24

What torture it must have been to watch this one episode at a time separated by a week or more when it aired! Makes me very glad I don't have cable. Of course, the downside is that I stayed up until 2am until my eyes went out on me, which is pretty sickening when you think about it. The series creators do a fantastic job of reeling you in episode after episode, making it as realistic as possible, and building obstacles that are believable. A federal agent (played oh-so-convincingly by Kiefer Sutherland) has a bad day. He has to save a city, or the president's life, or...well, that's two seasons so far. All the sides to the operation are shown to you -- military, political, social, personal. And the gimmick of having it play out in real time over 24 hours is no gimmick, but a clever ploy. The acting is not uniformly stellar, but very nearly so. Sutherland is perfect for the role (which might be surprising to many). He is also mighty scary, because you're never sure what he's going to do next. Which is one of the fundamentals of the series -- never get too attached to a character. He or she might be dead by the next hour.

years: 2001-?
length: seasons 1-2 on DVD, season 3 in play
rating: 3.5
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285331/combined