About a month ago, I decided to start watching 24 because I finished catching up in every other show that I followed (The Office, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes). Everyone kept saying that I'd love 24 since it covers everything that I find fascinating: (geo)politics, intelligence, and computer hacking. I probably would have started a long time ago, but during academia, I had no time, so I had put it off. Many years later after the initial premier, I started from the beginning, season 1.
I was amused that the first season revolved around a plot to kill the first African-American senator that was running for President. When I saw Kiefer Sutherland, aka Jack Bauer, I instantly pointed the finger at him saying, he's going to try to kill the senator! Why? Growing up, every movie that I saw Kiefer Sutherland in, he was always casted as a racist character from the South and/or KKK Klansman. (See the movie, A Time To Kill). My gut reaction was, aha! Jack Bauer is a racist, and he wants the senator dead because he's African-American! Mystery solved. Unfortunately, I let my stereotypes cloud my judgment, and season 1 didn't exactly end the way I had predicted, but oh well.
In either case, I finished season 1 quite readily, and I just finished season 2 today. Verdict is in, I'm officially hooked. I would also like to dub Season 2, the torture season. It seems like you couldn't get through an episode without someone getting electrocuted or mutilated in some manner.
Looking back, there are a few things that are kind of distracting.
- These Events Happen In Real-Time - Every episode they announce that everything happens in real-time, but I find that very hard to believe. 24 takes place in Los Angeles. I'm currently in San Jose which is 5 hour's drive away from Los Angeles, and traffic here is bad, really bad. From what I hear, LA's traffic is even worse. If 24 were a bit more honest, we'd probably see Jack Bauer and the terrorists sitting in traffic from 4:00pm-7:00pm. Jack Bauer would spend half the episode cursing about the traffic, and bad guys would never accomplish their goals because they're stuck in traffic as well.
- People Can Die When Jack Tells Them To - There's been a number of instances where key characters are on the verge of death; however, they always manage to hang on long enough to give Jack Bauer some key intelligence, then die seconds later. If 24 were more honest, the characters would either be dead long before Jack got to them.... or Jack's been secretly killing off these characters once he's got everything he needs from them, and they're no longer useful to him. I'm guessing the show just isn't showing us those scenes.
An unfortunate side-effect of watching 24 is that it's rekindling my interest in working in intelligence. That dream got sidetracked a couple years back (long story), but perhaps I'll get another stab at it later. I've been advised not to go for that career until later in life.
Anyway, I'll be starting season 3 tomorrow. Lets see which American hating ethnic group will be after America this time!
