24 has come a long way in six seasons. The only word i can think of to describe the show’s first ever episode is: lo-fi. And that’s mainly production quality. It’s hard to judge the story line just yet because hardly anything happened in this first hour, a stark difference from today’s high-impact, non-stop show. But everything else—lighting, set design, editing, titles, music—was shockingly low-budgety. Speaking of the music, there was a plucky string part in one scene that sounded just like music from Babel which i watched last night.
I only started watching the series in the middle of the fourth season, so i’m not sure when the current 24 style matured and stabilized, because it’s been more or less the same since i’ve been watching. Seems like they were really trying to emphasize the whole “real time” aspect, almost to the point that things progressed too slowly to be entertaining. They’ve also really sharpened up the cinematography and editing. Today’s shots still have that hand-held urgency without looking amateur and nauseating. A lot more emotional close-ups with focus racking in later seasons. And the signature split-screen effect works much better now with shots composed for the split with matching sound and music cues.
I didn’t think i had any expectations for the first season, but i have to say that so far i’m a little disappointed. I’m guessing it’ll pick up at some point.
