So how is it that while the show's concept is each season is a 24 hour period in Bauer's life that the show has progressed several years in its run? Do they skip entire years or presidential terms between seasons?
They don't count weekends and holidays, so he's really halfway into a second work week. Gonna be a long 30 years for poor Jack.
***Last Season Final Episode Spoiler in This Post***
The last scene in the final episode from last year was Bauer being kidnapped by the Chicoms and taken away. This season opened with it being two years later and Bauer being negotiated back to the US as trade goods to appease the Terrorists.
Yes. For example, Jack spent 2 years in a Chinese prison. 24 has never picked up from the previous season (day)
That's exactly right. The show is about a series of huge crisis days. This season occurs 20 months after last season. Things happen, new presidents arrive, we just find out about the happenings in the interregnum incidentally.
Yes, they are not sequential 24 hour days. Months or years pass between the timing of each season.