I am nine years late to the Jack Bauer party. I only saw my first complete episode of Fox's 24 six and a half weeks ago, but in that time I have devoured all eight seasons of the show. Maybe that's why this summer has been going so fast for me (?) ....Jack Bauer is a man I never minded watching; in fact, I kind of admired him, both as a believably-written character and as an ideal, and the fact that he worked as both made him so compelling to me. Now, to go any deeper into what I thought made the show great would only muddy the waters, as I've always had trouble writing about television, so I'd like to spend my one post on 24 addressing one issue, and that is whether or not the show is right-wing pro-Bush propaganda, a defense of Abu Ghraib torture-tactics and ends-justify-the-means implementations of systematic violence.
Well, no, mostly because national defense in 24 in no way resembles the real thing. But there's more to it than that.
The simplest answer is that 24 is not presenting real-world politics but narrative politics, and narrative politics are always on the neo-conservative side, which means, in film, that the hero has absolute moral authority, and-- in film-- this is something great to possess. In real life, it's not so great. Dick Cheney thought he had absolute moral authority, and he shot his buddy in the face. George Bush thought he had absolute moral authority. So did Osama. But it's ok for Jack Bauer to possess said-authority, because he's the good-guy. Whatever mistakes he makes are the necessary flaws in his character, and, again, in film, we like flaws. In life, again, not so much.
(24 is, perhaps notably, one of Dick Cheney's self-professed favorite tv shows, but I would like to point out that Dick Cheney is probably the kind of person who would watch The Matrix (1999) and think it's real).
Liberal politics don't belong in film. See Syriana (2005), or rather, don't see Syriana, for a good (bad) example of liberal politics shoved into a script and making the plot incomprehensible. A story needs good-guys and bad-guys, as do neo-conservative mindsets/agendas, while liberals tend to steer blame in all directions (except toward Al Gore). That's one of the many crucial differences.
So back to 24, and Jack Bauer. There has got to be a remarkable reconciliation going on between the "politics" of the show and the viewers when audience-members who are patently against the use of coercive interrogation (read: "torture") still cheer Jack on, and I don't think I'm smart enough to figure out just what that is exactly. All I know is that to root for Jack is not to root for the GOP, not necessarily.
Maybe I haven't illuminated this issue clearly, (I wanted to talk about Jack's being put on trial in season 7, a pivotal political and moral moment in the show, but I can't fashion the right words to suit the subject right now) but, like I said, writing about television has never been one of my strong suits. What I mean to say about Jack, however, is that, not once in all eight seasons of the show did I hate or mistrust him, and the journey he took me on was a remarkable and valuable one. Yes, a movie is in the works. You can bet I'll be the first in line.
--Serge
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