Meet your friendly neighbourhood Almeidaists: the psychos behind the site that brought new meaning to the concept of fan obsession, who have nothing better to do with their time and nothing more important to do with their lives than worship Tony!

Age: 29
Day Job: I'm working on that!
Location: Edmonton, AB CANADA
Favourite 24 Character other than Tony: Nina Myers, hands down
Favourite 24 Season: Season 3
Favourite Approach to 24 Analysis: Literary. Has BA in English.
Passions in Life besides 24: Poetry, blogging, web design, music, playing guitar and singing, feminism, fashion, Texas Hold'em and pop culture of all varieties.

"Back in the fall of 2001, I began to see promos for a new show set in real time called 24. I knew nothing about the premise of the show or what it was going to be about, only that each of 24 episodes would encompass one hour of an entire day. This sounded like a very intriguing concept to me, and so I made a point of watching the first episode to see what all the hype was about. From the first minute, I could tell I had stumbled upon something exceptional. The presentation style, both directionally and in terms of story format, were unlike anything I'd ever seen before. The use of split screens to tell a story from all perspectives, the reliance not on long-winded expository dialogue, but on non-verbal communication and cues by a cast of skilled actors. It was clear that this show did not underestimate the audience's intelligence, and it provided both an intense and driven plot as well as intricate character and relationships studies. I was truly blown away that the network which brought us "Who Wants to Marry a MultiMillionare" was offering something of this calibre to a viewing public that was so ready to go beyond the standard fare.

From that moment on, I never missed a single episode. Not one. Ever. I couldn't figure out what had come over me. I found myself thinking about the show constantly, analyzing its themes, trying to cultivate meaning from every character nuance, waiting with baited breath for what would happen next, feeling emotion for characters so vividly created by the actors who represent them. I hadn't felt this intellectually stimulated by anything in a very long time. But it didn't develop into a full blown obsession until I had someone to share it with, someone who understood what a powerful influence this show was going to be on series television, that the fact that a pop culture revolution of sorts was being born right before our very eyes.

I hadn't spoken to Matt for several months when I received an e-mail from him early in 2002 asking what I had been up to. I replied with all sorts of news, and mentioned how into this new show 24 I had become. I couldn't say enough good things about it. I was astounded when I received his reply, saying that he had watched the first 2 or 3 episodes, but it didn't hold his interest. I was stunned that anyone wouldn't be hooked after the first five minutes. But he went on to say that he respected my taste in entertainment implicitly, and requested that I send him a summary of everything that had happened between episodes 4 and 9, so he could get caught up. After reading my detailed summaries, he concluded that if Alan York was actually Fakeyork, he had clearly stopped watching too soon and would watch the next episode. From that moment on, the two of us would meet online every Tuesday night after we had both seen the latest episode to discuss our thoughts, analyze what had just transpired and provide theories as to where we thought things were going next.

I had always been drawn to the character of Tony Almeida. At first he seems like an outsider, a squeaky wheel who was jealous and resentful of Jack. The writers red herringed him to be the inside person Jack was looking for. But I couldn't help loving his cynical wit, he constant desire to do his own thing, his sexy soulpatch. In much the same way as my mother, as a young woman growing up in the UK, had selected George Harrison as her favourite Beatle while everyone else was all about Paul and John, I was all about Tony while everyone else was fawning over Jack.

After re-immersing himself into 24, Matt agreed that Tony was hugely under-appreciated. As the series progressed, especially after Tony began working with Nina and Jack (creating what we now refer to as the Holy Trinity), our love and respect for Almeida only grew. So why is Almeida God? Well, the way we see it is this: Tony exists as the ultimate altruistic figure in the 24 universe. While Jack is also a hero, his heroism is much more humanistic and fallable than Tony's. Jack has seen and done things in his life that border on savage, on brutal. He has a ruthlessness and a survival instinct that has the potential to turn him into a cold-blooded killer. Tony is motivated by ethics and the moral right, by a code of honour that is based on loyalty and patriotism and has nothing to do with the bureaucratic chain of command. Nina is motivated by self-interest and selfish gain, willing to compromise anything and anyone to achieve her goals. Therefore, Tony exists as the altruist, Nina exists as the hedonist and Jack exists as the human element somewhere in between, noble yet fallable. Yet somehow, even as Tony exists purely for selfless good, he conducts himself not in a wimpy, holier-than-thou, pussy way, but in a badass, smart-mouthed sassy way.

I guess to boil it all down, we just love Tony and do not feel that his importance in the development of the major themes of the show - revenge, loyalty, loss, compromise, the pursuit of ethics, what it means to be a patriot and a human being - can be overstated.

Tony has come a long way since we first met him in Season 1. He's been through hell and back, his experiences as a CTU Agent testing every limit of his humanity, his capacity to love, his altruism, his will to live. But he always, always, ALWAYS prevails. This is why, as our website says, Almeida Is God.

The idea for this site was born one day when Matt and I were fooling around online dishing about 24, as we often do, and one of us flippantly suggested we should register www.almeidaisgod.com. Then we realized, you know, we really SHOULD do that. So here we are, giving you all the only 24 fansite we know of with a spotlight on the dark horse turned white knight. We have the biggest collection of Tony Almeida images, the most unique 24 fan items and the most in-depth and weirdly academic analysis of 24 you will find online. It's a labour of love."

Age: 24 (the Holy age)
Day Job: Waiter
Location: Ottawa,ON CANADA
Favourite 24 Character other than Tony: Chappelle!
Favourite 24 Season: Season 3, no contest
Favourite Approach to 24 Analysis: Philosophical.
Passions in Life besides 24: Reading, playing poker, squandering large amounts of money, maintaining a zero-stress lifestyle, travelling anywhere, playing guitar, connecting with people, thinking about life and just generally trying to look cool.
Visit Matt's Blog

"It is true. I was less than thrilled with 24 at first glance. I enjoyed the first few episodes but they didn't hook me in.

I thought the Mandy plotline was hokey. The gorgeous female superspy in the tight outfit, skydiving from an exploding plane, while her lesbian lover rides her motorcycle through the desert... it was all very 'Nikita.' Too sensational, too unreal. Kim Bauer being kidnapped and her mother driving around with boring old Alan York in search for them seemed to serve only as a less important story thread for the Jack character to have to deal with. The CTU plotline was great, but pointing the finger at Nina so early? An obvious red herring. So let's see, Jack puts the pieces together for the next 20 shows, unmasks the real mole, Jamey (who I suspected immediately), and in the Final Hour, rescues the Senator from Mandy and her crew just in the nick of time. And oh yeah, saves his wife and daughter from certain peril somewhere along the way. The big blonde american hero triumphs again.

I didn't so much denounce 24 as just let it slip my mind.

And all I can say is Thank Almeida for Kasia Gawlak.

She got me hooked back on the series at around 9am, and I began to see the error of my ways. Mandy was gone, Jamey was already dead, and Alan York was a cold blooded killer! Meanwhile, Senator Palmer had already been targeted once, and the main suspect for the attempt was Jack Bauer himself, now a fugitive from the law. This show was obviously brilliant and I was addicted from that point on. The clincher was the finale of season 1: Jack losing Teri defied all norms of the drama/action ideal of the super-agent who can pull it all off. Here is a man that had to balance his work (protecting Palmer) with his family (protecting his wife and daughter), and in the end he could only do one. And the fact that he lost his wife to the one person he trusted most, Nina, made it all the more fitting. Now, after 4 years, I can still honestly say that 24 is the smartest and most riveting show to ever grace the small screen.

Well that's all fine and good, some of you may say. But what's with Almeida being God? Huh?

To those of you that would ask such a question, I would respond with a question of my own: Are you out of your freaking minds? Just watch him! Look, just watch. See that firm expression, that no-nonsense glare that makes you want to go out and do something good with your life? See that unwaivering moral code, that defiant attitude in the face of corrupt authority? See that stylish wardrobe, badass shades, pointed soulpatch and trusty Cubs mug? You see? You see him standing there, gun drawn, protecting his wife and backing up his best friend in times of crisis? I ask you, my friends, how is this man NOT a God?

Simply put, Tony Almeida is fuckin' awesome. On a show that kills off all of its best supporting characters, Tony keeps coming back and getting better and better every year. I must say here, while I practically drooled over the amazingness of season 3, I was hugely disappointed by season 4. I thought the writing was horrendous and the character arcs were nebulous at best. But Tony... Tony was pure gold! The divorced alcoholic reject forced to face whether he wants his old life back... ingenius! While I have lost a bit of faith in the writers, my faith in Almeida and the superb acting abilities of Carlos Bernard has only strengthened. I know I will be glued to the screen as long as he and Kiefer and Reiko continue to steer the scenes.

No matter what happens in season 5, I know that Tony will always, always prevail, by being strong and doing the right thing. And with any luck, he'll do it in that gruff and smartalecky manner we've grown accustomed to over the years. May Almeida protect you all!"

Age: 29
Day Job: Full-time Mom
Location: Davenport, IA USA (for now)
Favourite 24 Character other than Tony: A tie between David Palmer and Jack Bauer
Favourite 24 Season: Season 3
Favourite Approach to 24 Analysis: Religious symbolism. Has BA in Drama with Minor in Religious Studies
Passions in Life besides 24: theatre, natural parenting, homebirth and midwifery, cooking, my hair, compliment orgies and the five senses
Visit Kat's MSN Space

"I didn't know it at the time, but seeing the ads for a revolutionary new show back in the fall of 2001 was the beginning of a passion, an addiction, a hobby and a fandom hitherto unexperienced. Through the haze of the sleep-deprived, undernourished, over-used and newly isolated new-mommyhood of villain twins, (see glossary of terms), tantalizing bolts of energy would shoot from the TV screen. Terms like "real time", "Keifer Sutherland" and "24" would beckon my attention. They would slip out into conversation every day. My husband and I would casually mention, "we gotta catch that premiere". We could sense something important coming.

The premiere didn't disappoint. It was a closed deal the moment the first minutes scorched our senses. Keifer's velvety voice, the flicking "24" insignia, the heartbeat/beep-boops, the riveting characters, and the impossibly heart-stopping action and suspense made us immediate addicts. Through the progression of weeks, we found ourselves gearing up for 24, settling down in my post-partum daze for the spot of energy in our week, simultaneoulsy saying "OOooh!" at the end of every too-short hour, and anticipating the next week with unrelenting excitement. It was the one time of week I'd be AWAKE. If one of the boys would wake up from his sleep, I'd HAVE to wait for a commercial break to go to him. Ouch. That's real addiction. Call me pathetic. We would even panic in pulic if we realized we were out on a Tuesday evening, forgetting to set the VCR. Thankfully, by the will of Almeida, we never missed a single episode that entire first season. Every time we forgot to set the VCR, that Tuesday's show was miraculously cancelled.

This kind of obsession was almost a source of embarassment for me, since i knew few who shared it. I had lost contact with Kasia, my old high school friend, and had no IDEA that someone else out there shared my addiction. I was pleasantly surprised when I read a little e-mail survey chain-letter that was going around, in which my old friend Kasia had answered the question, "which star do you find the sexiest on TV?" or something like that, Carlos Bernard, or Tony Almeida. I was totally on board. But I didn't contact her then. Ironically, it was only after I had moved away from the city we shared, to a town two thousand miles away, in the land of corn and biscuits and gravy, that I contacted her. During a bout of homesickness, while I was cursing Iowa and everything in it, Kasia and I rekindled our friendship, and discovered that we were kindred Tony-philes. Eventually I was invited to join the debriefs that she and Matt had been conducting for quite some time. Now we're here. Worshipping together, communing in the brilliance of 24, creatively expressing our amazement of the show, the manifesto, the art and and the raw, honest, extreme humanity of 24.

As if to reward me for becoming part of Tony's fold, I gave birth to my third baby, dubbed "The Holy Babe", on Holy Night, during the Holy Hour. It's a particular source of pride for me, that I remembered to ask my midwife's apprentice to make sure there was a tape in the VCR and the timer on, while in heavy labour, for fear that I was missing an episode. There are no excuses for missing one.

As the resident "religious expert", (the only church-going member of our little triumverate), I've noticed many religious themes in the show that support the assertion that "Almeida is God". Especially in the third season, we've seen Tony become the pillar of good, the good shepherd, the leader, and compasionate to a fault. He forgives, he is loyal to the end, and he will sacrifice all for the sake of the purest love we have the privilege of watching on TV. He rose out of near-death, and we have faith he will rise out of the underworld of prison to defeat those who threaten to slaughter the innocents. He commands respect, demands loyalty, inspires confidence, welcomes disclosure, and loves deeply. May Almeida be with us all."