ChrisShaul.com

What keeps you up at night?

Often people ask “What keeps you up at night?” This is often in an effort of trying to understand the person’s top concerns, especially a business owner and his key issues with the business.

But if you were to ask me, I would say a good book or a good video. Often a good page turner will keep me going until 1 or 2 am. This is not all books, but a book that has an intensely fast paced plot. I have posted several examples of this, which you can see on the right side.

But lately, it has been a new addiction: “24″! If, like me, you haven’t seen the FOX TV series 24, and you like action adventure, then follow my lead. Go to the local Blockbuster and get your hands on the videos. (or click on the link to the right) 24 is a series about Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) who is a top counter-terrorist agent. Each episode occurs in real time and one hour in the series is one hour in Jack’s life.

Written like a 1940’s serial, it always leaves you with a cliffhanger for the next episode. The great thing about getting the videos, is that you miss the commericals and can see four episodes per disc.

Now, I missed the first three seasons, and only caught on to this show in Season 4. I wanted to catch myself up and learn the backgrounds of these intense characters. So I started with Season 1, and what I didn’t realize was that I would not be able to stop watching it. Even to the point of watching in bed on my laptop with earplugs so as not to disturb my wife. Really good writing and intricate plot/subplot themes. You cannot pick up on this show midseason. I tried a few years ago and it didn’t interest me. But last year I started from the beginning of Season 4 and was hooked.

So now I am through Seasons 1 and 2 and will be starting Season 4 this weekend. I suppose that I will watch all 24 episodes in over the weekend, but I also know that it would be better to watch one disk at a time (four episodes).

So if you want to get really hooked on a fast paced adventure series, give it a go. And if you see me with dark circles under the eyes, you will know why.