24 - Season Five (2005)

Jack is Back

18 months have passed since Jack Bauer faked his own death in order to avoid being killed by someone within the government. He goes by a fake name and is starting to think he may get a chance at a normal life. However, someone is targeting the people who helped Jack disappear, for reasons involving an Anti-Terrorism treaty with Russia, which President Charles Logan believes will be the defining moment of his presidency. Jack returns to LA to uncover the plot behind it all and to bring those responsible to justice.


This is personally my season. My most favorite seasons to least favorite are as follows: [5,2,1,4,6,3]. This is the one season so far where all twenty four hours bring the bacon home. The acting is superb from all characters, the plot is suspenseful, addictive, and unpredictible, and Jack Bauer inspires me with his determination, courage, fortitude, and sense of justice. A lot of season four characters return to help Jack, or to stop Jack. Guest Appearence by Sean Astin.

By television standards, this is the best show to watch. By 24 standards, this is the best season yet. June 2, 2008

Same tricks as always, but still addictive

After four years of this show, you can predict everything that will happen: constant meaningless techno-babble; at least one or two moles and double-agents within CTU; limitless supplies of bad guy machine gun fodder; the president and the entire government constantly hangs out in or around Los Angeles (despite the fact that the capital is still Washington, D.C.), technology working magically or not at all as needed by the plot; villains once (or twice, or three times) apprehended, effortlessly escape as needed to keep the plot alive; constant and ceaseless bureaucratic in-fighting at CTU so that Jack Bauer is forced to work outside the chain of command, and against or in secret from his own superiors at CTU and other branches of the government (Jack is pretty much the only person in the government with good judgment, and his judgment is unerring and god-like); the constant placing of Jack's loved ones in peril for purposes of emotional manipulation and ratcheting of tension; frequent torture of bad guys or anyone else who falls under suspicion; other agents are effortlessly killed--only Jack is hard to kill; in lieu of torture, terrorist demand and are given a written guarantee of immunity signed by the president or the attorney general.

These same tricks are used over and over and over. And yet we keep watching. Also, an attempt was made to respect the "real time" angle for the first season or so, but that quickly fell away. In seasons 2 through 5, people cover distances or accomplish tasks in miraculously tiny amounts of time. (Anyone who lives in L.A. knows that you set aside 1 hour and 1/2 hour blocks of time to get anywhere; you can't drive from Santa Barbara to downtown L.A. in 25 minutes.) An example from Season 4: You can't wake up a federal judge in the middle of the night, get him to sign a warrant, get a federal marshal and get the marshal and the warrant to CTU within 15 minutes of receiving a call from a terrorist telling you to do all that. That's just not real, much less "real time" yet that sort of silliness now happens all the time on the show. Also, time is often lost at the top of the hour, by which I mean that events often lurch ahead by 5, 10, or 20 minutes between, say, 10:59 and 11:01. The "real time" element is now pretty much a joke. And yet we keep watching.

Probably the worst thing is that the plot, viewed as a whole for the entire 24 hour period, never really comes together and makes sense. There are always holes, and sometimes major ones. Like one previous reviewer noted with regard to the fifth season, only four people knew that Bauer wasn't really dead at the end of season four--President Palmer, Tony Almeda and Michelle Dessler, and Chloe--and none of those would ever have ratted him out. So who told the bad guys??

So even though we know it is silly and manipulative, and uses the same tired tricks over and over, and doesn't even try to respect its "real time" gimmick, and neither the details nor the big picture ever really come together and make sense, we keep watching the show because we love Jack Bauer and his unerring patriotism, bravery, decency, sense of right and wrong, and willingness to do the right thing often at great personal cost. And we love how the show keeps the tension at a constant boil. And we love the way Bauer frequently has to fight against the stupidity of his bureaucratic bosses; everyone can relate to that. May 21, 2008

A perfect followup to the best season of 24

The 5th Season of 24 is my second favorite season of 24 closely behind the thrilling 4th season. Season five is an even more suspenseful and pulse pounding day for Jack Bauer. The season never ceases to amaze me with the greatest introduction I've ever seen and also one of the greatest endings I have ever seen. Although it pained me dearly to see the death of David Palmer, one of my favorite characters (a Democrat who Barack Obama could never hold a candle to) in the show, the revelations that spawned from there which led to the unmasking of a massive government conspiracy that makes Watergate and Teapot-Dome look like little white lies.

The brilliance behind Season 5 lies within the fact that while there are many political aspects that exist throughout, the main point of Season 5 is to make people understand that even our government is not perfect and that corruption exists even in the highest levels. It also raises the main question, after watching everything you wonder - how much should the public really know? There's enough corruption within the government to turn the average American exposed to it into an anarchist. This massive conspiracy that is revealed, while the terrorist Vladimir Bierko is very at large and must be stopped by Jack Bauer, the real "bad guy" is someone else and others similar. How much information would you really wish to know, and what information is best kept out of the public's hands?

I think in this case, unfortunately James Heller was right. It's best that the public does not know even though Bauer tries to expose it as much as possible. Some people may disagree, but you'll get a chance to form your own opinion afterwards.

Aside from all this political and media jargon, the fifth season of 24 is my close second favorite, and there is non-stop action, some amazing plot twists, and a very very dramatic story revolving around Jack Bauer and others such as Audrey Raines. I hope this review was helpful to you.

April 11, 2008

24 rules

Season 5 was a great season; however, I have to agree with some other individuals that didn't like to see certain cast killed off. Why can the cast members just remain in retirement somewhere. How ever, I use the phrase about Jack Bauering this or that. Don't make me do a Jack Bauer on your arse March 29, 2008

Amazing

This show never ceases to amaze me. I keep waiting for them (TV executives) to ruin this show like so many others, but it just keep getting better and better. There is never a dull moment and it always leaves you wanting more. I highly recommend this TV show to anyone who says there is nothing good on TV. March 24, 2008

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