in Day 1 (Nina Myers and Jamey Farrell). Jamey Farrell was originally thought to be the only dirty agent but it was later revealed that Nina Myers was also a dirty agent. Since then, another agent was found to be dirty in Day 4. Two traitors in the White House were exposed in Day 5 (Walt Cummings and President Charles Logan). Many others have been accused of espionage.
- Invocation of the 25th Amendment: Section 4 of the 25th Amendment states if the Vice President and a majority of the President’s cabinet votes that the President is unable to fulfill his duties, he will be removed. It was first invoked during Day 2, to stop then President David Palmer from aborting an attack which would propel the U.S. into war. He was removed by one vote, but ultimately prevented the attack. It was invoked on Days 4 and 6, after failed assassination attempts on Presidents Keeler and Wayne Palmer. Mike Novick was involved with it being invoked in both the 2nd and 4th seasons.
- Insubordination of Jack Bauer: Jack has broken CTU protocol at least once in all six seasons. He manages to convince other agents to help him (usually Chloe O’Brian, Tony Almeida or Michelle Dessler). He usually is granted amnesty for his actions.
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Frequent Change in Command: So far on the series, there have been six on-screen Presidents. Only three of those six were actually elected into office, and only one served for a full term. One President resigned, one ex-President was assassinated, another was incapacitated by a bomb, and another was seriously injured when Air Force 1 was shot down. Also, there have been
twelve directors of CTU, many of whom have also either resigned or been killed. - Threatening Family Members to Force Compliance: Villains in the series frequently kidnap and threaten to kill close family members of the main characters in order to force them to work against CTU or the government (usually covertly). In addition, Jack has threatened to (or advised others to) execute in exchange for crucial information regarding an imminent terrorist attack.
- Revealing Information in Exchange for Immunity: Many terrorists/villains with major knowledge that CTU desires will often require they be acquitted of past crimes. These characters include Nina Myers, Mandy, Jacob Rossler, Collette Stenger, Christopher Henderson, Dina Araz, and Dmitri Gredenko.
- Torture: Jack and others employ the use of torture or threats of torture in nearly every episode in order to extract information. In most cases, the torture is justified as serving the greater good, although there is sometimes a conflict of interest in which torture is also motivated by revenge.
Main casts
24 is known for making major changes to its main cast every season — the sole exception being Kiefer Sutherland, who is the only main cast member to star in all six seasons to date. Glenn Morshower, who plays Aaron Pierce, is the only actor besides Sutherland to appear in all six seasons. Due to the unpredictable nature of each season’s storyline, main cast members are added and dropped frequently. In a few cases, guest stars have been upgraded to main cast members during the course of a season. Main cast members who return from prior seasons — whether they return for one episode or the better part of a season — are often given a “Special Guest Star” billing, although this is also used for other cast members who are well-known film actors, like Dennis Hopper, Powers Boothe, Sean Astin, and James Cromwell.
Because of the intense nature of the series, the number of onscreen deaths is high compared to other television dramas. Of the 28 characters who have comprised the main cast over the past six seasons, nine are deceased. This number is considerably higher when guest characters — whether they be government agents or terrorists — are also included.
- Kiefer Sutherland - Jack Bauer
- Leslie Hope - Teri Bauer
- Sarah Clarke - Nina Myers
- Elisha Cuthbert - Kim Bauer
- Dennis Haysbert - David Palmer
- Sarah Wynter - Kate Warner
- Xander Berkeley - George Mason
- Penny Johnson Jerald - Sherry Palmer
- Carlos Bernard - Tony Almeida
- Reiko Aylesworth - Michelle Dessler
- James Badge Dale - Chase Edmunds
- Kim Raver - Audrey Raines
- Alberta Watson - Erin Driscoll
- William Devane - James Heller
- Lana Parrilla - Sarah Gavin
- Roger Cross - Curtis Manning
- Mary Lynn Rajskub - Chloe O’Brian
- James Morrison - Bill Buchanan
- Gregory Itzin - Charles Logan
- Louis Lombardi - Edgar Stiles
- Jean Smart - Martha Logan
- D.B. Woodside - Wayne Palmer
- Peter MacNicol - Tom Lennox
- Jayne Atkinson - Karen Hayes
- Eric Balfour - Milo Pressman
- Carlo Rota - Morris O’Brian
- Marisol Nichols - Nadia Yassir
- Regina King - Sandra Palmer
- Bob Gunton - Ethan Kanin
- Colm Feore - Henry Taylor
- Annie Wersching - Renee Walker
- Jeffrey Nordling - Larry Moss
- Janeane Garofalo - Janis Gold
- Rhys Coiro - Sean Hillinger
- Cherry Jones - Allison Taylor
