STUDIO: Twentieth Century Fox
RELEASE DATE: May 20, 2008
STARRING: Kiefer Sutherland, Dennis Haysbert, Leslie Hope, Elisha Cuthbert, Sarah Clarke, and Xander Berkeley
CREATED BY: Joel Surnow & Robert Cochran
FEATURES: Season One Introduction by Kiefer Sutherland
Audio Commentary on the Series Premiere Episode by Director Stephen Hopkins and Director of Photography Peter Levy
Audio Commentary on the Season Finale Episode by Actress Leslie Hope and Director Stephen Hopkins
Extended and Deleted Scenes
Alternate Ending to the Season Finale Episode
All-New Documentary: The Genesis of 24
The Rookie Vignettes
Letter from Co-Creators

What do you do when the writers strike kills one of your biggest TV on DVDs of the year? There will be no Season Seven release of 24 from Fox this year or early next year. Why not go back to the beginning? The box sets for 24 have become some of the most famous, award-winning, and influential on the home market but the first season stood out as an exception. It didn't have quite the luster or cavalcade of special features of the ones that followed, after the show had become an enormous hit. So, in a brilliant move, Fox has gone back and corrected an injustice, something that happens often with movies, but is incredibly rare with TV, by releasing a Special Edition of the first season of 24. The season is housed in a beautiful metallic case with a clock on the front that you can actually reset and watch click with you as you view the show and confirm that ten minutes in the world of Jack Bauer is ten minutes in your own (although, even in a full season, back-to-back marathon, the timer won't get to 24, unless you take breaks for those pesky commercials). Even better, the show comes with three hours of never-before-seen special features and looks and sounds as gorgeous as any of the other seasons. Yes, we know it's a double-dip, but fans of the show will be satisfied and should look into selling their standard edition version of season one on Ebay as soon as possible.

The first season of 24 was nearly perfect (in my opinion, it's only topped by the second and maybe fifth seasons, but that's three amazing seasons of TV). It really changed the entire landscape of television and, along with The Sopranos and maybe Lost, is one of the two or three most influential shows of the last decade. If you've never seen the show itself, it can't be recommended highly enough. Personally, I watched it when it aired back in 2001 and was stunned recently at both how much the show has held up and how ahead of its time it was seven years ago. In particular, the risk they took with the final episode and its stunning conclusion was something that you just don't see on television and the idea that anyone is expendable was carried over to countless dramas in the years since including shows like Heroes and Lost. In the excellent new documentary, "The Genesis of 24", the producers comment on how the end of season one was a series-defining moment. It's arguably a TV-defining moment of how dark serial programs has become in the last several years. 24 is one of the biggest and most important hits of the last ten years and this is where it all began. It's never looked better.

Fans of 24 will love the aforementioned "The Genesis of 24" - a (of course) 24-minute look at the evolution of the show and why so many of its signatures came to be - but it's not the only special feature on this new edition of the first season. New elements include five extended episodes (the hours that took place between 7pm and 12am), 25 deleted/extended scenes, a never-before-seen alternate season finale ending, a commentary by director Stephen Hopkins and director of photography Peter Levy on the premiere, a commentary by Hopkins and actress Leslie Hope on the finale, and the online commercials sponsored by Degree called "The Rookie" that recently ran. As is expected with newer seasons of 24, it's a perfect collection of extras that expands on the show without going overboard or feeling unnecessary. Considering the tepid response to season six of 24, fans are nervous that the show might have jumped the shark. If you think about it, the Special Edition of season one of 24 might be the best thing to come out of the writer's strike.