Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

24: Live Another Day Blu-ray Movie Review

How much difference does this day make?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 28, 2014

Lots of us like to complain about how we’ve experienced a so-called “day from hell,” assertions that usually revolve around a series of inconveniences or minor catastrophes keeping us from achieving our appointed rounds. It’s a bit of rhetorical hyperbole, of course, but for anyone wanting a peek at a real day from hell, look no further than one Jack Bauer. Jack, a top operative in a counter terrorism unit, seems to only experience days from hell, at least given the evidence provided by the eight previous seasons of 24. 24 had the “luck” (a questionable term, considering the circumstances) to premiere only a few weeks after the devastating terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and it therefore caught the paranoid zeitgeist of its times as few series before or since. The show’s then innovative gimmick was that each season actually depicted one solitary day in the life of Bauer, told in real time one hour at a time (with skips of several minutes for commercials, and in this latest season one deliberate skip of several hours since Live Another Day only produced twelve — instead of 24 — episodes to cover the one day time span. As with previous seasons of 24, the intrepid Bauer finds himself confronted with a cascading series of crises, this time built around the simultaneous unfoldings of a Presidential trip to London as well as a nefarious terrorist taking control of America’s ever increasing fleet of attack drones and a second terrorist plot which may lead to a global nuclear holocaust. You think you’ve got problems, let alone occasional days from hell? To purloin a phrase, you don’t know Jack.

For those wanting to catch up on the exploits of Jack, our reviews of previous seasons released on Blu-ray can be found here:

24: Season 7 Blu-ray review

24: Season 8 Blu-ray review

As timely as 24 was when it first premiered, its relevance may have waned at least somewhat in the subsequent “days” of its initial eight season run, a situation that was ironically good for the United States (in that no major terrorist attacks occurred stateside) while perhaps detrimental to the visceral quality that is one of the series’ defining trademarks. The overt paranoia that was part and parcel of most people’s responses to the horrors of 9/11 gave way to something a bit more circumspect, a lower grade of suspicion that perhaps found its best television voice in Homeland: The Complete First Season. And it’s obvious that 24’s showrunners haven’t been immune to this change, or to that show’s influence, for 24: Live Another Day has certain hallmarks of the drama involving Carrie and Brody, including questions of Jack’s loyalty and an in-house blonde agent who may be suffering from delusions after not having been able to properly profile her own husband, a man accused of stealing state secrets and selling them to our enemies. A scheming and perhaps duplicitous station CIA station chief is also more than a bit reminiscent of one Saul Berenson.

In typically breathless fashion, 24 kicks off in a crowded London street, with three kind of nasty looking guys obviously on the hunt for something. The clear implication is these are bad guys up to no good and that scores of innocent bystanders may be harmed in the process. In a neat twist, it actually turns out that the three are CIA agents on the hunt for—Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland). Jack’s take no prisoners technique has made him a supposed enemy of the state, and once he’s apprehended, he’s brought into a secure location where he is initially questioned by station chief Steve Navarro (Benjamin Bratt), who only has limited time before Bauer is handed over to the more “rigorous” department which is an expert in so-called “enhanced interrogation.” Meanwhile, one of Navarro’s top analysts, Kate Morgan (Yvonne Strahovski), is convinced Bauer’s easy capture is part of a larger plot that Bauer himself is managing. Unfortunately, Kate’s reputation has been seriously tarnished by her duplicitous husband, a supposed double agent who managed to engage in international espionage right under his wife’s usually competent nose. Needless to say, Kate proves her mettle, though a moment or two too late to keep Jack from revealing his real motivation for getting inside the fortress like confines of London’s CTU branch—he’s there to free the female Edward Snowden-like character of Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub), who herself has in fact been undergoing the horrors of “enhanced interrogation” for reasons which are initially unclear.

James Heller (William Devane) is now President, in London to hopefully negotiate a new treaty, but also hiding the fact that he is in the early throes of Alzheimer’s Disease. Heller’s machinating son-in-law Mark Boudreau (Tate Donovan) does his best to cover his boss’ tracks, while also attempting to keep his wife, Heller’s daughter Audrey (Kim Raver), from having to deal with any memories of Jack Bauer. These twin plot points turn out to have significant repercussions as the season progresses.

The other major through line of 24: Live Another Day deals with the contentious subject of American drones. A young Army Lieutenant named Chris Tanner (John Boyega), tasked with monitoring and guiding drones in our fight against terrorists, watches in horror one day as some other entity takes control of one of the American drones and targets Americans. While Tanner is initially accused of having gone rogue, there are of course more nefarious elements at work, and in one of this season’s more tiresome conceits, control of the “drone snatcher” just keeps passing from villain to villain, like some bizarre terrorist version of Telephone.

So—Jack obviously has his work cut out for him. And so, frankly, does 24: Live Another Day. When 24 first premiered well over a decade ago, it brought a new level of intensity to series television, and adrenaline junkies were soon hooked on its visceral energy. In the intervening years, all sorts of similarly themed content has traversed the airwaves and cable, and the 24 franchise can’t help but feel a little tired and old hat as a result. This season tends to add on so many simultaneously unfolding crises that it almost becomes a self-parody at times with Jack putting out one fire while another is just starting to blaze slightly out of reach.

Still, the show operates as a finely honed machine throughout this season, delivering a number of well staged set pieces and offering Sutherland the chance to glare menacingly or sardonically, depending upon the context. The season tries to work in some actual emotional content courtesy of the subplot involving the ailing President and his traumatized daughter, but it’s largely for naught, since what 24 (in any iteration) does best is to ignore the heavenly blessings like family and friends and concentrate on the hellish.

24: Live Another Day Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

24: Live Another Day is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Shot digitally with a variety of HD cameras, 24: Live Another Day boasts a very sleek, sharp and precise looking image. A lot of this season plays out in dimly lit environments, and is further tweaked with color grading at times, with a noticeable loss of fine detail resulting. Contrast is generally strong, though crush is apparent in the darkest sequences. There's a dusting of compression artifacts as well in some of the darkest moments. Outdoor locations provide great depth of field and when things are lit well and non-graded, colors are very accurate looking and nicely suffused. There are no stability issues and aside from the minor compression artifact issues, there's not much else here to stress over.

24: Live Another Day Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

24: Live Another Day features an incredibly forceful and enjoyable DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. From crowded street scenes to the impact of drones raining down on various sites worldwide, the soundtrack provides near constant immersion, fulsome LFE and excellent prioritization. Dialogue is cleanly and clearly presented, and there's abundant space in even the noisiest environments.

24: Live Another Day Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Solitary (1080p; 7:26) is a fun little "story extension" featuring a favorite character.


• Worlds Collide: When Reality Becomes Fiction (1080p; 6:43) looks at the way real life scenarios have intersected the show's narratives.


• Deleted and Extended Scenes (1080p; 13:19)


• Destination: London (1080p; 3:22) is a brief look at this season's location.


• 24: Live Another Day - Green Production (1080p; 5:16) isn't about SFX and greenscreens, but recycling.

24: Live Another Day Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

24: Live Another Day has a lot going for it, including a breathless pace, an exciting urban location and enough dastardly doings to keep Jack Bauer occupied for maybe even more than one day. But there's also a somewhat tired, "been there, seen that" quality to this season (it's getting to the point where if there's not a plot to assassinate the president, Jack is pretty much useless). Sutherland continues to do fine work here, and the supporting cast (some returning, some new) are uniformly excellent, but this season, while still exciting, is a bit predictable quite a bit of the time. Technical merits here are generally strong, and 24: Live Another Day comes Recommended.