Must I start watching "24"?

[DawgHouse]

My coworkers jabber nonstop on Tuesday mornings about the latest episode of "24". Am I missing the best show on television, as they claim? And if I give in to their demands, can I catch up if I start watching it now?

[xultar]

1. I don't watch it. n/t

[Dave Sund]

2. Well, I'd certainly recommend

Renting the DVDs, starting with season one. You can pick up the story midstream, and I'd recommend getting into it now. (It's on right now, if you care to watch).

[DawgHouse]

3. Yeah, I have it on now

but you guys are distracting me. :)

[Roland99]

6. Skip Season 2...agh...Kim was so ANNOYING in that season.

[DawgHouse]

8. I thought this WAS Season 2?

How long has this show been on?

[Huckebein the Raven]

9. This is season 4

:hi:

[Huckebein the Raven]

12. I liked Season 2

oil companies starting a war in the Middle East for profit....sounds very familiar ;)

[salib]

4. "24" is THE most influential pro-torture and highly xenophobic

show on TV. I type this while it is on my TV (my wife does not miss an episode). Shows like this are why there is no outrage about torture by the U.S. in this country.

[Dave Sund]

7. It's television

If you take it too seriously, you miss the whole point. I love it! I love shows like this, Alias, Lost, etc. Because you never know what's going to happen next. To draw a line between "24" and the lack of outrage at Abu Ghraib is just faulty logic.

[salib]

10. You do not think that most are heavily influenced by such

programs as "24"?

I am not so naive.

Hey, in the show they have now raided the Chinese consulate and killed the Chinese Ambassador. Of course, the information will be so important that the ends will justify the means. Hell, if you believe in the rapture, just about any means are justified.

I hear the talk about the show afterward, and I KNOW many are anesthetized to the reality due to shows like this.

[Dave Sund]

11. Oh, come on...

Seriously, lighten up. It's fucking television. If people are that influenced by a fictional TV show, it's not as if they weren't going to fall for the right wing lies about Abu Ghraib, anyway.

I can understand not liking it for those reasons, fair enough. But blaming 24 for half the country being complete fucking idiots? Before this year, the ratings for 24 were average at best. Believe me, these people who were so easily deceived were gone long before 24 ever existed.

[salib]

14. Yeah, it is always easy to pick out one example and then say

"blaming for half of the country being complete fucking idiots?" is a great obfuscation. However, just because we enjoy it too, does not mean it "causes no harm." And just because it is not the root of all evil does not make it not badly influential, even very badly influential. I am not saying don't watch it. I am watching now, and the only "moral" lesson right now is that you should not do anything so seemingly heinous that your love will end up hating you for it. I am sure Jack will resolve it, though.

[Roland99]

5. YES!!

Jack Bauer = da MAN

[BlueIris]

13. I'd say, start watching now. But you'll have to PM me for why.

Too much suspense could potentially be ruined if I try to explain why it might be valuable for a dedicated DUer to start watching now for a chance to really enjoy how this latest season wraps up. Despite rumors to the contrary, I'm positive the ending of this year of the series will NOT make anyone on team Bush very happy.

[Ramsey]

15. We're watching Season 3 right now

I really liked season 1, season 2 didn't really work, and season 3 is probably the best so far. Of course, I'm watching the DVD sets without all those annoying ads and breaks, so I enjoy it much more than if I'd seen it on TV.

Is it the best show on TV? Well I haven't seen some other critically acclaimed shows, like Desperate Housewives (I basically don't watch commercial TV at all), but, yes, it's a damn good show. It's up there with the first few seasons on West Wing. (We stopped watching when the Republican became president for Martin Sheen when his daughter was kidnapped; if I want to see some damn dumbass Republican screw the country, I can turn on the news.) It's up there with Six Feet Under, another really clever show.

However, if it is part way through the current season, I doubt you can catch up. The show's premise is that each episode is one hour out of a 24 hour period of time. If you don't know what's happening from the beginning, you basically can't understand what's going on.

You'd be better off buying or renting the DVDs and watching it straight through.