I'm Not the Only One

Seems like I wasn't the only one who had a negative reaction to Jack Bauer's speech on Sunday night. Here's some info:

http://ca.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idCATRE50C6YW20090113

In this article, you'll see:

"'If you take a look at the debate over physical torture in our country, I thought it was fantastic of Howard to embrace that and bring it into the show,' Sutherland said.

But he and Gordon said the depictions of torture in the fast-paced show were not intended to condone the practice in the real world.

'It is a television show. The results (Bauer) gets help to move the plot forward. It has always been a dramatic device to show the urgency of the situation,' Sutherland said.

But in the new season, Bauer 'certainly raises the moral question of what is right or wrong,' he added."

Hum, I don't know if I can watch it long enough to hear him raise his moral questions. I also find it interesting that he downplays the impact a television show can have on public discourse. It's a convenient cop out: oh, it's only a TV show.

Somewhere in the article one of the men mentions that Jack is getting older and is confronting issues in a different way. I guess we have to wait til he's McCall's age to figure it out. After all, the EQ makes pretty clear that McCall was a Jack in his earlier days. I'm just glad we see him in his later days!

For another highly interesting article on this issue, see

http://www.canada.com/topics/entertainment/television/story.html?id=1159233

In this article, called "Jack Bauer, meet Obama: With a new 24 season, and a new real-life president, will the super-agent retire his torturous ways?" Sherri Levine makes the point that 24 was always in lockstep with the Bush administrations counter terrorism politics, writing that "... the show has been in keeping with the Bush administration's belief system almost since the show's inception." Referring to Robert Thompson, pop culture "expert" from Syracuse University, Levin writes:

"But the parallels between 24 and the Bush administration go beyond a shared endorsement of torture. As Thompson explains, the show's themes have consistently paralleled 'the operational procedure of the Bush administration' -- that you just do what needs to be done, even if it's contrary to established systems, traditions and laws.

'It's this single-minded idea that we've got to fight these terrorists by any means necessary,' Thompson says. 'It's a show that has been consistent with the attitudes, the rhetoric and the actions of many people in the Bush administration.'''

Too bad we can't Google reaction to some of the Equalizer episodes (yes, I know there are some articles about the show online, but they don't address these kinds of issues). More to come....