24-Season 6 (2006) |
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24-Season 6 (2006) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Action |
Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Master Illusionist, Inside the Writer's Room Featurette-Opening with a Bang, Cameo - Ricky Gervais Featurette-Webcast Diaries - Multiple featurettes Deleted Scenes-And Extended Scenes Bonus Episode-Day Six Debrief Bonus Episode-Prison Break - Season 2 Episode 1 Audio Commentary-Multiple commentaries - various episodes Web Links |
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| Year Of Production | 2006 | ||
| Running Time | 1002:30 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | Dual Layered | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Ads Then Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By |
Jon Cassar Rodney Charters Ken Girotti Davis Guggenheim |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Twentieth Century Fox |
Starring |
Kiefer Sutherland Peter McNicol DB Woodside Jayne Atkinson Powers Boothe James Morrison Marisol Nichols Carlo Rota Adani Morapis Alexander Siddig James Badge Dale William Devane Alberta Watson |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $69.95 | Music |
Sean Callery John Frusciante |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English for the Hearing Impaired Norwegian Swedish |
Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | Yes, computers, cars etc etc | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
This phenomenally successful series, starring Keifer Sutherland as the indestructible Jack Bauer, has redefined television suspense and action. Something which really surprised me is that it has been able to keep the quality consistent through six seasons (with a seventh on the way). To be fair this season is not quite up to the very high standard of Season 5 but it is still very watchable and keeps your interest, although it does seem a little forced and clichéd at times. This is a testament to the high quality writing and excellent cast & production values. You can find reviews for Seasons 1 and 2 and 5 here.
This sixth season kicks off 20 months after the end of season 5 when Jack was kidnapped by Chinese agents and taken to China. Now, the U.S. has seen a spate of terrorist attacks which the new president, David Palmer's younger brother Wayne is trying to stop with little success. They receive contact from a supposedly ex-terrorist Abu Fayed (Adonis Maropis) who offers to give them the location of the terrorist organising the attacks, Assad (Alexander Siddig) in return for delivering Jack Bauer to him. Jack was responsible for torturing Fayed's brother to death and Fayed wants revenge. Bauer is still in a Chinese prison but the US government negotiates his release in order to turn him over to Fayed. Bauer, after 20 months of torture agrees to go along with the plan as he believes that at least he will then die for something. When he works out that Fayed is not going to keep up his end of the bargain he escapes and so begins another 24 hours of mayhem, murder, lots of torture, many twists and turns, climaxes, intrigues, betrayals, surprises and the killing-off of major characters.
This season was quite controversial in the US with a highly negative article about the series published in the New Yorker Magazine. This mostly seemed to be due to the perceived political leaning of the show and the amount of torture (both by 'goodies' and 'baddies') included in this series. This is discussed in some of the extras. Some of the political themes which get an airing include the trade off between civil liberties and combating terrorism and when does the end justify the means. It is impossible to give an episode by episode overview without spoiling the show.
Key characters in this series include:
Other characters are introduced during the season and some old favourites return. Jack's various family members get much more airplay in this season than previously (but not the daughter). Notable guest stars in this series include James Cromwell and Ricky Schroder. The 24 episodes are spread over six discs and an extra seventh disc is included which houses the non-episode based extras.
A good series of an excellent television show. Recommended.
The video quality is very good.
The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, 16x9 enhanced, which is the original aspect ratio.
The picture was quite sharp and clear although there was occasionally some light grain. There was no evidence of low level noise. I did notice some occasional minor macro-blocking. Shadow detail is good without being spectacular.
The colour was excellent with no issues to report.
Artefacts included some bits of minor aliasing and edge enhancement here and there.
There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired plus some for foreign languages. There are also subs available in Norwegian & Swedish.
The layer changes were not obvious or were between episodes.
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The audio quality is excellent for a television production.
This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s. There was excellent stereo separation across the front sound stage and overall the soundtrack was immersive.
Dialogue was mostly clear and easy to understand, however, sometimes the subs were helpful depending upon the scene.
The score of this series by Sean Callery is excellent, adding significantly to the tension and suspense of the series.
The surround speakers added lots of atmosphere and some surround effects, such as helicopters and explosions, although not to the level of a major motion picture.
The subwoofer was used constantly adding bass to the music, explosions, heartbeats and other sound effects.
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There is an incredible array of extras included here. All are 16x9 enhanced.
The menus are very well designed with music, scenes plus all the usual set-up options.
Many of the episodes include commentaries which are mostly pretty good. They all begin after the 'previously on' section of the episode. Do not listen to ANY of these commentaries before watching the whole season. They are as follows
There are nearly 29 minutes of deleted scenes available over the six discs. They are also repeated in one item on Disc 7. You can watch them separately or via seamless branching incorporated into the episodes.
The same scenes that were on the other discs, however they are all together here and have an optional commentary by Executive Producers Stephen Kronish & Paul Gadd, explaining why they were dropped.
Featurette about the technical process for creating the various injury effects they use such as burns and the cutting off of digits. Interesting.
The highlight of the extras. The writers discuss how they operate, ideas that they might have used, the politics of the show, the bad press about this season and the future of the show. Well worth watching.
How they planned, set up for and did the special effects on the opening scene involving the blowing up of a bus. Not bad.
Not from the actual show this is Ricky Gervais being an extra in a scene from 24, presumably for his own series Extras.
A huge selection of making of and behind the scenes featurettes. None are overly essential but they do provide lots of information for fans about how the show comes together. They are:
This is a very short season of 24 told over about 15 minutes (five episodes). It takes place after the end of Season 6 when Jack is called in for a debrief. Quite enjoyable. I would assume from the name that they were for mobile phone users originally.
Extra? or just a long trailer? Anyway, this is the full first episode of Season 2 of Prison Break. A worthy extra regardless.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
This Sixth season of 24 will not be released in Region1 until December 4th of 2007. At this stage I cannot find any details of DVD contents but I would guess they will be similar.
The video quality is very good.
The audio quality is excellent.
More extras than you can poke a stick at.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV667A DVD-V DVD-A SACD, using Component output |
| Display | Sony FD Trinitron Wega KV-AR34M36 80cm. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL)/480i (NTSC). |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Pioneer VSX-511 |
| Speakers | Monitor Audio Bronze 2 (Front), Bronze Centre & Bronze FX (Rears) + Yamaha YST SW90 subwoofer |