Every Season Of 24 - Ranked From Worst To Best

Plot: After raiding the Chinese embassy, Jack Bauer had faked his own death and is living the quiet life under an assumed name. As the new President plans to sign a terrorism treaty with Russia, those who knew Jack wasn't dead start dying and he's forced out of hiding.

Now we're talking. After a season that espoused the show's most problematic virtues, the writers opted for a plot that seemed removed from the current state of the world. It went back a few decades, even casting Gregory Itzin as President Charles Logan, a Nixonian figure. It wasn't that Logan's actions in any way resembled Nixon's crimes, but he was also ultimately brought down by an audio recording.

More importantly, it's downright fun. The budget had been appropriately expanded and the action finally felt big.

The season opened with one of the most controversial moves in its run. As shows like The Sopranos and Lost were getting comfortable offing characters, 24 upped the ante by wiping out three major ones before the first cut to commercial. President Palmer was the most shocking, with a sniper bullet to the neck, but the show desperately needed re-invention. It's a shame they only repeated the same kind of shock-death to lesser effect in later seasons.

This was also the season that began Robo-casting; that is, casting actors from Robocop. Ray Wise, Paul McCrane and Robocop himself Peter Weller show up here.