[WARNING: Major Series Finale Spoilers]

Before the series finale of “24” began, Kiefer Sutherland (a.k.a Jack Bauer) appeared on the Fox network and thanked the show’s audience for their support of the long-running program. After eight seasons (eight days in the show’s life), “24” was cancelled earlier this year, although the show will likely be made into a movie. However, after so many great seasons and an emotionally satisfying conclusion, it should be the audience thanking both Kiefer Sutherland and his alter ego.

As the series finale began, the president of the United States, Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones), was preparing to have a historic peace agreement signed. However, the idealistic Taylor had been forced to make numerous ethical compromises in order to get the agreement signed and then discovers that Russia’s leader had planned the assassination of a Middle Eastern leader who was set to sign the agreement. Even knowing that, Taylor continued to obsessively pursue the treaty, which would likely become a major part of her presidential legacy.

Her Shakespearean fall continued throughout and in one unbelievably good finale scene, she even threatened to brutally attack another country if the leader of that nation (the widow of that country’s president, who had been killed only hours before) revealed the truth about Russia’s involvement in the assassination. This was a shocking turn of events as this once hopeful president suddenly made horrific decisions in order to achieve “peace.” (more…)

24 is now officially over.  As with so many of the previous seasons, this final one ended with Jack Bauer wounded, bereft of sleep, separated from his family, barely hanging on to see another day, but hanging on with his enemies including his own countrymen continuing in their pursuit of him.

Through all the years, the sheer genius of 24 lay in the fact that viewers returned show after show, even though they already knew its outcome.  No matter what the odds, no matter how dire the circumstances, no matter how evil the enemy, Jack Bauer was going to find a way to survive. 

What is it about this character that so captivated the American public?  It was not Jack Bauer himself but the ideals he represented.

Jack was good, and there is still something embedded deep within the American spirit that makes us long to see this good triumph over evil.  Regardless of the political correctness of the program in recent years, and regardless of the bastardizing of those who strive for truth, justice and morality in popular culture, there are still Americans out there of all political stripes that understand that in this world there is good and evil.  Every human being is nuanced, and man’s imperfection is endemic, but we still intuitively know that there are real heroes, protectors, patriots. (more…)

**If you TiVo there are Spoilers**

Who are you and what have you done with Jack Bauer? That’s what I wanted to scream at the pod person who starred on “24” last Monday. When the conservative creators of the show left and liberals took over, I was apprehensive. But by and large, the quality of the program kept up. I snorted, of course, when a bad character was threatened with torture by other bad guys. She was hauled into a medieval chamber filled with pincers, hot pokers and iron maidens. Then she was strapped down, a washcloth was draped over her mouth… and she was water boarded. Oy. Then, a week ago, Jack murdered her in cold blood, not to get information… she’d already been terrified into offering up the info… but just because he felt like it.

What?! 

But this week the writers went too far. Bauer tortures a bad guy horribly… and enjoys it. In the next room a woman can be heard screaming, “No. No. He’s a human being!” Bauer uses pliers and a blow torch. The guy screams horribly but refuses to give up. Bauer steps aside and mutters to himself, “This isn’t working.” Then, realizing that the terrorist (my word, not theirs) has probably swallowed what Bauer needs, he guts him like a fish, plunges his hand into the dying  man’s stomach and retrieves the cell phone pad or whatever the hell it was.  (more…)

This week’s two hour episode of 24 was emotionally exhausting.  Viewers spent two hours watching Jack Bauer race to save the Middle Eastern President of Kamistan, Omar Hassan, upon whose life peace in the region rested.  In spite of Jack’s efforts to keep him safe, per the direct order of the President of the United States, Hussan gave himself up to terrorists to save New York from a dirty bomb.  Jack Bauer and the CTU team raced to save him, but arrived too late, only to find President Hassan with his throat slit.  The President of the United States, who had worked with Hassan to broker a peace agreement, watched his execution broadcast to the world on the internet.

After becoming invested in the very likeable Hassan character over the course of the season, the viewer saw him meet his bloody, horrific demise.  As emotionally exhausting as that was for the viewers, that is one of the things that has kept them watching and what makes 24 so different.  From season one, which ended with Jack’s wife being killed, 24 broke the rules of television drama.  On television series the good guys don’t die.  They are rescued in the nick of time.  But on 24 no one, except Jack Bauer, is safe.  24 has kept viewers on the edge of their seats because they really didn’t know what would happen next.  On 24 anything can happen.  Well, anything except the death of Jack Bauer.

Fox’s 24 series began in 2001, the year of the 9/11 attacks.  In fact, the premier episode was delayed because of the attacks .  24 is different from the norm — at times being politically incorrect.  On 24 we saw Middle Eastern, Muslim terrorists, not just the white supremacists so many of the movies following 9/11 preferred to depict.  The heroes in the show, particularly Bauer, were even depicted engaging in “enhanced interrogation techniques.”  Sometimes the only way for Jack Bauer to save the day was through his ability to extract information using some form of torture. (more…)

The Fox Network’s venerable action-drama series 24, now in its eighth year, has always had to perform a very difficult balancing act: trying to surprise viewers who expect to be surprised, while somehow staying sufficiently connected with reality to sustain viewer interest. In addition, the showmakers have to try to remain somewhat near the extremely high standard established by seasons 2 and 3, in which they expertly blended political relevance, suspenseful drama, theater-quality action sequences, and vivid characters who continually surprise us with their choices without ever bogging down in unnecessary pretensions to psychological depth.

This latter characteristic is a key element of the show’s success. Like real human beings, the characters in 24 are motivated largely by present concerns while filtering them through their individual experiences and personalities. In conventional suspense literature and filmed dramas of our time, the central characters typically are given some traumatic events in the recent or distant past which they are trying to work through and over which they agonize as the present narrative events remind them of it.

Of course such things do happen in real life, and they are present in 24, but the use of it as a convention becomes more than a little ridiculous in today’s dramas as nearly all crime and suspense writers employ it, making it appear that no one but disturbed individuals gets involved in the good work of preventing violence toward innocents. That’s clearly not the message the creators of these narratives intend to send, and it conflicts with their desire to create plausible central characters. (more…)

One would think that after seven years on the air, audiences would know who Jack Bauer is. Yet, as the new season of “24” began last week, we saw Bauer in a different light. He was not fighting terrorism; he was spending time with his granddaughter at the zoo. And Bauer was not the only character who has changed since last season. It turns out that one of the best things about the new season of “24” is how many of the characters on the show have been reinvented.

As with many seasons before, Bauer’s day began with him trying to stay as far away from anti-terrorism work as possible. This season, he started his television day (each season captures a different day in the life of Bauer) as a family man before inevitably being called back by an informer with inside information about a terrorist plot. It took a lot of convincing for Bauer to leave his family life. Both his daughter Kim and his former coworker Chloe had to convince him to return to the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) to assist in taking on a terrorist plot. (more…)

If nothing else, Polanski’s timing couldn’t be better. If you’re a Hollywoodist — even a remorseless child-raping Hollywoodist —  looking for a boost from your fellow Hollywoodists, what better way to hold on to your Frat House bona fides than to direct a film like this? [emphasis mine]:

[A]s a filmmaker, Roman Polanski is back in a big, big way with THE GHOST WRITER. Adapted by Robert Harris (author of the excellent FATHERLAND and ENIGMA) from his own novel, the film is about a mildly successful non-fiction hack (Ewan McGregor) who lands the plum gig of shaping the memoirs of a recently ousted British Prime Minister (Pierce Brosnan) - who bears a none-too-subtle resemblance to Tony Blair. The opportunity is there for the taking because the PM’s former ghost writer washed up dead on a beach somewhere close to Martha’s Vineyard. The only downside to the assignment is the PM’s potentially unlawful participation in secretly shipping British citizens/suspected terrorists off to Guantanamo Bay for the ol’ Jack Bauer treatment.

Here are a couple descriptions of the novel upon which the film is based: (more…)

The big question is whether FOX will finally actually air a two hour show, or will they continue their habit of advertising such but then just showing one hour shows, back to back.  I know, it seems trivial, but in reality it’s more of a cliffhanger than anything left in the actual show…  WILL Jack live? mwahahahaha….

As the forces of evil gather around the world in cabals of socialism, collectivism, and despotism, all thrilling at the enthrallment of our own President, we few gather here to watch a show that, tame as it may be, feels like the last place in America where some basic common sense is allowed to save lives. Obama may want to give cover for the next attack by discrediting the methods the Bush administration used to keep us safe, but in between lame “green” ads about global whatever-they-call-it-now, Jack Bauer just keeps laying down the law. And being absolutely ridiculous the whole time.

Tonight’s drinking game: Jack Head Twitches!

Make sure to use the new live-blog software.

So, like you, I enjoy the series “24,” which follows a man trying to save the United States from its enemies, using any means possible. And within one complete day, he succeeds.

Of course, in real life this is impossible – it’s what we call fantasy.

But, not anymore. Today if such actions occurred it real life, it would simply be called criminal.

Because it has… and it was.

Earlier today President Obama said charges might be brought against those evil Bush lawyers behind the just-released memos justifying the harsh interrogation techniques used against folks who wanted to blow up our country. Or more specifically, blow up Los Angeles. (more…)

Pigman, from ProPiganda: Drawing the Line Against Jihad

[There are spoilers in this post.]

24 isn’t the first thing most people would think of when looking for a pop-culture representation of papal guidance, but if you’ve been watching 24 this season, you’ve seen a taste of what Pope John Paul II meant by “the genius of the feminine.” You’ve seen the complementarity of men and women at work.

During Monday night’s show, that Port Authority officer was not that innocent, having agreed to help a supposed electronics-smuggling ring (tempted by the extra money it would bring his family, with twins on the way). Seeing his regret once he knew the stakes–that he was aiding another terrorist attack on the United States–Jack Bauer couldn’t let him die if it was within his power to keep him alive. (more…)

The nation’s most disorganized live-blog follows below starting as 9pm West Coast style.

1.  Anyone who goes to college at 16 and graduates Summa Cum Laude is clearly not smart.

2. Even though he is 24-years-old, and that SOUNDS cool, it’s not.  Ask yourself, is Jack Bauer a callow youth?  Don’t the young hotshots always go down hard when they’re around him?

3. Having happily posed for a picture with him, Kiefer Sutherland is expecting a little LOYALTY, thank you very much. (more…)

In loving memory of Andrew’s youth, here we go…

Ok, so we’re late to the party.  What are you going to do, set up a perimeter?  This is the show I love, then love to hate, then actually hate, then come back to to see how much Kiefer’s drinking has wrinkled his face, because I also like to drink.  Every year, it seems that Jack Bauer, the most bad-ass little man since Wolverine had his chest waxed and grew 8 inches into Hugh Grant, makes choices that put those he loves just slightly ahead of national security. Everyone else who does this pays for it dearly, often with the perp walk….but not Jack…  SO FAR this season, Jack was compelled to come back from lovely Africa to face a Senate hearing about his…methods of interrogation.  CTU is no more (which is good, as it was the single most penetrable security organization in the United States), but when the FBI comes calling for Jack’s help, it isn’t long before the old gang gets back together.

First we find Tony Almeda, whom we like to call Schlumpy, for his round-shouldered sensitivity.  He’s rockin’ a goatee, still has amazing hair, and is apparently one of the bad guys…EXCEPT HE ISN’T ANYMORE!  Schlumpy is back with the angels, in the form of modern dance versions of Old Man Buchanan and The Scowl (Chloe).  The three of them are trying to save the world from super-secret evil that has infiltrated the U.S. Government, all paid for with African diamonds, which really helps in a recession.  It’s a hard job for 3 people…but now they have a 4th, and his name, is Jack Bauer.

(more…)

Jack Bauer’s return for four action packed hours on Sunday and Monday cannot come soon enough.  Even with the tease we had late last year of ‘24: Redemption,’ it’s been far too long since we’ve seen our favorite terrorist buster in action.

I know some have grown weary of the the over-the-top story lines, but I was late to the game in watching the show.  I missed the first couple of seasons so I still sit at the edge of my seat during every commercial break.  I am still able to suspend my disbelief.

The political undertones and controversies surrounding the show never enter my mind — it’s just great TV.  ‘24′ is one of the few television shows my wife and I look forward to watching together.  The clock can’t tick fast enough for Jack Bauer’s return.

Looks like Fox’s “24″ may have jumped the ideological shark.

The show, featuring Kiefer Sutherland as the terrorist-hunting Jack Bauer, returns after a long absence Sunday night (8 p.m. EST). “24″ delights right-leaners by showing an American hero battling terrorists without apology.

November’s “24: Redemption,” a Fox TV movie designed to set up the new season, threw a bone to conservative viewers by openly mocking a UN official.

This weekend, though, Jack does some serious navel gazing.

(more…)