24 Fifth Season

Spoiler Free

The fifth season of 24 ended last night, with a little bit of everything that 24 is known for. There were a few, "I'm glad that happened" moments, a few "Jack Bauer is so cool" moments, a few "Whatever happened to the story with..." moments and a few "That seems ridiculous" moments.

The show's format is intriguing and also limiting. A good thing is that they are able to turn over the cast however they want, since any given day, the status quo around that day could have changed and allows them to create a whole cast. The limiting factor is that nothing ever feels really complete, since it's all happening in the same day. Since the show has gotten more popular and has a little bit of a mini-universe now, I'm sure people wish they could see more than just these snippets of the characters.

I'm surprised nobody's tried to write 24 "the books" in the way that Star Wars or Star Trek have been serialized as novels. It seems like that would be a good spin-off product, with each chapter representing an hour or something. *Note: I looked on amazon.com after writing this - there are 24: the books out there, I guess they're not that popular.*

I'm not sure how they can go on with this show for three more seasons. They've been trying hard to top themselves year after year. This season, in my opinion, started really well, and then slowed down about two-thirds of the way in, until the finale. The fourth season had a similar feel but I think it was a little better.

You can download the first episodes from season 1 and season 5 for free at Myspace, and the entire seasons 1-5 are available for purchase on myspace. iTunes also carries season 5.

Tags: 24, Jack Bauer, TV