Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

24: Season 8 Blu-ray Movie Review

“Shut it down.”

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater December 21, 2010

Less than one month after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the first season of 24 debuted and the American public found a cathartic hero in protagonist Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), a patriotic Counter Terrorist Unit agent defined by his unswerving sense of justice and willingness to do just about anything to save the day. The show was an embodiment of the nascent War on Terror zeitgeist. Its themes played off our newfound fear of shadowy terrorist cells with virulent anti-American motives. It raised ethical questions about torture as a valid means of interrogation, and its novel real-time narrative structure and emphasis on up-to-date data mirrored the non-stop cable and internet news ethos of a country glued to its television sets and computer screens. It was the first real TV show of the Information Age.

Day 8 begins...

24 rode high on this cresting cultural wave until its sixth season, when the “Jack Bauer Power Hour” began to show serious signs of writer’s fatigue. The twists were getting predictable, the scenarios re-used. (Really, another mole inside CTU?) How many times could one man save the U.S. from impending disaster? And yet the show soldiered on through a full-length made-for-TV movie, 24: Redemption, and a seventh season that—despite a much-needed change in scenery from Los Angeles to D.C.—rarely recaptured the time-ticking suspense of Jack Bauer’s first few horrible, terrible, no good, very bad days. When it was announced that the eighth season would be the series’ last, most fans and critics agreed it was about time. The common hope was that the show would go out on a high note. It does, and it doesn’t.

Picking up a year after the events of season seven, “Day 8” begins with Bauer semi-retired and living in New York. He’s a grampa now too, and his daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) has just convinced him to move back to L.A. so he can be closer to them. Jack’s packing up the last of his things, preparing to go to the airport, when he’s contacted by a former informant who has credible info about a planned assassination attempt on President Omar Hassan (Anil Kapoor), the leader of the fictional Islamic Republic of Kamistan—an Iran stand-in—who’s in town to sign a long-in-the-making peace accord with U.S. President Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones). Jack agrees to escort his bleeding-to-death informant to CTU’s New York office, but en route, they’re attacked by the Kamistani terrorists—who want to kill Hassan because he’s essentially giving up their country’s nuclear capabilities— and the informant dies in Bauer’s arms. But not, of course, before he indicates to Jack that there might be a mole inside Hassan’s entourage, possibly Meredith Reed (Jennifer Westfeldt), a journalist who’s been having a not-so-secret affair with the president. Jack reluctantly goes to CTU for a debriefing, but, as one character puts it, he’s “the guy who always does the right thing.” Obviously, he’s going to postpone his L.A. plans—for a day at least—to aid CTU in the hunt for the would-be assassins.

In true 24 fashion, the story balloons from here, expanding in scope as we slowly learn who is really behind the assassination plot and why. I won’t get into any serious spoilers or motivations, but as the threat level rises, Bauer is joined on his mission by unstable former love interest Renee Walker (Annie Wersching), and together they infiltrate the Eastern Promises-esque echelons of the Russian mob, going undercover as black market arms dealers in order to learn the whereabouts of the enriched uranium fuel rods that the terrorists are trying to obtain. Meanwhile, there are several unfolding subplots. The dullest follows Dana Walsh (Katee Sackhoff), a CTU data analyst with a literal skeleton in her closet, as she sneaks behind the backs of her coworkers—including fan favorite Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub)—trying to avoid having her past revealed. More interesting is the moral transformation of President Taylor, who, in a series of desperate maneuvers—suggested by ousted ex- president Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin), a total Wormtongue—compromises her integrity and principles to keep her peace treaty on the table. Jack’s character is also darkly altered after a shocking-but-not-really-unexpected mid-season disaster. Act three finds him in full-on revenge mode, shooting to maim, slicing open a living terrorist’s stomach to find a swallowed data card, pulling a Mike Tyson-style ear bite, and donning the scariest looking riot gear ever to hunt down his nemesis.

The season indulges in the show’s usual twists and turns—yes, there’s another mole inside CTU, yes, there’s a government cover-up, and yes, Jack goes rogue yet again—and while the action is occasionally intense, the sense of edge-of-your-seat tension that pervaded the first few white-knuckled seasons is rarely present here. The trouble is two-fold: 1.) The show has trained its audience too well in how to guess what’s going to happen next, and 2.) the writers simply don’t have any new ideas. Nearly every machination of the eighth season’s plot has an antecedent in previous seasons. When a show ceases to surprise or innovate—like, say, The X-Files in its final years—it’s a good sign that it should be mercifully put down before it becomes too painful to for its dedicated fans. That’s not to say, however, that I didn’t enjoy watching this final season of 24. I definitely did. This is still big-budget TV action done (mostly) right. I liked the cautious interplay between Jack and Chloe, who wants to help her long-time friend and colleague but also feels bound to do her job. I loved seeing the pants-soiling terror on ex-President Logan’s face when Jack threatens to kill him. And, of course, I still cheered internally whenever Jack let loose with his trademark: “Dammit!” (There are fewer of those this season, for some reason. Perhaps the writers realized that the catchphrase has become too much of a cultural in-joke to be taken seriously.) The magic might have vanished two seasons ago, but 24: Season 8 still has TV entertainment down to a science.

24: Season 8 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As one of the bigger budgeted shows on television, 24 has always had rich, cinematic visuals. That's definitely still the case here, although the limitations of setting the final season in New York but filming it entirely in L.A. are occasionally all too visible. The episodes set during daytime, for instance, feature extremely blown-out highlights—intentionally—which seems, to me, like a tactic to make the green-screened backgrounds less noticeable. It works—usually—but the resulting image is often much too harsh, with desaturated colors and piercing whites. Indoor scenes fare far better; colors are dense, skin tones balanced, and contrast much more natural. As the season moves into the darker p.m. hours, black levels can be somewhat problematic—sometimes grayish, sometimes crushing shadow detail, sometimes both—and compression noise has a tendency to compete for prominence with the picture's natural grain structure. You'll also spot some noticeable banding in fine color gradients, as well as a few instances of aliasing—especially on the fine parallel lines of New York's buildings. Clarity, however, is fairly strong throughout, as the transfer has no trouble communicating intricate facial features and other prominent textures.

24: Season 8 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The show's frequently intense sound design is perhaps even more cinematic than its visual aesthetic, and the eighth season's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 presentation has no trouble communicating all the explosive action of Jack Bauer's final mission. More so than most TV programs, the rear speakers are used to tremendous effect, whether for the cross-channel pop, ping, and zing of gunfire—which there's a lot of during certain episodes—or the beating rotors of helicopters, the rush of vehicles, and the long swoosh of a rocket attack. Even in quiet moments, ambience often fills the soundfield with CTU chatter and keyboard clicking, the hum of New York traffic, and other place-establishing atmospherics. Rounding out the sound is the show's propulsive score, which surges dynamically along with the action. Coasting clearly through the center channel is the dialogue, which never gets muffled or lost in the shuffle. Overall, a great mix—not just for a TV show, but for any medium.

24: Season 8 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Scenemakers (SD, 11:01, 13:33, 15:03, 12:04): Nearly every episode includes a mini-featurette that gives us an on-set examination of how specific scenes were created, focusing on action choreography, continuity, special effects, and characterization.
• Extended Episodes: Seven episodes are viewable in extended versions, adding about 2 minutes to the runtime.
• The Ultimate CTU (1080i, 12:51): A featurette about the production design of New York's CTU office.
• Chloe's Arrest (1080p, 3:39): An epilogue of sorts. That's all I'll say.
• Virtually New York (1080i, 9:08): Executive producers Brad Turner and Howard Gordon explain how they shot a season set completely in New York...completely in Los Angeles.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 4:17, 1:49, 1:04, 4:33): A handful of deleted scenes spread across all four discs.

24: Season 8 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you're a longtime 24 follower, you owe it to yourself to see the series to its completion. Season 8 may not be as groundbreaking or intense as the show's first few seasons—really, how could it be?—but it's still damn good television. This is a satisfying Blu-ray release as well. Minor compression issues aside, the high definition image is a pleasure to watch, and the show's frequently bombastic sound design is given the full lossless audio treatment. Certainly worth a purchase for fans.