I finally got Season 1 of 24 yesterday and I am totally hooked. I have never watched any episode of any season but now I can not turn it off. I wanted to create a poll of your favorite seasons and why you liked them or didn't like them. Please do not give away specific spoilers because I have not seen any yet or if you do please have a warning.
What a coincidence! Same here. I watched episodes 1-3 of season 1 this weekend. Man, the intensity is something else! I'm hooked. The same thing happened to me with Smallville but 1 episode of 24 has the same kick of 3-4 Smallville episodes.
This is my opinion only. 1>5=4=2>3 Nothing can be better than season one, imo. Just the sheer novelty, the excitement, and the twists...it was all great and so new. For seasons 5, 4, and 2, for me they had the cliffhangers that made me want to invent a time machine just so I could skip to the next week. Season three was the weakest, but I've known many others that would rate this the best or second best. For me, I dunno...it just lacked that something...but don't get me wrong. It was still better than 95% of shows out there. After you finish season one, be prepared to want to clear away for 4 more days of excitement.
I had never seen the show until I got season 1 on Netflix a few months ago. That was a great season. I watched Season 2 and it was very good as well. I'm in the middle of Season 3 and I'm kind of getting bored. I'm contemplating just skipping it and moving on to Season 4. Jack's daughter, although AMAZINGLY HOT, is really starting to annoy the hell out of me. CTU has turned into a high school with all the gay little power struggles. I hear a lot of people say Season 3 is the worst one. I sure hope it doesn't get worse from here.
I'm really surprised anyone thinks this past season wasn't the best. I can't even argue about it (because everything would be a spoiler) but as much as I was rooting for the concept of 24 there were episodes of the first 3 seasons that I thought were as bad as any writing I've ever seen on a show that was quite often as good as TV gets. Season 4 had missteps but I do think the writers and producers were trying to correct most of things that I couldn't stand. I don't know if anyone here saw Keifer's recent appearance on the Charlie Rose show (get well Charlie!) but he made a fine point of how they'd hit stride this season and how much things were easier now for everyone - including the writers - was. I've watched every season, but in season 2 & 3 I stopped recommending the show to anyone. Really nice moments in both of those seasons, but if you you put the whole of them together jeez... I was embarassed because I watched it and was rooting for it.
Love them all... but if I had to pick, I'd go S4. But 4, 5, 2, and 1 are all so good that the difference is minimal... S3 was the only one I'd consider good but not great.
I liked the seasons that had Nina Myers. I thought her character was great for the show. The President Palmer seasons were good too.
DO NOT SKIP TO SEASON 4!!! Trust me, the first 2/3 of Season 3 are probably the worst stretch 24 has had to date, but something happens after that that kicks the show into high gear and it had an amazing run rivaling even the first season. As far as 24's best season, I went with Season 1. It was the best written and best executed year(or day) of the show, and aside from the lame amnesia subplot, there were hardly any missteps. Unfortunately, I had the ending spoiled. Or part of it anyway. I knew the fate of one character, but I didn't know who the mole was, so that came as a shocker(even if it didn't make much sense). As for the rest of the seasons, I guess I'd rank them 5, 4, 2, and 3. They were really on their game this past season. They salvaged previously worthless or annoying characters, got Emmy-worthy performances out of several cast members, and even managed to avoid the infamous lame subplot that plagued every prior year(amnesia, mountain lion, baby, and crazy daughter respectively). About the only thing keeping it from being ranked above Season 1 was that it was essentially a rehash of Season 2 beat-for-beat, albeit with one significant twist. Season 4 was a lot of fun, but way too absurd even by 24's standards. Of all the seasons, this one made it way too obvious that they were making it up as they went along. Think of it as the Die Hard 2 of the series. Almost nothing in this season could actually happen, but if you ignore it and just kick back and enjoy the ride, you'll have a good time. Season 2 could've been the best year had they done two things. Come up with a better plot for the last 1/3 of the season and left Kim out of the cast. The first 2/3 were great, but it was clear they had written themselves into a corner and didn't know what to do after the terrorist threat had been resolved. At least Season 5 had "the twist" to fall back on. Season 3 as I said earlier is by far 24's worst to date. The first 6 or 7 episodes are rendered moot by an absurd twist. And then the next 8 or 9 episodes are also a waste of time when it's revealed that it was all one big screwjob by the season's mini-bad. One of 24's biggest hurdles is that it must fill 24 hours(or technically 40-45 minutes per episode) every year. And the writers could only come up with about 1/3 of that for Season 3 and saved it for the end.
I watched them on DVDs and torrents except for season 5. Fast forward the lame characters you know are filler during the first half. After episode 13, they become fairly useful and the show repeats who they are and what they do.... With fast forwarding through fillers in the 1st half, my ranks are: 4,5,3,1,2. I thought the 2nd half of season 2 didn't match the intensity of the first. No way a crisis like the one involved would've started on a series like 24.... Jack wouldn't be able to end it in one day.
Season 4 started off good, but then they went a little overboard about halfway through the season. I like season 2 the most. 5 was pretty good as well but seemed like they were trying too hard to stretch it into 24 episodes.
