At the very beginning of the show he's says "this show occurs in real time" by that I assume it means for every 5 minutes we watch the show, 5 minutes elapse on the screen. They even have a clock ticking away the seconds.

For commercials, I think the viewer takes a break but the action is still taking place in the show. For instance, for a 2 minute commercial break, when we rejoin the show 2 minutes will have passed on the screen. However, last night, in the 2 minutes it took for commercial, 4 minutes elapsed on screen.

Last night's hour long show covered the 12 midnight to 1 am time slot for the show. Next week will be 1 am to 2 am and so on for 24 episodes.

Since the camera is not focused on any one character for the entire hour, it can be assumed that they use the restroom (and do whatever else they need to do) when not on screen

I liked 24 a lot. It wasn't fast-paced by any means but it was well done and the plot is good. Plus, I've been waiting to see that "Exotica" chick in something and now she's the assassin.

I just don't know how the TV Guide man said he watched it four times. It was enjoyable to me but not enough for even a second look much less four.

And NYPD.......when they start added Silver Spoons people and now Saved By The Bell alums........I think it's time for Bochco to focus on PHILLY.

I'm in for the long run if they continue to build the drama, action and intrigue. I don’t have any problem with the 1st. show starting as it did. I never really let ads over hype movies much less shows so I end up a bit happier than most.

I wouldn't, however, be insulted by some snappy dialog. I think shows like West Wing and Sports Night have ruined me forever.

A few comments . . .

TV Guide heaped praise all over this because it is published by News Corp who also own Fox Broadcasting, so they tend to overhype the Fox shows.

I too was disappointed that the "show clock" didn't jive with the "real time" clock.

I thought Kiefer was very good . . . he added weight to the character that was palpable even after only one episode. Plotwise, this resembles a good "airport novel" and I look forward to the seeing it develop. There were some believability issues, like the aforementioned work-to-home proximity, and the fact that the headquarters for this govt counterterrorist group looked more like a dot-com company.

"If I give you a phone number, can you hack into it and give me all its Internet passwords?"

"Sure!"

Sorry, that was just too funny. (They have the Internet on computers now!?)

It's also hard to believe that the group doing the assasination couldn't come up with a slightly more subtle way of getting the keycard and getting rid of the photographer.

But otherwise, I thought it was pretty good and will probably watch the next one, especially if it's on Tuesdays after That 70's Show and Undeclared. I seem to have missed all the hype that people mentioned here, so I didn't have any expectations going into it.

I enjoyed the first show and will have to either tape it next week or tape NYPD Blue though. Wish they hadn't put them on the same time slot.

As for the rest of TV nowadays, I agree Sopranos is great (although I don't get HBO, I just have to buy the DVD sets...hehe), there are some other good shows out there. West Wing is great, and so is NYPD Blue. CSI is also one of my favorite shows.

I don't understand some of you people. We get to see Mia Kirshner getting into the mile-high club, and y'all complain this first installment was slow? (Yeah, I have low expectations in what I watch...heh). Mia is one hot lady.

I think the urgency of the show will pick up once we are into the 5th or 6th episode, and I intend on watching it until then before making a snap judgment on it.

I did find that female CTU agent (the one that might be having the affair with Sutherland's character Jack) nice to look at.

Come to think of it, there was a lot of humping going on in one hour on this show. Wasn't that friend of Jack's daughter the one who plays Jessica Martel on "Ed"?

Doesn't anyone think that just to steal a photographer pass, it is waaaaay to much to blow up the entire plan and also stealing it at the day of the assasination?! And you would think that the senator's peopel knows what the photographer looks like? Are they gonna do the MI2 face trick? If so, why don't they steal the pass waaaay before hand and knock off the photographer? Why send a BIG flaming signal saying that hey the killer was probably on the plane? Stupid!

I liked it. It's pretty damn good so far. Not exactly worried about the details, but then again, picky bastards like myself are not their core audience. As for the whole bit with Mia Kirshner, I think she will be more involved then just stealing an ID.



On a sidebar, am I the only one noticeing all the stars form Wolf Lake appearing on shows all over the place? I'm starting to wonder if the cast of Wolf Lake knew it was over before it even began. Mia was on this show, Tim Matheson was just on West Wing, and there was another actress from the show just on The Enterprise back in week 3. Just struck me as funny. Ignore this part of the post comepletly, I'm just rambling.

That scene kind'a surprised me. I don't know why.

I don't remember TV giving us Mile-High in the act before.

If I'm wrong I'm certain I'll be corrected.

I think I have a problem because I have a very complex scheme already worked out in my mind. I don't recall character names, but the supervisor who decides to put Sutherland on this case seems a little suspicious to me. So does the guy who claims to be the father of Sutherland's daughter's friend. I think the two guys will be kidnapping the girls and the supposed father will be kidnapping Sutherland's wife. The only way they could have known who's family members they were going to need to kidnap was to have someone inside who would decide who would be working on this case. This would also be another reason why the supervisor wants Sutherland to only discuss this case with him. But then again, it kind of made this supervisor seem too obvious as the mole when he blatantly said that if this guy gets elected the bureau or whatever will be finished.

Just caught the Friday Encore and was rather impressed. I am indeed looking forward to the next episode though.

I just caught the encore tonight also.

I thought it did a good job of setting up the premise. I like the fact that there's more than one story - it would have been kinda lame if everything was just focused on the assasination. That said, I don't know how they're gonna extend that daughter story for very long.

I laughed at the phone line / password thing too. I could have bought him giving an email address and finding the password, but a phone line?

The photographer thing might just be a lucky coincidence for the assassin - I doubt she's gonna do anything but just flash it at people.

Enough twists and developments to get me to come back.

Did they do that 'tell a friend' ad at the end of the episode when it aired on tuesday?

I saw this on Friday night, as I kinda figured that I would hate myself if I missed NYPD Blue on Tuesday. It was weird seeing Keifer Sutherland as a 40 year old man. I can't really imagine how the story line with the daughter is going to continue much and if it does'nt then they wasted 30 minutes going along with that. I will watch it again, but only if it comes on on Friday again, because Tuesday at 9, I am hanging out with Sippowicz (sp?).

FYI, the last encore of the first episode will be showing... well, right now, on FX. My TiVo has botched the recording of the last two encores (stupid frickin' IR Blaster!), but I've since ditched my cable box (Band of Brothers is over... don't need HBO anymore!), so no more IR Blaster problems! I'm looking forward to this one.

Fire bad!

Whoa..., I tuned into this like 5 min into the start and wasn't sure if it was the first ep or not. It felt pretty engaging to me. One thing I noticed was that the characters try like hell to not to leave any questions dangling. Like Kiefer Sutherland tryign to find out the source, and the Senator's wife trying to find out what he was talking about. I hate it when characters just hear something, and then leave the topic without delving into it a little bit. I know we don't really find out what's behind the source but that's for the following episodes. IMO, it's worth watching.

Next week's episode (A few spoilers, I guess). Taken from TVguide online:

Kiefer Sutherland just gave away a major plot point on The Tonight Show. You could tell he felt stupid after he realized that what he had just told everyone had not been aired yet. Jay ended the interview with "Anymore plot points you want to blow for everyone?"



EDIT: Wow, ever notice that the smilie in the spoiler portion looks happy, but when you highlight the spoiler area, he becomes sad.

I think a lot of the folks complaining here about the pacing of the story are missing the point. Pilot episodes in general are slower that subsequent ones. The Sopranos certainly didn't rocket along in the 1st episode (titled "The Sopranos") as it did by say episode 11 of season 1 ("Nobody Knows Anything").

The idea is to give your audience a chance to catch on to what's happening until they can get up to running speed with the characters (names, personalities, etc.) and what is going on in the situation. 24 is a classic example of why a pilot episode seems slow. The whole conspiracy is JUST starting to unfold - and rather quickly in real time if it only takes 24 hours.

The 1st of the 24 hours allows us, the viewer, to aquaint ourselves with what is only the briefest outlines of a few key players (I have a feeling we're going to meet quite a few new characters who may prove to be major or minor as the season progresses). If we were forced to simply jump into this scenario while it was at full tilt, no one would EVER understand what was happening. Also I think the director wanted to give people a chance to get more aquainted with how the multi-angle, multi-scene collage concept is going to work in the show. That is not something you want to dump into a viewer's lap out of thin air (did you notice the first few were all of the same person from different angles and little by little the scope broadened until we get to the last one which shows a shot of what practically every character we've encounter so far is doing?).

I think this is going to be a cool show and this thread unfortunately billed itself as "The 24 Thread". I would think there should be two (one I love it, the other it sucks) lest this turn into a "crapping thread" where those who want to discuss the show (things they missed, theories on what comes next, etc.) are constantly forced to page through countless "this show sucks" posts to gleen the info they want.

Just my 24 cents,

D'oh, I forgot this was on tonight. I missed the first 15 minutes of the show - can someone post a summary of the beginning of the show?

Thanks!

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hate myself for not being able to not read spoilers!!! But TV Guide gave half of what you put in the spoiler away in last issues (this weeks issue ?? ) of tv guide, which pissed me off. But the other half I would never have seen coming....hell, either of those two plot points I would never have seen coming!
Thanks though, I'm kinda glad I know...kinda!

Neitzl

ps yah, the smilie is a frownie...whut up wid dat??

Starts off with the girl who blew up the plane parachuting towards the earth. Then she hides the ID card in the ground, and waits for her contact to come pick her up. The contact comes and takes her away, and about 10 secs later, someone else comes and picks up the ID card. We see Senator Palmer talking about his kids and to his wife (just smalltalk), and Kiefer Sutherland and his wife are still looking for their daughter. The daughter is apparently been 'kidnapped' by those guys she was with. Don't know if i'm leaving anything out. Oh, yeah, that guy who works with them in the Agency (who has the hots for Nina) is real suspicious about what happened in the office with Mason. That's about it for the first 15 min. Maybe somebody else can add something.

Hour 4 through 9 are going to be pretty slow cuz everyone will be asleep and we'll just have to watch them all sleeping in bed. Seriously though I wonder how they're gonna handle sleep and eating and pooping and peeing.

I think the show is pretty decent. I was a bit put off from the first episode, but found it engaging enough to watch the second... now I wanna find out what happens and so on. I also noticed the huge time inconsistencies - so as far as "it happens in real time", it's fairly close considering it's a daunting task to perform properly. I haven't seen a flawless case yet of a movie or show that did this properly... so I try not to focus on that and just enjoy the story.

Every single character isn't constantly on camera. Say we go to commercial... (that takes two minutes)... and then Jack Bauer (Kiefer's character) doesn't come back on screen for another two more. That's four minutes right there. Plenty of time for each character to take care of bodily functions. People can also eat on the run... and they can also go without food or sleep for 24 hours and survive. I don't think any of the main Counter-Terrorist Unit characters will be getting any sleep, and possibly not any of the Bauer family, either.

I thought that the first episode was very tense. We still don't know who are the good guys and bad guys. Good TV, IMHO. I know a lot of you disagree, but please don't use this thread as your crapping ground. I look forward to discussing this show on here as the season progresses, and I'd really appreciate it if I didn't have to wade through a bunch of "This show sucks!" posts do to it. Thank you in advance.

24 good!

Just finished watching Hour 2... and the plot thickens! I read Kiefer's Tonight Show spoiler, thinking that after two shows, I had already seen what was in the spoiler... but nope! Oh, well. So, be warned... Kiefer really screwed up. Some of the spoiler has already happened, but the rest of it hasn't happened as of the second show.

The only thing I'm really worried about with the show is getting into too much into hokey "computer magic" stuff.

Fire bad!