This was my first time ever watching a single minute of "24," so I had no way of comparing it to earlier seasons and considering I had missed the first two seasons I also wasn't sure just how much storyline I had missed out on.

Granted being in this business I had heard the more important details, primarily concerning Jack Bauer's wife and a small amount about the goings on in season two, but just after the first few episodes I quickly realized that the writers of this show aren't satisfied unless every single character has a major side story, which definitely works into the show's favor in some areas but there are others where it drastically fails.

The third season of "24" introduces Jack Bauer and his band of merry CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit) peers to the threat of bio-terrorism and a new strain of a virus that begins to eat away at its carrier following 14 hours after first contact. There is no anecdote and once the symptoms begin to show you only have a few hours until you will be saying your final goodbyes.

Over the past six months Jack has been working undercover, trying to capture a ruthless terrorist and drug lord, Ramon Salazar, and now with Ramon behind bars and his cover blown the threat of bio-terrorism reaches an ultimate high as Salazar's brother threatens the release of the virus if his brother is not released within six hours. As time wears thin Jack begins to realize that the only true way to save the US is to meet the terrorist’s demands, even if it means breaking Salazar out of prison himself.

There is the story, I have left a large number of holes and only given you an idea of the first few episodes, but it is enough to get you intrigued. Unfortunately the writers of "24" aren't exactly satisfied with one intense story, they desire a ton of soap opera hijinx as well as a compelling thriller, including more interoffice controversy than the BBC's "The Office."

The worst of which is the side story following the President of the United States, David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) who is just beginning his re-election campaign and ends up finding himself in the most useless storyline I have ever had the opportunity of fast-forwarding over. Haysbert has the presidential voice but the way his character has been written along with his whining chief-of-staff brother is absolutely maddening. It gets so bad that if I didn't have the capability of fast-forwarding over every scene Haysbert occupied I may not have made it through this whole season.

Luckily enough the speed button is there and the rest of season three is very captivating, and fans of the show are no doubt going to be anxiously awaiting the release of this season set on DVD.

Along with all 24 episodes, including the original extended version of the season premiere you get a substantial amount of extras including cast and crew commentaries on selected episodes, 45 deleted scenes with optional commentary by Jon Cassar (a little overkill if you ask me) and a seventh disc primarily dedicated to special featurettes.

This seventh disc actually has some great featurettes that go behind the making of this third season. This is where you will find all those deleted scenes, a couple of looks at season four and three featurettes covering the making-of the third season, the toys used to put the flare into the production and a look at how they developed a brand new virus and are all quite good. They give a great look at the creative process and the ups and downs of filming some intense action scenes involving helicopters and F-18s.

While the side stories in "24" really distract the audience from the primary objective of the show, it turns out to be a satisfying watch but not necessarily something I would be chomping at the bit to watch again.

However, the eight minute uncensored season four promo on disc seven has a lot to offer as it takes us one year and three months into the future from the end of the third season and shows you what leads up to the fourth day of "24," which is set to air on FOX January 9th. It looks like the next season has a lot to offer and I may have to change my policy on waiting for television shows to hit DVD.