Yesterday, I did something that me and a good friend of mine had been planning for a long time: we watched the first season of 24 in real time. For those not familiar with the series, it takes place in real time (1 episode = 1 hour in the series), and each season follows a 24-hour period in the lives of its main characters. It was quite the epic experience to watch it like this.
I had decided not to a blog about this, but I changed my mind when an opportunity presented itself: a little over halfway through our marathon, we decided to watch one episode from start to finish without breaks (usually we would pause whenever the clock skips ahead in order to have a few short breaks during each episode and to keep in sync with the show's timeline) so that we could have a half-hour nap break. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that I couldn't catch sleep when knowing that I'd be waking up again in less than half an hour. So, as my friend took his power nap, I decided to write some of my thoughts down. The text below was written by me in my tired state.
Top 10 Reasons Why Our 24 Marathon Was Awesome
It's 13:45 as I'm writing this. I've been up for nearly 28 hours, and will be up for 10 more. Here are, off the top of my head, 10 insights as to why this marathon was awesome despite its hardships:
10. It'll make for a proud memory
Yes, I know it's a bit lame and shallow, but I like the fact that I'll always be able to brag to my fellow film&TV enthusiasts (read: "nerds") that I've done this. I'm sure that a lot of people who watch 24 get this idea in their head at some point, but very few actually go through with it.
9. Watching a show like this for a second time is always fun
My friend and I have both seen the series before, and a series like 24 is fun to watch for a second time - remembering many of the big plot twists, it's interesting to watch knowing what will happen and how the series cleverly hints at certain reveals beforehand. Also, there are many subplots that I had forgotten over the years so I got to enjoy them all over again.
8. Ultimate snacks and lots of coffee
This one goes with any decent movie/TV marathon done in good company. Coffee has had a big role in keeping us awake during the process, as did a light-speed bike run to the local shop to get some energy drinks.
7. The breaks make it fun and humane
Oh, the breaks. Remember, every episode of 24 lasts about 40 minutes despite it beginning at the start of an hour and ending at the end of an hour - there are always those few breaks where the clock skips ahead 3-5 minutes (this was where the commercial break would take place during the original TV broadcasts). Throughout the marathon, we've used these breaks for all sorts of shenanigans - warming up food or stocking up on snacks, running around the house or doing a series of pushups to counteract the negative health effects of our screen-goggling, et cetera. A select few times, we'd plow right through an episode without breaks and then enjoy a longer break thanks to the saved time (such as this nap-break that I'm spending writing), but for most of the time we tried to stay in the absolutely same time as the ticking clock of the series. The transition between episodes is especially cool, as each one starts literally 1 second after the previous one ended, and experiencing that without an intermission adds to the experience.
6. A nice departure from reality
Doing things like this often would obviously be unhealthy. Doing things like this once in a while (who am I kidding, I've never done a TV marathon this extreme and neither have you), is a good load of fun - something totally different from our everyday lives. We get to live on this wonderful planet for multiple decades, so why not spend one 24-hour period of it doing these sorts of hijinks just for the unique experience?
Hold up, it's 13:59 and we're about to continue! I'll write the rest of this strange rambling at the next convenient break. 10 episodes to go!
5. The sheer ambition and scale of it all
It's 14:10. Events occur in real time.
This one really took some planning. For most of Thursday and all of Friday, I kept a rigid attitude of minimizing my screen time and maximizing my time outside / moving in general, as a countermeasure to the effects this marathon would have (I want to sincerely thank my health-nut mother for drilling these important values into her couch-potato son). Everything had to be planned so that my friend and I could do everything we needed to in these 24 hours during those 3-minute breaks. I'm lucky that we did all that planning, since this concept is way too ambitious for it to be done half-assed.
4. Enjoying with a fellow fan
This one is obvious, but it's fun to watch a great series with a good friend who appreciates said series just as much. The company, not to mention our constant joking as every additional hour spent awake lowered our bars for humor, is what has truly made this experience so enjoyable.
3. The tiredness and hard parts make it weirdly worthwhile
This marathon was a real test of body and soul, as well as a social experiment of sorts. It wasn't just fun and games - staying awake for this long (remember, there was a full day of being awake before we started our midnight-to-midnight marathon) and constantly keeping up with the show's rigid timeline created some real challenges. There have been headaches, stomach aches, stressful situations of hurry as well as the consistently harder and harder challenge of fighting to keep awake. But it's all been worth it, creating a weirdly epic atmosphere for the whole experience - we didn't simply sit down to watch a bunch of TV. We earned this. I don't know if this makes any sense - I'm extremely tired and writing this in a hurry as our break is about to end.
2. It's been hyped up for a long time
It's 14:30, and we're halfway through the 10th-last episode.
My friend and I first floated around the idea of watching a season of 24 in real time sometime during high school. Over the course of a few years, it became less and less of a joke each time one of us brought it up. At some point during last spring, we decided that we'd go through with it this summer. It was a hassle to figure out where and when we could do this gargantuan project without disrupting the lives of anyone else and to maximize our own viewing experience. So I've been waiting for this for a long time, and it sure was worth the wait. I may be tired out of my skull and totally off my eating rhythm at the moment, but this is all really awesome.
1. You live the experience
It's 14:43.
This was the whole point of doing the marathon - watching the story of 24 unfold in real time, keeping in sync with the characters. And let me tell you (while I don't recommend you trying this at home unless you truly understand the consequences), the series gains a whole new level of awesomeness when watched like this. Seeing the clock ticking on the screen constantly match with the clock in the room, relating to the characters when they express their fatigue due to being awake so long, going from night to day to night again as the light outside the windows roughly matches the light in the show's Los Angeles set pieces, it's all quite magnificent. You really experience the intensity of the season's events on a whole new level.
Epilogue
That's about it! The rest of the marathon went well, making for an all-in-all great experience. The last episode was especially amazing, and it ending right as the clock turned to 00:00 was quite satisfying. The second season of 24 takes place 18 months after the first, so my friend and I might be doing a sequel to this in January 2022...only time will tell.
Tune in next Thursday for my ranking of Christopher Nolan's movies!
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