When I was growing up in Jackson, there were only two television channels. It seemed like almost every minute of every show was fascinating. Now, thanks to cable TV, I have 60 or 70 channels, and it often seems like there’s nothing on.
In recent years, there has been only one show that I considered must viewing: “24.” Now, it’s over. Sort of. But not really.
The FOX action serial ended its eight-season run Monday night. The story of Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer (played with crazed magnificence by Keifer Sutherland) is expected to continue, however, in an upcoming feature film. And NBC is also reportedly going to air a CTU series next season.
Some critics have said that knowing there’s a “24” movie on the way ruined the bittersweet ending of Monday’s final episode. I disagree. It ended the way practically every season of “24” has ended: With Jack wounded, betrayed and on the run from the very people he saved.
The series had an intriguing format. Each of the 24 episodes in a season played out in real time. Each season added up to another bad day in the life of Jack and the United States. You never saw anybody take a nap or eat a meal, which might explain why they were all on edge.
Facing threats of nuclear bombs, biological weapons, murderous computer hackers and killers of every nationality, Jack always managed to save the day. But he was a tortured soul who suffered — and inflicted — a lifetime’s worth of pain in each of the days depicted on “24.” To Jack — and most of the viewers of “24,” I’m sure — the ends justified the means.
Torture was one of the most controversial aspects of “24.” Jack tortured numerous people to obtain information over the years, including his own brother during the sixth season (their father was the major villain that year). Jack was tortured many times, too.
According to a Wikipedia article on the show, “in February 2007, The New Yorker magazine reported that U.S. Army Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan (dean of the United States Military Academy at West Point), accompanied by three of the most experienced military and FBI interrogators in the country, met with the producers of ‘24’ to criticize the show for misrepresenting the effectiveness of torture as an interrogation technique, saying it encouraged soldiers to see torture as a useful and justified tactic in the War on Terror. …
“Finnegan believed the show had an adverse effect on the training of American soldiers because it advocated unethical and illegal behavior.”
If there are people whose world view was shaped by the over-the-top events of “24,” I’m not sure they should be in the U.S. military at all, let alone at West Point. But there’s no doubt that the show came along at a time when Americans were more focused than ever on the threat of terrorism. The first episode aired on Nov. 6, 2001. Interestingly, Jack didn’t battle Muslim terrorists until the show’s fourth season.
Plenty of Americans were gunning for Jack, too. On “24,” there were many people in the U.S. government — including two presidents — who decided that the world would be a safer place (safer for them, anyway) without CTU’s top trained killer around.
I think “24” was popular here and abroad because it fulfilled the fantasies of people all across the political spectrum. On the show, the United States is in danger and one man stands between the American people and annihilation. But that man can’t do his job because there are people inside and outside our government interested in using these apocalyptic events to further their ambitions.
I missed the first three seasons of “24.” I didn’t start watching until it moved to Mondays, which was one of my days off back then. The fourth season was when FOX began airing “24” on consecutive weeks.
The show went into a slide from which it never recovered after the Hollywood writers strike of 2008. It was off the air for almost two years before returning in 2009.
The show was still entertaining during those final two seasons. But repetition and frequent lapses in logic sometimes made it infuriating to watch. More than once I vowed to quit watching, but was never able to. I just couldn’t quit you, “24.”
The real reason for the demise of “24” was financial, not creative. The ratings had fallen and the costs were rising. FOX announced in March that this would be the show’s final season.
Seasons 4 to 6 are considered the show’s best. That’s in part due to emergence of the character Chloe O’Brian, CTU’s prickly computer whiz. Chloe, who was played by actress Mary Lynn Rajskub, became Jack’s No. 1 ally at CTU. She broke rules and laws to help Jack. The final show ended with Jack thanking her for having his back for so many years.
Chloe got the last word on “24.” As she watched a video feed of Jack walking into exile, Chloe told a co-worker, “Shut it down.”
The end of the “24” saga is reportedly only temporary. But Monday nights won’t be the same.
