While some seasons are very good, while others are just mediocre (1,2,3,&5 being examples of the former, 4&6 being examples of the latter), 24 is actually a pretty good show. I find it interesting that many people think it favors conservatives. While it's unrealistic in its depiction of torture, and pretty quick to resort to it in recent seasons (in exactly the kinds of situations where it is least likely to be effective), conservative characters are usually portrayed as power-hungry, war-mongering, paranoid nuts - unless they see the error of their ways on some issue or another.

This is not to say progressive, liberal, or libertarian views are favored - I'd say if "24" has a view it consistently conveys about political positions, it's that most of them have situations where they break down and don't lead to good results, and that everybody could stand to learn about other philosophies, the better to resolve difficult situations.

I had made the decision to abandon 24 which I had followed obsessively for its entire run, after Scalia based his torture policy on what Jack Bauer would do and that it helped him save the world several times (seriously, he said it).  This may persuade me to give it another shot.  I've never been pleased with the Limbaugh worship of the show's creators, but they've never really allowed their politics to color the show.  For instance the ideal of the president in the 24 world was David Palmer, an obvious though unstated Democrat, and the evil president, who orders terror on his own population for political reasons, is a Nixonian Republican.