If the trailers for 24: Live Another Day have had you itching for a full-on 24 catch-up binge-watch, Amazon Prime is making it a possibility. That is, assuming you have a Prime subscription and a lot of time on your hands. Consider eight seasons, each consisting of 24 episodes. You have about a month between now and the premiere of 24: Live Another Day to make it happen.
Amazon announced today that the licensing agreement they have with Twentieth Century Fox TV now includes exclusive streaming distribution of all 192 episodes of 24. That's eight seasons of Jack Bauer kicking ass, taking names, bullets and a lot of flack from authorities, not to mention thwarting terrorists. The deal also includes streaming rights for 24: Live Another Day, which Amazon says will be made available to Prime subscribers "later this year," presumably after if airs on Fox.
It would be nice if Amazon could have secured a deal similar to the one they had with Under the Dome last season and have with CBS's upcoming sci-fi drama Extant, which allows them to add each new episode of the series to their Prime collection the same week it airs. Amazon makes no mention of doing anything like that for 24: Live Another Day so it seems this is a standard deal, meaning the series will run on Fox and then become available to Amazon Prime subscribers after. But it's theirs exclusively, so don't expect to find 24 streaming on Netflix, at least for the time being.
For those who haven't seen the original series, 24 stars Kiefer Sutherland (The Lost Boys) as Jack Bauer, an agent a government agent who's constantly racing against the clock, trying to thwart terrorism, assassinations and other plots. The series formatted each season to play out in real time over the course of a 24-hour period. So each episode featured one hour of the season's featured and was split between Jack's efforts to manage the crisis, his agency, CTU's involvement, the government's side of the story -- often related to the President of the United States.
That brings us to the cast, which included Mary Lynn Rajskub (Road Trip), who played Jack's right-hand woman Chloe O'Brien. And Dennis Haysbert (Allstate commercials) played the President of the United States. Created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran, 24 premiered in 2001 and aired through 2010 when it wrapped up, leaving fans hanging on the fate of Jack Bauer. There was talk of a movie, but then the series found its way back to Fox for a followup "event series" that's set to air May 5 and will see Jack Bauer once again, back in action and targeted.
I wish the series had been made available on Prime sooner than a month before 24: Live Another Day, but let's not complain over the short notice. A month is technically long enough to plow through the series, with some dedication. Though I expect the new series to stand on its own -- at least somewhat -- as most of the seasons typically did, catching us up on the need-to-know character issues but focusing on a new day with a relatively new set of problems. Still, I also expect Live Another Day to be more enjoyable to long-time fans of the drama, so if you're not caught up, now's your chance! Catch Season 1 of 24 here!
