History Series / TwentyFour

** One plot point in Season 2 features a coup against President Palmer, attempting to invoke the Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, to remove him from office by declaring him unfit to serve. The show makes it seem like it's a matter of a simple majority vote by the Cabinet, and the President is tossed out on his ear. In RealLife, the situation is far more complex. For one, the request to remove the President has to be submitted in writing to Congress, and the President is allowed to submit his own opinion on the matter. And long deliberations would likely ensue. The 25th Amendment, or at least Section 4, has never actually been invoked, so it's hard to say exactly what the process would look like. But it would undoubtedly take days, maybe weeks, and not a couple hours like on the show.

The series is shot in strict {{real time}}, and covers a full 24 hours, though approximately six of them take place during various commercial breaks, which are also used to elide travel or handle logistics like meal breaks, naps and visits to the toilet. It uses of a lot of SplitScreen to get multiple angles on the same action, never employs SlowMotion, and displays ticking digital clocks as book-ends to commercial breaks and at various times during each act; these factors contribute to the sense that events are moving at a breakneck pace. It follows not only the adventures of Jack and other field agents, but also political intrigue centering around the elected officials who give Jack orders back at CTU, often straight up to the President of the United States. It leans ''heavily'' into GrayAndGreyMorality: Jack may have ChronicHeroSyndrome, but he's also an UnscrupulousHero and the TropeNamer for the "JackBauerInterrogationTechnique;" and while the villains are unquestionably bad people who are willing to KillEmAll, EvenEvilHasLovedOnes. (Who, of course, Jack the CowboyCop is willing to use as leverage against those villains.) Jack himself is a BrokenAce from season after season of "IDidWhatIHadToDo" chaos. Finally, it isn't scared of {{Player Punch}}es; AnyoneCanDie, to an extent that was only equaled when ''Series/GameOfThrones'' took to the airwaves.

* AlphabetNewsNetwork: Since the show aired on FOX, it often showed news broadcasts from FOX News, but also sometimes used its own version of [=CNN=] called [=CNB=]. This also appeared on ''Series/{{Homeland}}'' and ''Series/{{Tyrant}}'', both also by ''24'' showrunner Howard Gordon.

%%* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: Wayne Palme.

* Flanderization: In the early seasons of the show, the CTU's tactical teams were actually fairly competent at their jobs. By the later seasons they can't do anything right and are constantly being slaughtered by terrorists.
* FoilerFootage: There were two alternate endings of the first season filmed: one with Teri escaping torment, and one with a ReallyDeadMontage.

* HollywoodNerd: Milo, Morris, and others.
* HonorBeforeReason: President Omar Hassan of Season 8, pretty explicitly.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters (The openings of the early episodes of a season can get very long... the later episodes, [[AnyoneCanDie not so much]].)

* CIAEvilFBIGood: In Season 7, the FBI views the now-defunct CTU as a reckless, immoral institution.

* StaticCharacter: In Season 8, Arlo Glass seems to fit this trope. Throughout the entire season, we hardly get to know him, and his interaction in the plot hardly ever exceeds analyzing the monitors at CTU. Despite this, he appeared in EVERY EPISODE of the season, the only character to do so besides Jack (TheHero), Cole (the Deuteragonist/BigGuy/Lancer), and Chloe (TheSmartGuy and Jack's [[TrueCompanions True Companion]]).

* WorldOfBadass: Because even the tech geeks, [[DamselScrappy Damsel Scrappys]], and peace-seeking presidents of random Middle Eastern nations are capable of bringing the pain.

* WrongfulAccusationInsurance: This is a status quo that goes on for most of the show. On more than one occassion Jack, or one of his friends, will be accused of a high crime... and will then perform various high crimes (i.e. hacking into classified intel, kidnapping people, etc.) to prove they didn't commit the original crime. This is to say nothing of how often Jack will blatantly violate the rules in order to achieve the justice he believes in; often carried out based on flimsy or questionable leads. Jack has even attacked federal agents, military personnel, you name it, in order to achieve his goals -- even including [[spoiler: ''the President of the United States'', Charles Logan in season 5.]] Invariably, Jack is almost always given a clean slate once all is said in done, despite how unhinged all of this behavior would look to the establishment. However this is finally averted come season 8, where Jack's methods finally go too far and he ends up a permanent fugitive.

* WorldOfBadass: Because even the tech geeks, [[DamselScrappy Damsel Scrappys]], and peace-seeking presidents of random Middle Eastern nations are capable of bringing the pwnage.

* WrongfulAccusationInsurance: This is a status quo that goes on for most of the show. On more than one occassion Jack, or one of his friends, will be accused of a high crime... and will then perform various high crimes (i.e. hacking into classified intel, kidnapping people, etc.) to prove they didn't commit the original crime. This is to say nothing of how often Jack will blatantly violate the rules in order to achieve the justice he believes in; often carried out based on flimsy or questionable leads. Jack has even attacked federal agents, military personnel, you name it, in order to achieve his goals -- even including the [[spoiler: ''the President of the United States'', Charles Logan in season 5.]] Invariably, Jack is almost always given a clean slate once all is said in done, despite how unhinged all of this behavior would look to the establishment. However this is finally averted come season 8, where Jack's methods finally go too far and he ends up a permanent fugitive.

** It's rather common in the series that security guards in the the CTU building are easily bypassed. [[spoiler:Jack in Season Two when taking Kate to Wallace, Tony taking Jane to Stephen in Season Three and even the treason-convicted ''Nina Myers'' being able to almost escape the building (only stopped by Jack) during Seasons 1 and 3]]

* BadCopIncompetentCop: [=CTU=], and to a lesser extent most American government agencies (not to mention the governent ''itself''), is woefully bad at its job, despite its rep as [[InformedAbility a premier counter-terrorist unit]]. Its agents and support staff are frequently either blackmailed, let personal issues get in the way of handling a major crisis, or turn out to be TheMole (sometimes there are several operating at once -- other times innocent people are easily framed, even tortured for "confessions"); Jack himself has fallen victim to the first two failings several times. It has also been attacked on multiple occasions, including by biological and chemical weapons they were supposed to be hunting down. But its worst record is the numerous terrorist attacks that happen on its watch, and especially the fact that they often find out only hours before they are scheduled to take place. Several are successful, including a couple of small-scale nuclear attacks, nerve gas attacks, biological terrorism, and numerous high-level assassinations. The rest are thwarted [[RuleOfDrama only at the last minute]], and often with lots of casualties. It's a miracle that there is a state left to defend.

* HeroOfAnotherStory: Tony Almeida, Curtis [[FanNickname "Black Bauer"]] Manning, Mike Doyle, Renee Walker, (currently) Cole Ortiz, and more. Usually, they'll be the ''actual'' head of CTU Field Ops while Jack is on the run or being brought in for [[OneLastJob one last world-saving mission]].

* VillainDecay: In Season 5, we find out that [[FanNickname Mr. Bluetooth]] and a small organization of men are really behind the colossal conspiracy that took place that day. [[KarmaHoudini He even got away with it all]]. So when Season 6 came along and it was revealed that Mr. Bluetooth was really [[spoiler:Graem Bauer, a weasly SmugSnake with family issues]], it didn't please too many fans.

*** Finally, it serves as a major moment of catharsis for people who prefer the original books to the TV show. [[spoiler:Fairley's character, Catelyn Stark, is murdered in the infamous "Red Wedding"... But what was AdaptedOut is that she ''CameBackWrong''[[note]]Beric Dondarrion, the Lightning Lord, gives her his spark[[/note]] for a RoaringRampageOfRevenge as the KnightTemplar "Lady Stoneheart," bent on avenging herself against literally anyone who ever did even the slightest harm to her family. Minus the zombie makeup, this is Fairley's role in Day 9, and many a reader was delighted to finally see it onscreen.]]

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: The final BigBad of Season 7 doesn't appear onscreen until Episode 19 and isn't defined ''as'' the BigBad until, literally, the 24th hour. While this fits into the convoluted plotting the show is known for, and there's some attempt to re-contextualize him by claiming he [[RememberTheNewGuy masterminded the events of Day 5]], this villain still comes out of left field.

** Day 2: Survives a plane crash in the first half of the season. Is later captured and [[spoiler:literally tortured to death]]. [[spoiler:He got better.]]

** The security guards literally wear red shirts.

** And in Day 8, literally one hour ''after'' what was mentioned in the spoiler above, [[spoiler:Renee gets killed by a sniper bullet, [[DeathBySex after screwing Jack Bauer]]]].

*** Not to mention the CTU agent literally named Creator/TomBaker.

** Happens InUniverse in Season 7. American PrivateMilitaryContractors are attempting to kidnap the Prime Minister of {{Bulungi}}. He and his wife hide in a saferoom, and all of their PraetorianGuard are killed except one. The lead merc is about to execute said guard on camera when a phone call interrupts... at which point the mercs are distracted while Jack helps them smoke the Prime Minister out (long story). What happened to the guard? Literally ''everyone'' forgot about him: in the next episode, he's alive and giving testimony to the FBI!

** Day 5: He's faced in the penultimate episode (Vladimir Bierko), as there are no deaths in the finale.

* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: Wayne Palmer; also his brother David, aside from not being bald.
** Doubles as BaldOfAwesome on Wayne.
** Also, General Benjamin Juma
* BaldOfAwesome: As mentioned above, Wayne Palmer.
** Mike Novick, too, particularly in Seasons 4 and 5.
** Aaron Pierce.
** Morris O'Brian.
** First Gentleman Henry Taylor pulls this off in the first half of Season 7 when he tracks down his son's murderer and ''kills him with his own hands'' while ''drugged''.
* BaldOfEvil: At least one just about every season.
** [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic Joseph Wald]] on Day 2.
** [[KnightTemplar Habib Marwan]] on Day 4.
** [[WesternTerrorists Anton Beresch]] on Day 5.
** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Graem Bauer]] on Days 5 and 6.
** Abu Fayed on Day 6.

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: [[spoiler:Renee Walker was sniped in Jack's apartment minutes after having sex with the guy.]]
** [[spoiler:Michelle Dessler for Tony.]]
** [[spoiler:Audrey gets killed in the ''Live Another Day'' finale just to enforce Jack's decision to kill Cheng.]]

* ArtisticLicenceNuclearPhysics: Possibly justified since Jack may have been bluffing. In Season 8, Jack threatens a terrorist that if the radiological device goes off, he'll escort his mother to the detonation site, claiming that she'll absorb a lethal dose of Cs-137 in five seconds, in order to keep him [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas from killing himself to preserve the mission.]] The problem? There's no way for Cs-137 levels to be high enough to give a lethal dose in five seconds, and certainly not in open air. Also, if it were possible to do that, the agonizing death would cease to be agonizing simply by hanging around for a full minute, at which point enough radiation would be absorbed to destroy the central nervous system -- two weeks of vomiting your guts out becomes twenty minutes of delirium followed by slipping into a coma and never waking up.

* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: David Palmer was the first black President on a major TV programme. Some political commentators claimed after the 2008 election that Palmer's strong character (as written by Republicans, no less!) made a certain man from Hawai'i more acceptable and resulted in his election. Similarly, President Allison Taylor, portrayed by Cherry Jones, is the first female President of the United States.

** Sergei Bazhaev mercy kills his son who was dying of radiation poisoning. He eventually gets arrested, loses the nuclear fuel rods and his other soon dies.

** Jack, despite being largely the same personality that he'll have for the rest of the show's run, is a HappilyMarried family man, something that would be brutally undone in the season finale. He also starts out as the Special Agent in Charge of CTU before being replaced temporarily by Alberta Green and then permanently by George Mason; in future seasons he's purely a field agent (except for in late Season 3, where he temporarily takes over command from Tony for the final few episodes of the season).

The show has involved three major {{Myth Arc}}s played out over the course of three instalments each.

Creator/AnilKapoor has driven forward an effort to create a Hindi-language {{remake}} of the show, also entitled ''24'' but called "Series/TwentyFourIndia" here on the wiki to differentiate. Kapoor plays the main character, Jai Singh Rathod. The show aired on the Indian network Colors.

A [[Series/TwentyFourJapan Japanese remake]] is aired in Japan with the first episode from October 9, 2020 to March 2021 via TV Asahi, starring Toshiaki Karasawa as Jack's equivalent Genma Shidou.