The reviews are uniformly positive, and they agree on why: the real-time structure. Most critics treat the hour-an-episode conceit as the show’s engine rather than a gimmick, praising the intricate plotting, the split-screen technique that keeps the twists easy to follow, and a tension that holds across the whole day. Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer is the other constant; nearly every review singles him out, and the refusal to let viewers trust anyone is named again and again as the series’ defining pleasure.
The spread is narrow and the reservations are small. The Guardian notes some loose ends and a streak of sentimentality. The later retrospectives are cooler than the notices written at launch: the AV Club argues the show’s hold on the culture has faded along with the War on Terror years that gave it its charge, and Den of Geek, ranking the seasons, is the least enthused of the seven. None of this amounts to a dissent, only a sense that the shock has aged.