At first, the story starts out in fairly predictable fashion with Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland)  making a routine trip to CTU to investigate a possible assassination attempt on a black presidential candidate, David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert, AKA All State Guy).  While his teenage daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) stealthy sneaks out of the house to party with friends.  Now you may be asking yourself, "how do these stories in anyway shape or form relate to one another, and how would this make for a suspenseful and unpredictable story.  I dealt with this same dilemma at first, trying to piece together how an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate could relate to the escape and eventual kidnapping of Jack's daughter.  Luckily, this confusion doesn't last long as after the first couple hours you start to see subtle connections which ultimately lead to a much larger conflict than is first implied.  However, this is not the first time this happens, several other sequences are also purposefully told in this fashion to not only confuse you but to really keep you guessing and hooked until the end.  I'll admit I wasn't too thrilled about it at first, simply because it was just hard to fathom and understand how to completely different story lines could come together and actually make sense.  But really, thats what makes 24 so great.  It doesn't go the easy route of presenting one story line at a time with easy to understand hints and plot twists that while predictable are welcomed because they don't force you to think.  24 goes in the completely opposite direction, with several story lines being thrown at you all at once, with so many characters introduced with well thought out personalties and to top it all off there are seemingly endless amounts of twists and turns throughout the show that at times it can become a little frustrating and overwhelming.  In the end though, this helps the story alot more than it hurts it as this experience never completely overwhelms you or over stays its welcome longer than it needs to.  For the most part, the intense scenes are placed appropriately and hardly if ever lead to extreme confusion; its just something that I foundand while it occasionally didn't really tarnish the experience for me, it was really just something I had never experienced before which is why I was a little thrown off by it at first.

    Acting wise, Everyone from the head honcho and off the books hero Jack Bauer to calmer roles like that of Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard) a calm and skeptical CTU investigator who is suspicious of Jack's methods of law enforcement all put on an excellent performance of really immersing you into the show with their own quirks and personality traits which really makes them seem like real people as opposed to talented actors. The only character I truly thought hurt the show if only in the slightest was Jacks wife Teri Bauer (Leslie Hope).  I can't really put my finger on it but something about her just irritated me.  Maybe it could have been the fact that she either over acted certain parts or was just a bitch for no real reason at all.  Either way, she isn't terrible overall, but at time she could be a bit much.  Kiefer Sutherland on the other hand is the inevitable star of the show, which is due in part to is spot on acting in almost ever scene.  From being tough and pissed off, to being depressed and hopeless, Sutherland does it all and makes it very believable and realistic at that.

    As I said before there are countless plot twists and conflicts which range from highly predictable to shockingly unexpected.  All of the plot twist (predictable or not) have there part of the show and really round out the show in terms of the right amount of shock value and emotion that goes into each of these sequences. 

    In the end, 24 is ulitmately a show that requires commitment and patients.  Its not like an episode of CSI where you can come in the middle of the season and expect to understand whats going on with this episodes story.  24 requires a much more personal relationship because each episode builds off the suspense and plot points of the other, and chances are if you missed even a single episode you probably missed an important piece of information which is crucial in understanding the next episode.  Which is why I think 24 is been around for as long as it has.  It does what most tv series can't: it captures your attention from beginning to end, something that most shows can only do within the first few episodes.  So, if you're looking for an action packed balls to wall suspenseful tv  series 24 definitely fits the bill in every way.  However, if your one of those people who watched snip-its of most shows, than I'd probably rent a few of the episodes before taking the plunge and buying the first season.  But im sure, after watching those few hours you'll no longer be a sporadic tv watcher, but a devoted and committed fan of 24 where every hour is essential in this thrilling and emotional roller coaster ride.