Every Season Of 24 - Ranked From Worst To Best

Plot: Jack Bauer is forced back into action when a nuclear weapon is suddenly in play. Despite still grieving over the death of his wife, he springs back to action within an hour.

Season 1 was devised before 9/11, but season two debuted in October 2002. Interestingly, this was around the same time movies like 25th Hour were directly addressing the tragedy after a year of sidestepping it.

9/11 is never directly addressed in the show, but every plot thread is inspired by the fear and paranoia that came out of that day. After news of a nuke on American soil breaks, riots ensue, with countless Muslims being beaten in the streets. A foreign agent from the country suspected of aiding the terrorists is thrown under a cloud of suspicion before being cleared, then killed anyway.

There's also a homegrown terrorist plot that still leaves room for plenty of par-for-the-course women-hating, with one sister marrying a potential terrorist and the other hiring a P.I. to investigate him. This may have played well at the time, but today even the suspicious sister comes off shrewish.

But taken as an entry into action television, it's a rollercoaster. It's also the first season to display the show's ability to make you empathize with characters you're set up to hate, namely the terminal George Mason (Xander Berkeley).