24 Season 4
So, I realize I am way way late to the party, but I am catching up on DVD. (And I haven’t finished yet, so avoid spoilers!)
Is it just me, or was this season full of way-over-the-top illegal ends-justify-the-means torture of American citizens who turned out to be innocent after all and then ended up with no recourse whatsoever?
In past seasons, you got the sense that Jack Bauer was ruthless and over the line on numerous occasions, but at least lip service was paid to the complexities of the situation. It seems to have been replaced by a gung-ho attitude that anything goes as long as it advances CTU’s position.
I mean, I still love the show, but now instead of worrying about goofy plot holes and characters who get forgotten, I’m worrying about the underlying political agenda of the show. Which is a weird place to be.
Oh, there’s a couple of qualms. The character of Curtis says “let’s not torture the hippie antiwar environmentalist son of the Secretary of Defense using pain; let’s torture him with sensory deprivation and sounds instead, because it’s less invasive.. He also seems to have some slight qualms about “let’s hand over the 16 year old minor who betrayed the terrorist cell to the government and turned himself in and who holds a presidential pardon (!) back to the terrorists who will certainly kill him.”
Last count, three major characters have gotten forgotten (including the 16 year old — the terrorists get him, and that’s the last we hear. See ya, kid); oddly, every innocent who was tortured conveniently disappears from the show. One of them had the audacity to demand redress (granted, in a really bad way) and gets fired for it.
Googling around, it seems that all this did in fact raise some controversy last year, which I missed since I was carefully avoiding everything about the show so I could watch it on DVD uninterrupted…
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You also missed the wonderful controversy regarding the depiction of American Moslems, to which Fox responded by airing an ad (PSA?) with Kiefer talking about how most Moslems are such great people.
On a side note, I think 24 is an interesting model for how interactive storytelling could be very succesful in an episodic format.
Yeah it is somewhat disruptive, but still one of the best shows around IMO.
Since you’re on the subject, I thought you might like this – found it on a messageboard yesterday:
Check the deleted scenes on the last CD, they actually cover most of the plotholes.
It is weird, after watching Battlestar Galactica and their deleted scenes I thought “well, you can see why they left the scenes out, they were explaining the obvious”
after watching 24/4 and the deleted scenes I thought “WTF where they thinking, apparently they needed more action in between the commercials and thought sacrificing plot continuity was the necessary way to go”
And yes, I think Fox is certainly playing it’s educational “see, some torture is good for national security” line to the audience. Disgusting, because the show itself isn’t bad.
Actually, I got through the 5th DVD and was pleased to see some chickens coming home to roost; the Amnesty lawyer came across to me anyway as honorable and righteous, not portrayed as a sap, and the “Jack crossed the line” stuff really did start to seem like it was a message conveyed by the script. The actions aren’t being demonized, but there’s some ambiguity there now that wasn’t there before.
Heh, I am probably on some watchlist anyway from having written letters for Amnesty when I was in high school. That plus this post — watch out!