24: Season Four
December 2, 2005
- Dan Ramer,
DVDFile.com
It shocks me that 24 fans are able to stomach the
shtick. When 24 first came on the block, it was structurally
provocative and punchy in ways that television wasn’t. It popped
up just before the reality TV boom, where everything was happening on
screen at a breakneck pace. And it let its multiple screens and real-
time structure loose on an American TV viewing public reared on the
comparative sluggishness of Law and Order and Hill Street
Blues.
An old friend of mine tried to inaugurate me
into the world of 24 when it first arrived on DVD; he figured
that the ease and presence of multiple hours of a show was a better
primer course than just having me come over once a week. He ended up
throwing me out of the house and refusing to ever be in a room with me
again while 24 was on. I thought the multi-frame stuff was
goofy and precious. I thought the whole scenario, while chock-full of
appropriately dramatic cliffhangers, was thin as a tissue. And I
simply thought the whole thing was an overcooked, silly exercise in
gymnastic editing.
I thought its shtick was the only thing
24 had going for it.
And I still do. Color me
shocked that the show has lasted for four years and its
original devotees still give it the time of day. I can’t believe
that Kiefer Sutherland and company have ridden the show this far. But
in trying to get this fourth season under my belt, I simply had to
give up. For those on the wavelength of Jack Bauer and his cronies,
this DVD set just may be the bee’s knees. But for anyone trying
to permeate the narrative tics of the series, this fourth season is
dreadfully dull.
But the show has its fans. Our own
DVDfile alumnus Joshua Zyber had a much more positive reaction to the
show than I did when he reviewed its second season:
“Matching feature film production values with an ambitious
multi-part linear storyline that demands a viewer follow every
episode, even though this second year has some notable drawbacks the
series remains one of the most inventive, suspenseful and entertaining
dramas on television . . . Kiefer Sutherland makes a fine action hero
and the rest of the cast is stellar . . . I will suspend my disbelief
through some of the weaker story elements when so many strong points
remain.”
So if you’re into the show and still
thinks it has the chops it once did, don’t listen to my
obviously slanted take on the show. Check out this fourth season box
set (technically, it’s near-perfect). But if you’ve ever
had reservations about Kiefer Sutherland’s ability to save the
day, I’d leave this one to the super-fans.
The Video: How Does The Disc Look?
This
season of 24 gets the kind of video treatment that previous
seasons have received on DVD. From Joshua Zyber’s review of
Season Two:
“24 is once again presented in
the 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio as the series airs on Fox's digital
broadcast channel (the standard analog broadcast is cropped to 4:3),
and once again the show is cinematically composed to take advantage of
the wider framing. The anamorphically enhanced images on these DVDs
are very sharp with exemplary fine object detail, yet almost no
noticeable edge halo artifacts. The heightened detail may even have
one drawback for the actors, in that we can now see every pockmark in
Dennis Haysbert's complexion with vivid clarity. Colors are also
strong and the contrast range has a rich black level, which lends a
nice sense of depth.
“Where the picture quality
falters is the appearance of grain. The show's photography has some
grain endemic to its shooting style, which was also plainly visible in
the first season, but it seems more exaggerated this time around. Now
even bright daylight scenes are often grainy, and it usually looks
less like film grain than like digital compression-induced video
noise. This is disappointing, and watching on a large screen I found
it distracting for a while, but to be honest after an episode or two
the otherwise slick and glossy production values won me over and I
stopped being bothered by the grain.”
The
Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?
Ditto with the
sound mix. Again from Josh:
“Unlike some other
television series DVDs, this show actually makes good use of a Dolby
Digital 5.1 mix. The rear soundstage is very aggressive with many
discrete surround effects such as helicopters circling from speaker to
speaker. Although not officially an EX mix, the track will decode well
if you activate the rear center channel. Dialogue is always perfectly
clear, even when it shifts directionally across the front soundstage
during the many split-screen scenes, and the music has a nice
presence.
“This is, however, still a television
production and will have some expected limitations. Bass does not
extend very deep beyond what is heard in the musical score, and
gunshots and explosions rarely have the kind of satisfying thump you
get from a feature film soundtrack. Still, for a TV show this sounds
great.”
Also included are a Spanish Dolby Surround
track, English and Spanish subtitles, and English Closed
Captions.
Supplements: What Goodies Are
There?
Disc one brings us a screen-
specific audio commentary on “7:00-8:00 a.m.”
with Joel Surnow and Mary Lynn Rajskub as well as a deleted
scene; disc two houses two commentaries
– “12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m.” with Joseph Hodges and Jon
Cassar, and “2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.” with Stephen Kronish and
Peter Lenkov – and four deleted scenes; disc
three brings commentary on “3:00 p.m. –
4:00 p.m.” (with Evan Katz and Shannen Doherty) and “4:00
p.m. – 5:00 p.m.” (with Nestor Serrano and Stephen Kronish
as well as 10 deleted scenes; disc four gives us
three commentaries – Tim Iacofano and Shohreh
Aghdashloo on “8:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.”, Roger Cross
and Bryan Spicer on “9:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.”, and
Bryan Spicer and Arnold Vosloo on “10:00 p.m. – 11:00
p.m.” – as well as 11 deleted scenes;
disc five has commentary on “12:00 a.m. –
1:00 a.m.” with Jon Cassar and Sean Callery and on “1:00
a.m. – 2:00 a.m.” with Paul Gadd and Kenneth Kobett and
four deleted scenes; disc six houses two
commentaries (“4:00 a.m. – 5:00
a.m.” with Matt Michnovetz and Duppy Demetrius and “6:00
a.m. – 7:00 a.m.” with Bob Cochran and Scott Powell) and
nine deleted scenes.
Disc seven has the
most features. We get the 39 deleted/extended scenes
from the other discs with optional commentary by Jon
Cassar, an exclusive Season 5 prequel that bridges
this season with the one that’s currently on the air (as well as
the Season 4 prequel that came before this one), four
featurettes (Making a Scene, Breaking Ground:
Building the New CTU, Blood on the Tracks, and Lock and
Load), some cell phone mobisodes of 24:
Conspiracy, and a music video for “The
Longest Day.”
DVD-ROM
There’s a link to a 24
game demo.
Final
Thoughts
Fans of the series really can’t go
wrong with this one; for them, this 24: Season Four box set
is an easy recommendation. Video transfers and audio mixes are
perfectly fine, and there are tons of bonus features to swim
through, both in commentaries, deleted scenes, and an entire disc of
other goodies. For the equivalent of about $10 a disc, you could do a
lot worse.
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