Ranking The Best Seasons of '24'

Setting: Season Five is set 18 months after Season Four.
Duration: The season five storyline starts and ends at 7:00 a.m.

Former Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer begins the season, working as a day-to-day laborer at an oil refinery under the alias "Frank Flynn" in Mojave, California. On a monumental day in Charles Logan's presidency, an anti-terrorism treaty with Russian President Yuri Suvarov is about to be signed when events take a tragic turn.

Setting: Season four, set 18 months after season 3.
Duration: The season four storyline starts and ends at 7:00 a.m.

Jack must save the lives of his new boss Secretary of Defense James Heller and Heller's daughter Audrey Raines (with whom Jack is romantically involved) when they are kidnapped by terrorists. However, Habib Marwan uses this as a disguise to launch further attacks against America, and Jack is forced to use unorthodox methods to stop him, which results in long-term consequences for both Jack and the United States.

Setting: Season two, set 18 months after the first day.
Duration: The season two storyline begins and ends at 8:00 a.m.

Jack must succeed in stopping a nuclear bomb from detonating in Los Angeles, then assist President David Palmer in proving who is responsible for the threat. This is necessary to avoid an unfounded war between the U.S. and three Middle Eastern countries.

Setting: The day of the California presidential primary.
Duration: The season one storyline begins and ends at midnight.

Jack Bauer's protocol is to protect Senator David Palmer from an assassination plot, and rescue his own family from those responsible for the plot, who seek retribution for Jack's and Palmer's involvement with a covert American mission in the Balkans.

Setting: Season seven is set 65 days after the end of the 24 movie Redemption.
Duration: The season seven storyline begins and ends at 8:00 am.

Jack is assisted by the FBI and covert operatives when the firewall for America's federal computer infrastructure is breached by the same people responsible for a conflict in Sangala. Jack must uncover who is corrupted within President Taylor's administration, which has allowed for the Sangalans to raid the White House and capture Taylor. She is later blackmailed by a fictional private military company in an attempt to release biological weapons on U.S. soil. Jack must thwart these attacks so the conspirators will fail to cement their power at a government level.

Setting: Season nine is set four years after the events of season 8,
Duration: Although season seven's storyline adheres to the real time concept of covering the events of a 24-hour period and begins and ends at 11:00 a.m. However, there is a 12-hour time jump within the final episode.

James Heller, now president, is negotiating a treaty in London, where a hacker collective preaching freedom of information has enlisted the help of Chloe O'Brian. Jack Bauer, who has been tracking the activities of Chloe's group while living in exile, resurfaces when he hears of an imminent attempt on Heller's life.