We all have our guilty pleasures when it comes to popular culture, things we love without really knowing why. Things we enjoy even though we know they're lowbrow or sometimes even low quality.

When it comes to television, there aren't many current shows I enjoy. In fact, there's only one show I have watched live -- as opposed to buying the DVDs -- in the last three or four years.

I'm a fan of<a title="24" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_%28season_8%29" target="_self"> "24."</a>

[caption id="attachment_700" align="alignleft" width="202" caption="Jack&#39;s last roundup"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/24-Season-8-Posters-24-9140854-323-479.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-700" title="24-Season-8-Posters-24-9140854-323-479" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/24-Season-8-Posters-24-9140854-323-479-202x300.jpg" alt="" width="202" height="300" /></a>[/caption]

I didn't really start watching it live until the fourth or fifth season. Before that I caught up by buying the DVDs and sitting through hours at a time of Jack Bauer and his adventures.

The America of "24" is a much more interesting place than the real-life USA. In the first seven seasons of the show, the U.S. has had two different black presidents and one woman president. In addition, there have been nuclear weapons exploded on American soil and at least one biological weapons attack.

At the end of Season Seven, Jack Bauer was all but dead, with a longshot bone marrow transplant his only hope.

Season Seven took place in Washington, D.C., which at least got the show out of the ridiculous notion that you could get from any one point in Los Angeles to any other within 15 minutes.

In Season Eight, which I watched the first nine or 10 episodes of before missing the rest, New York is at risk.

When I stopped watching, I knew the DVD would come out eventually. I picked it up this week and started watching it tonight. I'll have seen five episodes by the time I go to bed tonight. I'll finish by the end of the week.

Then maybe I'll watch Season Seven again.

I need to nurture my inner fascist.