24

24 continues to thrill and excite.While other shows such as Lost and Heroes have me watching just because I want to know how it all works out, whilst simultaneously wishing that it would hurry up and put me out of my misery, I watch 24 because I simply can't put it down! The next episode just can't come soon enough!

Maybe that's because each series comes to its own end, you're not left hanging and wodering what rubbish the script-writers are working on to try and explain it all away (I suspect Flash Forward will end up this way too, if it even gets a second series). There are crossovers from one series to the next, but you could watch each series stand-alone (in fact we only started watching at series 4, but have since caught up with 1 & 2 and have 3 still to watch).

Mind you, while keeping the action fast-paced and punchy, the writers still dip into the "bag of 24 plot devices". Every series has to have the same old things.

1. There's a bad guy who double crosses the other bad guys.
2. Jack tortures someone to get intel.
3. There's dissension in the Whitehouse that borders on sedition.
4. In a fire-fight, any other good guy with a gun is dead meat, but bullets just seem to bend around Jack.
5. There's a mole inside CTU.

That last one is particularly galling. It's CTU for God's sake, how good are their staff vetting policies? And what's with anyone just being able to make mobile phone calls from within CTU? My first job as incoming Director Of CTU would be to introduce mobile phone shielding and have all outgoing calls go through a central, recorded facility.

And in the current series, how often is Dana Walsh leaving the room to take private and very shady looking phone calls? In my office that wouldn't pass without comment, and I'm not working on national security!

But yeah, despite all these "shortcomings" I still love 24. It's a pity they're saying this will be the last series.