24

Any show that runs for more than 5 seasons deserves attention, and 24, which has blown through this limit some time ago certainly qualifies. Yes, it is known as a Republican show; we know Dick “Fuck You, Big Time” Cheney watched it religiously -ahem-, and we know radical radio show host Rush Limbaugh gave Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe O’Brian) a full mouth kiss at some kind of Republican tribal gathering once; Fine. We get it. Conservatives drink this shit like the Kool-Aid.But as the TIME magazine piece here suggests; 24 isn’t all about gung-ho violence, torture - just another TV conservative circle-jerk. Sure, it is a show that appeals to a certain crowd, it asserts, plays with, dances around certain set of culture codes. As the main cultural tug of war in US is between prohibition and freedom (as in letting it go), the main character in 24, Jack Bauer lets it go a lot. He does not “contain himself”, does what is necessary, et cetera, et cetera. In this way, 24 episodes feel a lot like Tom Clancy novels, you get the same sort of animosity against press (which surely has to do with their irrelevance as of late but we’ll leave that aside for the moment), and at the same time skirting along another culture code for sex, VIOLENCE - making an operator like Bauer so sexy man! All of this is for emotional, second-level fuck brains obviously (I don’t know karate, but I know ka-raze! You know what I sayin’?). So, the man (Bauer) both lets go and does violence, breaks the law .. er, to protect it? OK: What’s not to like? Or to criticise?But, 24 actually manages to say more than this idiotic Clancy McLiterature McNonsense. Let’s ask ourselves: What is another theme that occurs over and over in 24?You guessed right:Absolute, utter institutional / bureucratic collapse.Jack Bauer actually is a pretty fair representation of a fantasy operator who just does the optimal; ignores the red tape, penetrates buruecratic silos, steps on toes, crosses boundaries, kicks ass, takes names, and.. just.. does.. not stop. Mind you, in today’s modern, factory style, silo oriented bureucracies, what he manages to do is no an easy feat: By 8th season, Bauer knows so many people in all government departments that he is a government onto himself. There is an attack to CTU (his homebase)? No problem: He just calls NSA (another agency, silo) to close off some road to stop a terrorist. FBI, CIA, any three letter agency you can think of? Been there. Know them. The President? We are buddies! I’ll just call her. Say hello and ask some other thing. Or, I’ll ignore her, if she is getting in my way. As teenagers say nowadays: What-ever.I am sure everyone watching the show instinctively know in the back of their minds, that somone like Bauer cannot ever exist. Not really. Someone like him would have been jailed, killed, neutralized long ago (er - season one) for any his adventures to ever take place. No, he is a fantasy, but more than that, Jack Bauer is actually us. Us, in a first person (shooter?),. video game sense of the word. Bauer is us, the viewer. The watcher. Through Jack Bauer, we get to reach across the gap between us and the screen and meddle in the neferious plots of terrorists, world leaders, as though we are in control of this huge game. Because actions Bauer takes are absolutely the same actions an average adult person would take, if s/he were presented with the information in 24.

at

April 22, 2010