Hang on for the adrenaline rush of a lifetime as Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland) unveils darker secrets, faces deadlier conspiracies, and is thrust into more extreme action than ever before in Season 8 of 24! As Day Eight unfolds, Bauer races against the clock to prevent the assassination of a Middle Eastern leader on a vital peace-making mission. Meanwhile, a deadly terrorist threat against New York City intensifies and builds towards an explosive climax. Relive the electrifying final season of TV's most groundbreaking series ever, including a surprise ending you simply must see. Jack's The Man... Review date: 2010-08-25 Rating: 10 out of 10
I'll make this real short... I've seen them all... I like them and I'm ready to spend my money on the upcoming movie. There is only one "Jack".
Reviews
"24" goes out with a bang Review date: 2010-08-19 Rating: 10 out of 10
The last televised season of "24" is among its best.
Despite the fact that some of the plot triggers and devices that set things in motion have been exhausted more than a few times in previous seasons, season 8 manages to be relentless, gripping, emotional, thought-provoking and, most of the time, realistic and believable.
After two unremarkable seasons, the creators of "24" manage to masterfully pull it all together again, for the last time.
The result is a solid season that avoids the pitfalls that made parts of the latest seasons laughable - namely preposterous characters and plot lines, like the terrorist father of Jack and the miraculous resurrection of Tony in seasons 6 and 7, respectively.
In here, the impression that the writers have come up with unnecessary events just to keep the episodes coming and justify the name of the series is almost non-existent; the general effect created can be best described as "give me more before it ends".
Possibly the best achievement of season 8 is the successful creation of the character of President Hassan (portrayed by Anil Kapoor), a leader of a foreign nation that develops to be one of the most memorable and admirable characters of the show. Kapoor manages to pour depth and complexity to his character in a relatively small number of episodes in a series that has become more action than character driven over the years.
Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer is excellent as usual. He has had several seasons to grow and improve, and though he has played Jack for such a long time, Sutherland is not careless or tired but focused and resolute and the viewers will still find it intriguing and exciting to see how Jack would react to the impossible situations brought to his doorstep time and again.
Wait for the revenge attack he embarks on in the third part of the season and witness one of the most violent, bloody and angry campaigns he has ever engaged in the show - and prepare to enjoy every minute of it.
For the last time on Television, get ready for the wild ride of "24". It will be missed.
Peace's agreements must never be done under a body of lies and bloody facts! Review date: 2010-08-09 Rating: 10 out of 10
The 8th season is probably, the most reflexive, hot and dramatic of the whole saga, due it presents many tenets and aspects concerned with the leadership, decision making in which the invocated concepts of national defense and ethic are confronted through a solid script supported on a web of events that involve the signature of a Peace Agreement between an Islamic Republic, Russia and United States.
Once more, Jack Bauer will have to make the dirty job when he is requested by the CTU to fix a brutal terrorist plan over the area of NYC. He has to leave aside once more the gentle invitation of his daughter to live with them in LA.
And as you and me guess the things will not keep out of control when a sophisticated web of encountered interests of all sort, shake hands in this superb and overwhelming session.
The plot, the cast, the locations, the frantic rhythm, the peerless edition and the excel special effects shake hands in this formidable saga.
Special kudos go for Michael Madsen, an overlooked actor who deserves major attention for the new generation of filmmakers.
We'll miss you Jack.
What's that smell Review date: 2010-07-19 Rating: 8 out of 10
I liked all the seasons of 24 and I will get the DVD so I can see the continuous day as opposed to weekly.
But what about the dead guy that Dana shoved into the build in bookcase in the conference room? He must be pretty ripe by now.
3 stars may be a stretch Review date: 2010-06-18 Rating: 6 out of 10
24 has been far and away my favorite television show since it's inception. I've stuck with it during it's highs (Season 5) and "lows" (Season 6). To me, the first 7 seasons of the show were without question the best television ever. No matter how many times CTU was attacked or how many moles were revealed in the government I never thought it was anything less than brilliant. Which is why Season 8 bugs me even more than I thought a bad season of 24 could.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
Gripe #1: The Jack-Renee romance.
Usually in 24 I've been able to separate whether I thought a story was good from my emotional reactions to it. Case in point, I didn't and still don't like what they did to Tony in Season 7 but I thought it made perfect sense to do it and so I thought it was great. And in Season 5 when several main characters were killed off, it bugged me but I felt those losses only added to the plot. No such luck with that reaction here.
This story did absolutely nothing for me. Seeing as we as an audience only knew Renee since the start of Season 7, so I didn't spend 3-4 seasons yearning for the 2 of them to hook up. And the way the writers handled it was beyond over the top. The way things played out, I'm supposed to believe that the 2 of them met each other at the start of Season 7, worked with one another for that 1 day, had nothing romantic occur between them, not see each other for 6 months-1 year, meet up again with Jack seemingly (and perhaps obsessively) in love with her (even though she has gone bonkers), commit to some sort of relationship very quickly, wind up in bed 8 hours later and have Jack throw his entire life away after she was killed. Up until they slept with each other I was okay with the quality of the story even though I thought it was moving a little too fast. But that happened and I thought it was WWWAAAAAAAYYY too "Grey's Anatomy" for 24. And to top it off, she dies 20 minutes later and Jack goes insane to avenge her, becoming extremely unlikable while doing so. The fact that Jack (who lost his wife and mother of his child and came out the other side about as well as somebody could in that situation) killed, tortured, threatened, assaulted and screwed over so many people in the name of someone he knew for not even 2 days was beyond absurd. And also it wasn't as though it was taking an emotional toll on him either, he did all of that without hesitation and seemingly no regret.
Nothing they did in their "romance" was believable, imo. All of it just seemed like a cheap attempt to A) pander to the audience by hooking Jack up with "Female Jack" (as I'd seen Renee glowingly called several times) or B) exaggerate the story as much as possible to make the final season bigger than they possibly could have had they taken things slowly. I personally believe it to be the latter, if anything.
Gripe #2: The complete refusal to acknowledge anything that happened in prior seasons (This rant won't be quite as long the previous one, luckily).
I can sum up this gripe with one question, where was Tony??? Seriously, they revived a beloved character at the start of last year, made him go completely off the deep end while seeking personal revenge but while doing so, revealing a much larger threat that had the writers chosen to follow through with, could have been a very epic way to wrap up the series. But they didn't. Instead Tony is in jail or perhaps dead and the culprits behind the actions in Season 7 just vanished without a word. Just like Season 2 into 3 except worse, at least there we were given a shoddy one line explanation as to what happened to those people.
And a side note to this gripe, where were some of the other characters from past seasons? Morris O'Brian? I know he wasn't very well liked in Season 6, but that's another story. Aaron Pierce? The only character other than Jack to appear in each of the first 7 years? And Kim Bauer? The story that made up the first few episodes between her, her daughter and Jack seemed very natural and sweet, but they dumped it completely in favor of Jack-Renee. Ew.
Gripe #3: The Russians? Seriously?
After Hassan was killed I was convinced that that was when they would call back the Season 7 conspiracy, but no. The Russian government was behind everything for some very vague reasons. And Suvarov was behind it all. That did not vibe with his character in the past, it just seemed like another cheap attempt to make things epic. Which also ties into another complaint (Another complaint? Yay! ;)). There was no big bad this year until Suvarov. No Henderson or Salazar or Jonas Hodges. Just Suvarov for 2-3 episodes.
Quick gripes: They ruined Logan for me. He became a cartoon only interested in repairing his reputation, rather than genuinely trying to help like Season 6 (another example of gripe #2. Or was it #3?).
The Dana Walsh story was too goofy. It did actually lead somewhere but it took too long to get there.
Now to the good, despite how little I will focus on it, there was a lot of. The peace agreement was one of the better stories they have come up with, imo. It was interesting all the way through and both Hassan and his wife were terrific. As was the deception within his government. Taylor was great as she was in Season 7, and although she went along with Logan too easily toward the end, I found that much more believable than what Jack was doing. Chloe was great as usual, it's been great how she's been the same annoying girl for years but never wore out her welcome, imo. Also, I thought the middle episodes were absolutely outstanding, although since I thought they were going someplace else they may not appeal to me as much now.
Well, that's it (finally!). As much as I didn't like this year I didn't find anything disgraceful in it. It just wasn't as good as other seasons in my opinion. I hope other people enjoy it as much as the other years and I'm still looking forward to a 24 movie. Thanks 24 cast and crew, for many great years of entertainment!
Recording label: 20th Century Fox Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox EAN: 0024543690955 Binding: DVD Format: NTSC, Universal product code (UPC): 024543690955 Number of discs: 1 Region code: 1 Theatrical release date: 2010-01-17 Language: English (Unknown)
