Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to remember ’24,’ the television program which showed us that torture is sometimes necessary, that evil is rarely absolute, and that government agencies are infiltrated with alarming regularity.

To see the program now, it’s hard to imagine that the whole thing started with a gimmick. The initial marketing campaign for ‘24’ focused mainly on one thing: The show would occur in real time. An hour long episode would actually cover one hour of the characters’ lives. Given the subject matter, the possibilities were endless: Terrorist deadlines and ultimatums, government agents rushing to get somewhere in time, interrogations that have to succeed before it’s too late…