It’s hard to believe how quickly time flies, but here we are marking (and celebrating) the 24th anniversary of television’s most thrilling action-drama series – and the timing couldn’t be more perfect. Fox’s espionage-action-drama series 24 premiered today, November 6, 2001. During its time on the air (2001-2010, a revival in 2014, and a sequel series in 2017), 24 took action television to a whole new level, helped usher in a new era of high-concept TV programming, and had some of the deepest cultural impact of any television program in the 21st century.
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With 24 now hitting its 24th anniversary, there couldn’t be a better time to revisit it.
24 Helped Pioneer The Era of High-Concept TV
Nowadays, no one blinks an eye at the prospect of high-concept TV shows; however, when 24 hit the airwaves, it actually made some of the biggest waves in pop culture due to its format: Each hour-long episode was supposed to convey real-time events in a day-long counter-terrorism investigation/operation. The show went so far as to include a ticking digital clock that routinely showed up to remind viewers of the “real-time” concept. In retrospect, 24 was way too stringent about keeping its creative formatting intact: seasons dragged to fill a 24-episode count, commercials (and later, streaming replays without commercials) constantly broke the “real-time” illusion the show was going for, and often the sheer amount of twists, turns, and developments in a season made one day feel impossibly packed. That said, today it’s hard not to see the breakout popularity of HBO Max’s The Pitt (which follows a Pittsburgh emergency room team in real time) and how 24‘s high-concept DNA is now an integral part of the television industry.
That’s not even counting what 24 did for action TV as a genre. Justified, Jack Ryan, Banshee, Strike Back, Burn Notice, The Black List, Nikita, Cover Affairs, S.W.A.T., The Terminal List, Reacher, Lioness – even Star Wars’ Andor – all owe some amount of gratitude to 24, and what it did for making spies, terrorists, and the organizations and agents that battle them, just as much a part of the TV landscape as medical and police procedurals.
24 Helped Heal A Nation That Was Reeling
Check that premiere date: November 6, 2001. If you haven’t connected the dots, when 24 first hit the airwaves, America was still reeling from the trauma and horror of the 9/11 attacks, which took place on September 11, 2001. In that context, Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer was almost instantly catapulted from being just another gruff-and-gritty TV detective with a badge and gun: he became a popular avatar for the era of George W. Bush’s presidency. Bauer represented the might of American security, a fictional spokesman for the intelligence and military apparatuses that work tirelessly to keep the nation safe. More importantly, Jack Bauer served as a psychological totem for Americans everywhere: the face of the nation’s hardline stance against a new and unfathomable era of terrorism, and a reminder that there are noble forces at war in the shadows to ensure that tragedies like 9/11 never happen again.
Of course, that kind of symbolism turned out to be a double-edged sword: Jack Bauer just as quickly became an avatar for America’s feelings of anger and burning need for retribution against terrorists. In fact, by the time the series was wrapping up in the late 2000s, the presidency of Barack Obama was in full swing, and many Bush-era policies about war and counter-terrorism had been deemed as “wrong” or “egregious. Jack Bauer got reframed as a cultural villain – a symbol of the Bush-era’s amoral practices when it came to things like torture (which Jack often did to targets), or weighing freedoms and constitutional rights against safety and security.
It wasn’t just Bauer: 24 featured complex and layered portrayals of Presidents and other high-ranking government officials (including a black president before Obama, and a criminally corrupt president working at the behest of a foreign government…); deep looks at the military industrial complex and American foreign policy practices (albeit in fictional scenarios), as well as socio-political debates that were interesting to see in an edge-of-your-seat, action-thriller show. All that aside, the unparalleled action, tension, and twists are the real reasons people kept tuning into 24 for years.
24 Needs A(nother) Revival
It’s hard to deny that real life in modern America has gotten weirder than any episode of 24 could be. It’s also hard to deny that now is the time to bring the series back. Last year, we got word that a 24 movie could be in development, but nothing concrete has been confirmed since then.
Times have changed (yet again). When 24 tried to do a sequel series with 24: Legacy (2017), the fandom didn’t really respond to it. Legacy suffered from many of the same drawbacks as previous seasons of the show: stumbling over the real-time format (cut down to 12 hours instead of 24; wild contrivances with the plot to bring all the supporting characters and subplots to satisfying convergences. More importantly, Legacy didn’t have a new thematic core or a clear new socio-political viewpoint to share; it was simply the old series with a new lead character, Eric Carter (Corey Hawkins), who simply could not fill the shoes of Sutherland’s Jack Bauer.
A new 24 series, developed now, would have several big things on its side. The line between government and corruption has become dangerously blurred; the scope of “terrorism” now includes both domestic and foreign groups; partisan politics has left intelligence agencies drastically repurposed, and there are whispers that all of the chaos, uncertainty, and possible corruption have left America more vulnerable than ever. That’s not even considering what digital media, AI, and the flow of misinformation have impacted the world. Anxiety is high right now, and America could once again use a symbol of reassurance.
There are many ways for 24 to return: Kiefer Sutherland is still active enough to return as Jack Bauer – especially if it’s an older Jack who is more inclined to use his wits as a spy, rather than his gun (leave the action work to a new protegé). 24’s best seasons (2 and 5) involved more than just Jack taking on terrorists, extremists, or separatist groups: they invovled back-room, double-dealing treachery amongst top government officials. Needless to say, there’s never been a more importune time for that kind of political intrigue to give viewers a much-needed outlet for their political frustrations.
For now, you can stream all seasons of 24 on Hulu-Disney+.
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