How I Rank the Seasons of 24

I was a late comer to the world of 24.  I'd only seen one episode prior to 2005 when I met my wife.  She introduced me to the show in Summer 2006.  It was love at first sight.

With the announcement of a new season of 24 coming next year, I thought I'd muse about the previous seasons of 24.

WORST TO BEST:

SEASON 6

How did this season go so wrong? After a creative high with season 5, they must have written themselves into a corner.  It's difficult to tell whether my disdain for this season comes from how weak the writing was or because it was so ill-conceived compared to it's immediate predecessor.  

I'll keep this short, the main plot felt like a retread, the plot twists were frustrating, and Jack's family issues were absurd.  The plot: Muslim terrorists are bombing the US.  Been there and done that multiple times. The only "fresh" section deals with Jack's family, but the direction they take things is pretty awful.  There was literally a scene where Jack was apologizing to his monster of a father. 

Overal an entirely poorly thought out season.  Sadly, this was the first season I watched as it originally aired.

SEASON 8

I didn't hate this season. I just don't remember it, and I don't care to re-watch it.  Given that I've re-watched seasons 1-5 many times, that's a bad sign.  Likewise, they didn't find a great wrap up for the show.

SEASON 7

Once again, I didn't hate it, but I never cared to re-watch it.  The fresh new cast and the addition of Kurtwood Smith give it the edge over season 8.  I did like Jack's new lady partner.

SEASON 3

On initial viewing I was pretty disappointed with this season, but it eventually grew on me.  I don't watch 24 to see Jack Bauer with a drug addiction.  Likewise, the story meandered a bit when they ended up in Mexico.

SEASON 4

I enjoyed this season without any major criticisms, but there's also little that excited me about the season. This is a great example of a show still in it's prime, but not at it's creative high.  Besides the finale plot twist, there weren't many great twists, but they also didn't make any missteps.

SEASON 2

I loved this season.  I've heard people complain about how Kim didn't have a good storyline. In retrospect, I realize that the second half of the season makes absolutely no sense, but I still loved this season.

This season just worked for me.  Literally the first time I watched this season, when it got to the 2nd half of the seasons I stayed up all night watching it...and I was disappointed with the pay off.  I really liked that Jack had a lady friend, and the final fight at the colosseum is my favorite Jack fight.

SEASON 5

I really struggled with putting this season or season 1 at the top.  As hard as it was to see some favorite characters killed off, it setup a great season.  

Possibly my only complaint is that they didn't give Palmer's brother an opportunity to beat the crap out of people. I've seen season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I know the actor has the physical ability to do it.

SEASON 1

It's the first and it's the best.  They came out of the gate with a fresh idea and solid execution. It's a bit strange to re-watch knowing all the twists and turns that will follow afterwards.

The interesting thing about re-watching season 1 is that the opening scenes of the pilot give us the ONLY glimpses into Jack's life before things went crazy.  The beginning of season 4 gives us a glimpse of his NEW life, but here we see our only glimpses of Jack the husband & father.