6. 24
Season one of 24 was truly innovative television and while the story lines of season one might seem tame compared to later seasons, it still had use gripped to our screens hour by hour, eager for the next instalment. If we bypass the whole Teri has amnesia story line, the story we were presented with left us generally befuddled as to how Jack Bauer would get his wife and daughter back and ensure Senator Palmer survived. This of course, didn't happen, thanks to the shocking reveal of Nina as the traitor and her last act in killing Teri as the clock ticked towards that final minute. The good thing about season one was that it felt realistic. Characters generally seemed exhausted by the early hours of the morning. Some even popped off to have a nap for a couple of episodes. Jack took a whole episode to get from one destination to another because it would take a whole hour. While the plots did get bigger and sometimes better in later seasons, so did the absurdity of it all. From cougars to faked deaths, kidnappings to the hilarity of driving around New York in rush hour in a matter of minutes. By the time season eight ended the show had done all it could and not all of it well. Now that's not to say we're not all intrigued by the return of 24 to our screens in May but it will take a lot for the show to feel fresh again, though the 12 episodes across 24 hours may help to avoid some of the tedium of many episodes. While we wouldn't have witnessed some of the awesome drama of season two, three, five and seven, had 24 lasted a single season, it would have gone down as a bold experiment in television with a killer ending.