I;m half way through Season 1. I have upto Season 5 to watch.

How do you rate the seasons in order of best to worst ?

PLEASE NO SPOILERS AT ALL FOR ANY SEASONS

Ah - might want to wait til when season 6 ends.

Hard to say. Hmm. OK. From the best at the top and worst at the bottom.

1
2
4
5
6
3

1
2
4
3
5
6

1 is tops
current is worst

1, 2, 4, 5, 3, 6.

1 is the most plausible as far as being able to actually happen within 24 hours. Everything isn't located within 3 minutes of each other.

I like the fact that I'm not the only person who puts 4 in the top 3. I really liked the fact that 4 got away from a lot of the stuff that was becoming repetitive in the first three.

5/6 however, have some of the best opening arcs in the series.

It doesn't really matter. You really need to watch them in order anyway. They all have their highs and lows. Top to bottom it's a pretty good run.

1
2
5
4
3
6

1,4,2,5,3,6

Damm i'm a bit depressed that it's all downhill after Season 1 !

I am enjoying Season 1 , it's good but it's not like menage a trois good !

Season 1 is the best season, and I dont care for the others save Season 5, which I would place as the second best.

Best to Worst

3
1
2
5
4
6

Part of the reason that it's "all downhill" after season 1 is that you get used to the plot twists, and you start looking for how they could be worked in... thus taking away that "holy shit" element of surprise that the first season gave you.

With the exception of the first 2/3 of last season and most of this season, it was still one of the best shows on TV. Last season got too outrageous (for reasons I can't talk about without spoiling things).

It's probably still in my top 5, but The Shield took over as #1 last year.

I'm surprised that everyone loved season 1 so much. Yes, it was great and it demanded us to watch season 2, but, in my opinion, it pales in comparison with the other seasons.

The writers seemed to find their niche later developing better scripts that had ample drama, peppered with great espionage action keeping the show fresh and exciting.

Season 4 was especially exciting for me.

Season 1

Season 5

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

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Placeholders for all future seasons
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Season 6

seasons 2 and 3 are my favorite. Season 1 is excellent too

Exciting doesn't equal better though, especially not in quality. Sure, season four was arguably more exciting that season one, but it was absurd on many levels. Every season has absurd plotlines, but there was, literally, a new terrorist threat every six episodes in season four.

Season one to me was the best because it was a scaled down threat, it was about a man who happened to get caught up within something much bigger than himself, and it had a great balance of strong characters, action and suspense.

For me, it's seasons 1, 5, 2, 4, 3, 6

I concur. Some of the plotlines are absurb. There's a new threat every 4 episodes and CTU seems to always stumble on them when they are just about to happen. Not to mention that we've become conditioned to know that the bad person we see in episode 1 will only turn out to be a grunt. But let's face it, we'd all be complain if nothing exciting happened in 4 episodes.

I'm sure we'll agree that 24 is probably the only current TV show deserving of a theatrical movie.

5>1>>2>4>3>>>>6

I don't really remember alot of 2, 3, or 4, but from what I recall

1
4
2
5
3
6

3 and 6 are neck to neck as bottom of the barrel, but the last 1/3 of season 3 saved it from being worst.

Season 1 is unique in the series: the story is smaller and personal to Jack, without a big national threat (though there are some national ramifications), and they stuck to the real-time aspect closely (not to say that every was perfect in that regard - there's always going to be some cheating here and there, but there wasn't any "the terrorist escaped by a hidden ladder to a helicopter in 30 seconds" nonsense that really strains believability in later season). That's why so many people consider it the best.

In a way, Season 2 is the start of 24 as we know it today: a big national threat, fudging the real time aspects (the parachuting scene, most infamously), etc. Every season past that has followed that model. It's wasn't necessarily a bad direction to go, but by Season 6, it's getting long in the tooth. Returning to the Season 1 model would be good for the show.

3
1
4
5
2
6

Season 3 might be my favorite season in television history.

1
2
3
5
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4

Haven't watched 6 except for the first 5 episodes.

Wow. I'm surprised so many people are ranking season 4 so high. Just curious, those that seem to favor it over some of the other seasons, was it the first season you jumped into the 24 universe?

WOW...I haven't seen any of season 6, as I'm waiting for the DVD's. Doesn't sound like I'm missing much.

Can you explain this more in depth, even if you have to use spoiler tags.