24: Season Four DVD Review:

When the first season of 24 aired on television it seemed incredibly ambitious, because of the way that the show is set up as well as the state of television at the time. It was during that short period in which reality television was king and had replaced the sitcom. Now we live in a time that shows like 24, which are set up like movies that don’t have restrictions of time. Cable programming has made these shows even more practical and addicting. Now that 24 has lost the fresh feeling that filled the first few seasons, audiences may have grown to expect more. Season four starts a bit slow, but in the end it is able to live up to the quality which has come to be expected.

There is always a great deal of time passed within the story in between season, and season four is no different. Because of the drug addiction that he was forced to maintain in season three, Jack Bauer has been fired from CTU, a counter terrorist unit based in Los Angeles. At the start of season four Jack is working for the U.S. Secretary of Defense, but he quickly finds himself at the center of the action again. The new disaster starts with a train crash and a kidnapping, but as always seems to be the case in this show, things aren’t always what they seem. In order not to spoil the season for anyone like me, who refuses to wait week to week and would rather have the entire season on DVD before entering the world, I won’t go into any more details about plot or twists which occur.

One big difference between season four and the rest so far is the cast. Season three especially worked hard at keeping actors in the storyline. Kim Bauer was seen working in CTU and the employees were mostly familiar faces. Season four only has a few familiar faces, and most of those were new to the show in the third season. Jack Bauer is nearly the only character from the original season who is still involved, although there are a few surprises. In some ways this is good because fans might have been too devastated to see any of the regulars die, and a show like this requires casualties.

Enough about the season. The actual DVD package is close to what fans have known from the first three seasons. It seems that the special features have improved, but the same set-up for the menus is used. There is still four episodes per disc and each episode has a sub-menu. The one problem I have always had with these menus is that the photos used in them often give away small surprises within the episode.

Season four is a seven disc set, with one disc specifically devoted to special features. The most exciting of the features would have to be the season five prequel. It bridges the time between the end of season four and the beginning of season five. There are also a number of featurettes. “Breaking Ground: Building the New CTU” is a featurette which deals with the set design of the space which everything is run on the show. “Blood on the Tracks” is a featurette about the train wreck at the beginning of the season. There were three directors just for that one scene. “Lock and Load” is a wider featurette about the action and gunplay within the show. There are also 39 deleted scenes with optional commentary, some of which are more interesting than others. One of the coolest ideas for a special feature is the marketing plan that they had to promote season four. They released mobile phone episodes which were about a minute long. Sadly none of it looks as good on a television screen as I imagine it might have looked on a telephone screen. The acting is bad and it is mostly just comical, but at least they are included on the special features. There are also assorted music videos and there are commentary tracks on select episodes as well.



Ryan Izay