24: Season Three

Please note - this review contains many spoilers. If you haven't seen Season Three, you'd be well advised to skip to the DVD review below

"I can find my own fucking job Erin." - the moment Jack finally loses his cool and drops the F-bomb is probably the moment we've all been waiting for. As 24 enters its fourth year, we've seen Jack Bauer, his family and his colleagues go through hell as they protect the US from many terrorist threats. Bauer has lost his wife, seen his daughter kidnapped, prevented the nuclear decimation of LA and all the time fight his superiors in order to be able to do his job.



Stepping back to the beginning of the third season, on review here, we find Jack has been working undercover to expose a Mexican family's collusion with terrorists planning a biological attack on America, and has part of his cover he has become addicted to heroin. It's a dark time for him, and as his secret addiction begins to unravel during this season its hard not to feel sorry for the man who has been asked to give up everything to protect his country.

Its three years since President Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) collapsed following his exposure to a deadly biological agent, his recovery has been slow but he remains in power ready to face the biggest challenge of his Presidency. Kim Bauer (Elisha Cuthbert) has joined CTU and has a secret relationship with Jack's new partner, Chase Edmunds (James Badge Dale). Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard) also returns for a third year and is joined by new face, Mary Lynn Rajskub, as sulky Chloe O'Brian.

When a body is dumped outside of LA's disease control headquarters, the US intelligence agencies are all put on alert. As we've become accustomed, the action kicks in from the start and 24 excels at pulling out twists and surprises when you least expect them. As the third day progresses, the producers don't let us down. We see the whole of CTU pushed to the limits as they all race against time to prevent a massive biological attack.



The second season saw the threat of a nuclear attack on the US, and it's hard for any potential terrorist threat to seem quite as shocking as that - but thankfully, the writers handle the challenge well and we get to see Jack Bauer reach his lowest point as he's forced to make difficult decisions which can and do end in the death and injury of some of his CTU colleagues. The moment Jack is forced to put a gun to Ryan Chappelle's (Paul Schulze) head is probably the tensest of the series and I challenge anyone not to be on the edge of their seat as it dawns on Jack that he might have to pull the trigger in order to protect innocent American lives.

The fact that no twist is left unturned makes 24 a hugely refreshing series - you never quite know who will live and who will die and season-to-season the principle cast changes significantly. It's even believable that Jack may not save the day so that gives the series yet another edge not present in its contemporaries.

There are of course minor niggles with this season. While we're spared the unbelievable 'Kim in trouble' elements that plagued the first two seasons, there are some things that just don't fit in to the overall feel of the show - the most obvious is Chloe's baby, which makes an appearance around two-thirds of the way through the season and throws in too much of a soap opera element that isn't in keeping with the dark tone of the show. We're also often asked to suspend belief with regards to the real-time aspect of the show - specifically journey times. It seems a trip across LA by car can take anything between a couple of minutes and over an hour, depending on the timescales needed by the plot - still it's hard to be too critical. And, what of the cliffhanger? Well there isn't one this year - instead, in the closing moments of the season we get to see that this latest "worst day in Jack Bauer's life" has taken it's toll on the show's hero.



The DVD

24 Season 3 spans seven discs and is packaged in a simple digipak slipcase. The menus are suitably designed and easy to navigate. Each episode includes English and Spanish subtitles.

Picture

24 is a difficult series to judge - the picture is frequently grainy and often lacks detail, but this is very much the source image rather than anything to do with the DVD transfer. What we do get is a totally faithful reproduction of the image as broadcast with no digital tweaking getting in the way of the presentation.

The picture may be a little soft, and the shadow detail isn't particularly great but in all it's a good transfer.



Sound

We have an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack which packs a significant punch. It's deep and involving, which is doubly impressive given the television roots of the series. There is plenty of surround action and when needed, the bass kicks in perfectly.

Extras

None of the extras are subtitled.

Commentaries

There are six commentary tracks - one on each disc and these feature contributions from the cast and crew, including Kiefer Sutherland and other principle cast members. I haven't listened to any of them fully due to time constraints, but have dipped into each to get an idea of their value. One thing that is very clear from every commentary is that everyone involved is enjoying their involvement in the series and everyone has an air of confidence about them and the 24 as a whole.

Sutherland was notably absent from the extras for the Season Two DVD release so it's good to see him making an effort here. His contributions focus largely on the plot and overall storyline of the series.

Carlos Bernard (Tony Almeida) appears twice, once with on-screen wife Reiko Aylesworth (Michelle Dessler) and once with James Badge Dale (Chase Edmunds) and is probably the least serious of the contributors making his commentaries the easiest to listen to, but probably offering a little less value than the commentary tracks of his colleagues.

Uber-villian Sarah Clarke (Nina Myers) also discusses her suprise appearance this season and other cast commentaries include Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe O'Brian) and Riley Smith (Kyle Singer)



Deleted Scenes

There are 45 deleted scenes dotted around the discs - attached to both the episodes from which they were cut and also separately on the seventh disc. You can choose to branch the scenes into the episodes. Each scene also features a commentary track detailing their reasons for removal.

Season Four Teaser

An extended trailer for the next season - it seems to be fairly spoiler-free and only covers the first couple of episodes so is safe to watch if you haven't seen any of season four yet.

Season Four Promo

A nice 6-minute prequel to Season Four and introduces a couple of the new faces from the fourth season - in particular, CTU's new boss, Erin Driscoll. This extra is exclusive to the Region 1 release and wasn't included on the UK discs.



24: On The Loose

Quite an in-depth look at the prison breakout scenes from this season - everything was shot in a real prison. It includes getting the inmates to perform for the camera as well as some of the technical and safety issues faced with using helicopters when filming and the implications of 9/11 on filming with aircraft. This runs for just over 30 minutes.

Boys and their Toys

This is a ten minute look at a specific sequence from the show - this time it's the jet plane attack on a landed helicopter from the end of the season. This focuses on the second unit team rather than the main crew and again covers all of the technical and logistic issues faced during the filming of the sequence. We even discover that they reconstruct the helicopter after it's blown up to get another shot.

Biothreat - Beyond the Series

This featurette details how the writers were able to make the biological threat believable with the assistance of various organizations and experts in the field. There are some quite graphic scenes in this featurette that include the testing of animals for various deadly virii.

Multi-angle Study

This is a multi-angle look at the midnight shootout sequence from episode 12. It's quite an interesting piece with three selectable angles taking a look at the action from two cameras.

Inside Look

A trailer for Fox's upcoming theatrical release of Mr and Mrs Smith



Overall

24 Season Three is in some ways the best season so far, but in others it's slightly lacking. It lacks the immediate threat posed by a nuclear attack which hugely benefited the second season, but it does feature some of the tensest moments of the show so far. If you're a 24 fan then this box set is a must.

The Region 1 release is on a par with the Region 2 - there's little to choose between them. The inclusion of the Season Four prequel may swing it for some viewers, but I'd be very surprised if this doesn't appear on the Region 2 release of the next season.