March 29, 2007: Media Response #8

Lately by favorite TV show has been the show "24". It's on on Monday nights and each season depicts a day in the life of Jack Bauer, a federal agent at the fictitious agency of CTU (counter terrorism unit). There is a lot of excitement in this show and immense amounts of suspense. I really enjoy it for these reasons, but only lately have I started to pick up on some not-so-great elements of the show. Jack Bauer is pretty much the definition of a badass and he will do anything to get the information that he needs. What I have started to realize about this show is that is kind of sneaks bad politics on you when you're not paying attention. They do this using Jack's badass attitude and his badass disregard for authority.

I didn't actually notice how political this show was until my dad pointed it out to me. There are situations in the show every few weeks where Jack needs to get information from somebody and inevitably he will "need to" torture them. Now usually Jack is able to do this without any intervention and as a viewer, you like that, because Jack needs this information an you don't care what he has to do to do get it... national security is at stake! He has to catch the terrorists this minute because a bomb is going to go off in 20 minutes! Conveniently, the show also ends in 15 so you won't find out if he is successful until next week.

But although Jack is usually able to do whatever he wants, sometimes pesky little government authorities try to step in and prevent him from doing what "needs" to be done. How can these people do this!?? What do they MEAN that torturing people is wrong? How can the complain about searching without a warrant? What are they talking about it isn't okay to take someone into custody without a warrant? Why can't Jack put a plastic bag over their head and torture them with a switchblade until they tell him everything they know? Even if you're a pacifist like me you are going to find yourself on the edge of the seat screaming about how stupid the government is. If they would just let Jack torture the guy and get the information then everything would be fine! Our country would be saved! 24 tricks you into thinking that torture is necessary and good by making it seem like that is the absolute only way that they are going to prevent those middle eastern terrorists from blowing us all up.