Starring Kiefer Sutherland, Kim Raver, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Gregory Itzin, Roger R. Cross, Jude Ciccolella, Carlos Bernard, Sean Astin, Peter Weller, D.B. Woodside
Written By:
Directed By:
Studio: 20th Century Fox
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24 Season 5 was a very intense, emotional season and it’s also a season that pissed off most of it’s fans. If you’ve seen the season, you know why. But regardless of pissing the fans off, the show still succeeding in that it brought another exciting, action pact season filled with twists you didn’t see coming!

The season picks up 18 months after Jack Bauer faked his own death. He faked his own death because the Chinese government was holding him personally responsible for one of their people’s death. Jack is forced to come out of hiding because it’s clear that the only people that know he is alive are being target for assassination. Meanwhile Jack comes out of hiding, the President and the Russian president are about to sign an important, historic treaty against terrorism. The assassination attempts and the treaty signing are all tied together and Jack gets to the bottom of it. As the day goes along, you find out that someone you wouldn’t expect is behind everything and has orchestrated these assassination attempts and terrorists attacks for a long time. It’s up to Bauer and the very few remaining friends he has at CTU to help him thwart the plans of..Ahh just watch the season and find out damnit!

I’m going to be talking SPOILERS here, so if you haven’t seen this season yet, you might want to avoid the rest of this review. Like I said above, this season probably pissed off a lot of the fans because how the creators were killing characters off the series left and right. They were definitely cleaning house on 24 this year and I’m not sure how happy I am with it either. Tony was the second biggest character on the show, along with Palmer and now all these characters that you grew to love are gone. I think change is definitely good, but not by killing off at least 4 or 5 big name characters this season. The backlash has been tremendous for the death of Tony and I can see why. He went out like such a bitch. He should have went out on a blaze of glory, which looked like the path he was going to choose. BUT that wasn’t the case and he went out like a punk bitch. All the fans on the Internet kept debating whether or not he was really dead (it is 24 after all). The nickname of Zombie Soul Patch Tony was circulating and I couldn’t help but laugh at that. Though it would have been a nice twist to see Tony survive and help Jack get the bad guys. I’m just scared as to who will go this upcoming season: Chloe, Curtis, Bill, maybe even Jack but then again there’s that 24 movie that’s starting to film after Season 6.

I thought having the show deal with the assassination of Palmer was a great story! There had to be something so big to get Jack out of hiding, and that was it. I, for one, was completely shocked by the opening 15 minutes of episode 1. I didn’t see that coming and I’m sure others didn’t see it coming either. I thought having the same attack, and terror threat throughout the season was good. It didn’t jump around with various terror plots like there was in the past. I thought having the Prez involved behind everything was genius. Again, I didn’t see that coming but I knew he was evil but just playing dumb. Hmm sounds like someone else that’s currently in charge? Coincidence, I think not! Having Jack go head on with him was great to see because the President did everything he could to hinder Jack from getting to him. But Jack enlisted help from some people that are close to the Prez and it worked. Jack obviously couldn’t have done all this alone and he’s not Superman (even though we think he is). I thought the acting of Gregory Itzin was fantastic because he played the part so convincing. In the beginning, you think he had nothing to do with it. But when you find out things, it all comes together and it makes you slap your forehead. Towards the end of the season, you don’t think Jack is gonna save the day like he has in the past. But he does, but pays a price for being exposed out in the public. That “twist” wasn’t as shocking and I knew the Chinese would come back into the picture. That should set up the beginning of Season 6 very nicely.

24 extras have always been great, and very extensive too! The first thing I watch when I get the 24 DVDs is the prequel to the next season. I don’t even bother to watch any episodes yet and want to see what’s in store for us for next season. This prequel you see Jack 6 or 7 months after he was kidnapped by the Chinese and there is a prison escape attempt. It’s fun to watch and shows what kind of people Jack is up against. There’s also a small trailer for season 6 but doesn’t offer anything really new. The Internet trailer that was posted a month or two ago was a lot more exciting and showed us more footage than that one. Besides the Season 6 trailer and prequel mini clip, there’s commentary on selected episodes, featurettes on Sean Callery’s music, the other supporting actors & actresses, the unsung heroes: the camera crew, and a bunch of deleted and extended scenes. The featurette on the supporting characters was great because you find out about their personal lives. Did you know that Mike Novick (Jude Ciccolella) is a folk singer?! I didn’t know that, but think that’s awesome! Gregory Itzin started up an acting school, Carlos Bernard likes to do a lot of writing, Roger R. Cross just had a son and I also think James Morrison is a yoga teacher. Sean Astin talked about how he got casted on the show and it ended up that he was going to the same chiropractor as Joel Surnow. Everyone talked about their deaths and how each episode they all think they are going to die. I also liked watching the deleted scenes and seeing what was cut from the episodes. There’s about 40 minutes worth of scenes, but nothing that special. Just more scenes with Mrs Logan, some scenes with Kim and an extended scene of the motorcade attack. The 100th episode reel was cool because it showed all the highlights from the past seasons.

The fifth season of 24 was action packed, with lots of intense moments. So much happened on the show that it makes it so unbelievable, but it wouldn’t make for exciting TV if you just saw Jack taking a dump for a half hour. I thought the addition of Sean Astin was great, and giving more screen time to Chloe and Agent Pierce was the right move. Hopefully they’ll be given even more screen time in Season 6 as well. I’m curious to see how the creators can beat this season but we’ll see. Wayne Palmer is the new president so that should be pretty bad ass! And hopefully Jack and others will survive yet another day. But be sure to pick up this DVD set because it’s just as good as the previous seasons.

Features:
Exclusive Season 6 Prequel Bridging Seasons 5 & 6
Cast/Crew Commentary on Selected Episodes
4 Featurettes
DVD-ROM Feature
100th Episode Reel
24: Behind the Scenes (Book Sample)
23 Extended & Deleted Scenes w/ Optional Commentary by Stephen Kronish & Scott Powell

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1
SPANISH: Dolby Digital Surround

Video:
Widescreen 1.78:1 Color

Subtitles:

Favorite Scenes: The opening 15th minutes, Airport terrorist attack, the motorcade attack, Henderson vs Jack on the sub, The final confrontation between Jack and Logan
Rating: NR
Running Time: 1012 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: