Nelson McCormick

"24" is a mixed bag viewed as a complete series, but it is a mix with a lot more good than bad. The first season, viewed in isolation, remains a remarkable accomplishment of television, and as strong as any action thriller series out there. Predictably, as in so many cases of high concept premise based series, trying to re-capture the lightning in the following seasons proved difficult. The ones following directly after season one are therefore (expectedly) the weakest of the series in my opinion. They are definitely watchable, in a high adrenaline action series kind of way, but its sense of a strong holistic arc, direction and creative uniqueness disappears into bland genre tropes and the show's originality becoming little more than gimmicks. Thankfully, over time, the series started figuring out what worked and didn't work, and the later seasons got quite good. Never really touching again on the greatness that was the original series, it nevertheless became a solid, engaging and character-driven thriller where large amounts of supporting characters commanded my empathy and invested interest to an extent most protagonists can only dream of. So in summation -- watch series 1. Feel free to leave it at that. But should you decide to continue and find yourself still not having given up when somewhere around season 3 or 4, you should see the series through -- at that point, you've done the buy-in and can feel reasonably secure the rest will be worth your while.

A quick note on the later sequel series 9 and the spin-off series "Legacy", which are not included in this box set: They are likely worth it for a completist -- they're certainly no worse than seasons 2 and 3 -- but they do tread dangerously close to feeling like lackluster add-ons, and can be as easily skipped as included.… (more)

The retelling is hopelessly devoted to the Warren Commission report, but Rob Lowe and Ginnifer Goodwin are mesmerising as JFK and Jackie. Martin Sheen in The Kennedys was my former favourite, but for all his screen presence, he never really convinced me that he was Kennedy and not Martin Sheen. Rob Lowe, though - the hair (piece) and the eyes and the smile ... Perfect. And Jack Noseworthy as Bobby breaking down upon being told the news was devastating. Didn't really look at all like Bobby, but the emotion was incredible. I'll stop with the adjectives now, but definitely well worth watching, despite the unconvincing 'Oswald acted alone and was then conveniently shot by Jack Ruby' schtick.… (more)