People are soooo cynical. Season 7 and 9 deserve their own applause esp. with how they fixed some severe issues and had better villains, twists and overall concepts.
Season 8 and the cougar scenes of the otherwise best Season (that is Season 2) are literally the only stiff I skip.
Season 1 had some filler episodes but that’s minor. Season 6 is a Season 2 rehash (i.e. A fictional country being frightened with war by the US which is later turned out to be false; forbidden office romance) but is overall pretty ball Z once you get past the family subplot.

I haven't forgotten and Mary Lynn Rajskub was my secret crush.
My password is password

To me it was always a great show (except for Legacy)

I liked the later seasons thank you very much. And I watched it all the way threw. Granted season 8 was a bad ending. But I still enjoyed it. And I loved the new series that came out two years ago.

I agree OP.
To me, seasons one and two are by far the best seasons in all areas.

So your saying that Kim and the mountain lion was a good plot line? Lol. Kim was the only bad part of the early seasons. Personally I enjoyed day 7 but they missed a golden opportunity with Tony in that season.

Seasons 1-5 were the show's golden years! 24-karat gold!
I am actually rewatching season 2 right now. What a fantastic season!! Just finished episode 10 where it's revealed that Sherry is in cahoots with Roger Stanton and Marie Warner is the real baddie, killing Reza!
The thing about the earlier seasons is that all those twists somehow didn't feel forced, they somehow felt genuine. The deaths also weren't just a gimmick, they felt real and emotional. Even a small character like Paula Schaffer who you only knew for about 3 episodes had an impact on you when she died.
Connery, Moore, and Brosnan! Accept NO substitutes!

I watched the show since the beginning and it was seasons 1-3 that really made me love it. Man, that was the stuff! Season 1 was just heartbreaking. I know everyone has a different opinion of it because of what came later, but yes, I consider myself a "true fan" because I liked the earliest seasons the best. Continually robbing us of a conclusion to Jack Bauer's story (after they made the entire show about him from season 4+) was where they let us down and never recovered. That, sadly, will be 24's legacy.

Totally agree with the OP, it's funny, 24 really did change at some point during season 4 or 5 and sort of became "The Jack Bauer show" whereas before he was the main character but at the same time was a flawed guy that used his wits and intelligence to overcome the odds, but at some point he really did just become invincible. He'd figure out an entire plot and motive in literally no time flat, enemies that got the drop on him would still get killed with ease, etc. Part of me almost thinks the show should've ended in season 5. Still another part of me wants just one last season where we get a happy ending and finally get to see Bauer run off into the sunset.

Fully agree. I watched this show since day one. Recently I started watching it again on Amazon Prime and frankly speaking I'm surprised at how well it holds up. It was ahead of its time.
I also agree that there have been better shows, but I really think the first few seasons of 24 can't be matched. Jack was a very grounded character at one point. I've never seen a show with such tension as this.

I seem to recall getting little support for my open criticism of the finale by most of the board regulars at the time and a lot of condescending views from those specifically that I named.
I know that over the years they seemed to have changed their approach on the matter, perhaps because they have seen other shows now and realized that the ending really was a poor one for a series as unique as it was, that ran for 8 seasons.

We might have been the only 2 on the board back then who didn't think that Season 8's Series Finale was a fitting send-off for the show. A lot of the regulars thought it was awesome, because they were only focusing on the last 4 episodes when Jack finally lost it and went all out. (PDFierro, MetalNinja, Transformers, etc.).
I ripped the finale to pieces. I HATED Renee's death, and although the ensuing episodes were a fun ride, that's all they were; my emotional investment in the show died along with Renee. I think her death had the same effect on me that Michelle's death did on dteam. Btw MetalNinja also strongly criticized the finale; he liked the eps leading up to it, but the finale itself disappointed him.
"Garcia, nobody can hire my feelings!" -Guy Kazama
Formerly goArenas

My wife and I met on a 24 chat site (back when chat sites were still a thing)
Would that be the24insider/the24community by any chance? Who were you on there?

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PD actually apologized to me back in 2014 and we've gotten along rather well since then.
PD was always cool, even when discussing different aspects of 24. I just remember how he actually really liked the series finale, but a few years later when LAD came out admitted that it had its flaws.
I wonder if he's still traveling in Europe?
UltimateQAP was the worst one and the prime one I'd get into arguments with around here.
I think I avoided QAP for that reason. He wasn't a bad guy, but yeah he was pretty one sided with his thoughts on the show and like you said, pretty much dismissed you as a real fan if you didn't like every season.
My wife and I met on a 24 chat site (back when chat sites were still a thing) many years ago, complaining about how they killed three of our favorites off in Season 5.
I actually never knew that was how you met your wife. And that's actually a really great story, despite your favorite characters being killed off. (It was a HUGE change from the show at the time too).
I liked 5, because I thought it transitioned really well from Season 4 to Season 5, and was pretty much non-stop action and even Jack's original shot at redemption. The ending needed a bit of work though, they just kind of threw that in. And Season 6 barely touched on any of the potential it had!
Anyway, back to Mrs. D-Team. Pretty cool story and thanks for sharing. Hard to believe that was 2006!!

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I kept trying to tell people how these creators had zero respect for us fans and how they would never give this show a proper ending, opting instead to drive this show headlong into the ground.
I agreed with you!
We might have been the only 2 on the board back then who didn't think that Season 8's Series Finale was a fitting send-off for the show. A lot of the regulars thought it was awesome, because they were only focusing on the last 4 episodes when Jack finally lost it and went all out. (PDFierro, MetalNinja, Transformers, etc.).
I remember a lot of people asking what I wanted to see. I'd give examples of shows with great endings at the time, such as "The Shield" or even "The Wire" where the stories were closed up. Now I'd even include "Breaking Bad".
This show went the way of "Dexter", or rather, "Dexter" went the way of "24".
I was really hopeful LAD would do the right thing and close it up like they promised, but you know what happened there. There was no need to bring
Cheng
back and the only story they closed out was
Audrey's
.
People doubted my fandom of this show and even accused me of not being a "true" fan since I only really like the first 1-4 seasons.
I question your fandom, Season 5 was awesome! But 1-4 are far better than 5-8.

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It was once truly a great show.
Yes, it was once a great show. Waiting a full week to catch the next episode was a chore, but offered some great theories and discussion with others during that time.
The writers and the studio truly botched it in those final seasons though. One of the simplest things would have been closing out the Jack Bauer story, which they never did. Even when they brought the character back for LAD, promising closure for the character, they still changed their minds.
A terrible closing like that really hurts the entire show as a whole in retrospect.
Season 5 is when the show REALLY took off, they were even air recaps of it on Friday Nights. It's amazing how quickly they went down hill after Season 5 by repeating the same elements. The Writer's Strike and the delay of Season 7 didn't help it regain its footing very much either.