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24 is one of those shows that tends to polarize people. Right now, it's popular. Critics and pop culture alike are singing its praises. It's got that 'buzz' that seems to make it pop up everywhere. If people like it, they really like it. And if they don't... well, lets just say there is no scorn like a fan who doesn't like (or doesn't get) the current 'must watch'. I understand that. I tend to stay away from shows that people promote as "the best thing ever", mostly because I hate being told what to do. I do tend to be the person who cuts off her nose to spite her face, that way. I don't, generally, feel the need to justify my dislike of a show, however. To people who write for a living, though, 24 is great fodder even if you hate it. Perhaps even more so if you hate it.
Perhaps it's just the fact that the show is so very different than anything else out there. My favorite description of it came from this article (archive copy) by John Kass. He called it a "soap opera for paranoids" and that's a fair description. Perhaps a better one, though, comes from a very uncomplimentary editorial (archive copy) in which it was said: This show is not one of those cookie-cutter cop/forensics shows. This show is like doing nine lines of cocaine and washing it down with a dozen Red Bulls. This show is like nothing else on television. This show makes no sense. Because, you know, everything else on television does make sense. Still, it's not a wrong description, even if it is melodramatic. The show is, after all, melodramatic and tends to make people want to respond in kind.
I absolutely love the show.
I admit, I like the show because it does go at 1000 MPH all the time. Everything is urgent and everything has to be done right now. I've always felt that the best way to find out about people is to see them under pressure. This goes double for fictional characters. More than that, I love the moral and ethical dilemmas that present themselves and need to be solved immediately. I love the fact that, once those decisions are made people have to live with them, they have to move on and make more decisions without all the endless angsty debate of "OMG did I do the right thing?" If you didn't do the right thing you have to fix it or, sooner than later, you pay a heavy price.
I love the Jack Bauer character because he embodies that conflict being a good and noble man faced with evil situations. He is the noble warrior, an archetype that I adore. He provides a springboard off of which a thousand philosophical discussions can take place. The show provides a springboard off of which a thousand philosophical discussions can take place. Which is probably why it pops up so much in such discussions. There is a whole post sometime, about why I love characters that have dark edges to them, why I'm drawn to people who choose to be good even when they have the capacity to be evil.
The other thing I like about the show is that it acknowledges that the world is full of shades of grey but it demands that a choice still be made, even if there is no good choice. It doesn't make the good guys all good and it gives the bad guys good points. It says that there is right and wrong and acknowledges the world is such that "right" isn't always an option. It makes the hard choices and makes people live (or die) by those choices.
The show penalizes selfish actions. Even selfish actions that are totally understandable. Last season, Tony, one of the main characters, in order to save his wife from being maimed and killed, helped the bad guy escape. He was arrested and sent to jail. He saved his wife and the bad guy got caught, but he still paid the price for choosing the selfish action.
The show allows for redemption. There are characters that are introduced and you despise them. They are selfish and obstructionist and you sit there and think "the show would be better if this guy was dead." Then the show takes those unredeemable characters and makes you love them. It makes you think "this show is so great because this guy is around." (Then they kill them. Two of the best scenes ever on this show were all about those redeemed characters.) One of the main themes this season is Tony's return. He was pardoned for his actions last season, but he still has to earn his way back. He is working on his redemption.
The show allows for random effects. In the first season Jack fights all 24 hours to save his wife and daughter. He's faced with the choice of harming innocents or letting his family die. He has to work against his own people. He's put in impossible situations and has to come up with creative ways to work around the problem without sacrificing (too many) of his principles. In the end, his wife dies. Not from any of his actions, not even because of anything she does. She died just because she's in the wrong place at the wrong time. There was nothing anyone could have done to have stopped it, really. It's one of those random acts of evil that can happen. But that's life, too. Sometimes dead is what you get even when you chose to do all the right things.
The show has consequences. The people who make the hard choices, the people who are affected by the moral dilemmas -- they all react to those choices and dilemmas. There is a 'wearing on their souls', if you will. Mind you, it's done on the fly without the long and (for me) totally pointless dirge that usually accompanies Introspection and Suffering Over Hard Decisions(tm). The people on the show live and deal with the consequences.
The show never slows down. Sure, it takes a breath every once in a while, breathing is necessary. But there's never a 'Yay! We're done now moment' -- not even at the end of the season. You start at a run and you leave at a run. If you can't think on the fly, you're dead. And sometimes you're dead even if you can think on the fly.
The show kills off characters. Good characters. Likable characters. Important characters. Characters that you think you can't live without. And it does it quickly and ruthlessly. And it really makes you sorry to see them go -- even if you didn't like the character to begin with. Hell, it even makes you feel bad when the 'bad guy' gets killed. And no one is safe. I know that Jack Bauer is the lead and I know that the show will probably end without him... but I still fear that the writers will think: Gosh, imagine the impact if we kill off Jack Bauer. What a hell of an emotional payoff that would be." Then, they'll kill them off. Ask any fan and they'll admit that they fear TPTB will kill off the main character. Not many shows that you can say that about.
The show doesn't explain everything. Not every little loose end gets wrapped up. Now I know some people prefer tidy packages where everything is explained and rationalized. But I'm not one of them. I don't need to see a conclusion to everything. I can believe that things have an ending even if I don't see it. But more than that, the world works that way. We run into a million things every day where we never see the end. We don't know what happened to Rick the Druggie who helped Kim in season one. Nor do we know why Jack broke up with Kate from season two. For that matter we don't know how serious they ever were because the whole relationship took place between seasons. (Which is how I prefer my ships, really, especially when they aren't central to the plot). This year, we really don't know what happened between Michelle and Tony and exactly how things got the way they did between them. And you know what? I don't care because it doesn't matter to what is happening in the plot right now. Shipping Michelle and Tony was one of last year's interesting subplots (another way I prefer my ships) and the way they are now and the tension between the two of them is also an interesting subplot, but the 'how' of how did it get from there to here: not important.
The show can be brutal, it is often violent, and it is occasionally unsettling. It treads very close to the line of unacceptable but it stops short (IMHO) of crossing that line. No one gets any pleasure from the violence -- including, oddly enough, the bad guys. Jack Bauer can be a ruthless and implacable killer, but you never get the feeling that he enjoys what he does. The reactions are all non-verbal (something I truly love) and there is never any time to obsess over those reactions (something else I truly love) but the reactions are there. The characters never treat life as if it is valueless, even if they are willing to kill. There's a whole different post that needs to be written on the flaws of the world and fighting violence with violence and the price that is paid for doing or not doing that.
But mostly I love the show because I can see shades of reality in it. It's a giant morality play on speed. It leaves me wondering where they are going next and caring about what happens. I love how the actors are allowed to carry the scenes and how so much of what people get out of the show comes from what isn't said. It pushes edges of reality and touches on the dark side of the soul, but it doesn't glorify that dark side. It allows me to think about all those philosophical questions that I adore thinking about. What more can you ask from a television show?
Perhaps it's just the fact that the show is so very different than anything else out there. My favorite description of it came from this article (archive copy) by John Kass. He called it a "soap opera for paranoids" and that's a fair description. Perhaps a better one, though, comes from a very uncomplimentary editorial (archive copy) in which it was said: This show is not one of those cookie-cutter cop/forensics shows. This show is like doing nine lines of cocaine and washing it down with a dozen Red Bulls. This show is like nothing else on television. This show makes no sense. Because, you know, everything else on television does make sense. Still, it's not a wrong description, even if it is melodramatic. The show is, after all, melodramatic and tends to make people want to respond in kind.
I absolutely love the show.
I admit, I like the show because it does go at 1000 MPH all the time. Everything is urgent and everything has to be done right now. I've always felt that the best way to find out about people is to see them under pressure. This goes double for fictional characters. More than that, I love the moral and ethical dilemmas that present themselves and need to be solved immediately. I love the fact that, once those decisions are made people have to live with them, they have to move on and make more decisions without all the endless angsty debate of "OMG did I do the right thing?" If you didn't do the right thing you have to fix it or, sooner than later, you pay a heavy price.
I love the Jack Bauer character because he embodies that conflict being a good and noble man faced with evil situations. He is the noble warrior, an archetype that I adore. He provides a springboard off of which a thousand philosophical discussions can take place. The show provides a springboard off of which a thousand philosophical discussions can take place. Which is probably why it pops up so much in such discussions. There is a whole post sometime, about why I love characters that have dark edges to them, why I'm drawn to people who choose to be good even when they have the capacity to be evil.
The other thing I like about the show is that it acknowledges that the world is full of shades of grey but it demands that a choice still be made, even if there is no good choice. It doesn't make the good guys all good and it gives the bad guys good points. It says that there is right and wrong and acknowledges the world is such that "right" isn't always an option. It makes the hard choices and makes people live (or die) by those choices.
The show penalizes selfish actions. Even selfish actions that are totally understandable. Last season, Tony, one of the main characters, in order to save his wife from being maimed and killed, helped the bad guy escape. He was arrested and sent to jail. He saved his wife and the bad guy got caught, but he still paid the price for choosing the selfish action.
The show allows for redemption. There are characters that are introduced and you despise them. They are selfish and obstructionist and you sit there and think "the show would be better if this guy was dead." Then the show takes those unredeemable characters and makes you love them. It makes you think "this show is so great because this guy is around." (Then they kill them. Two of the best scenes ever on this show were all about those redeemed characters.) One of the main themes this season is Tony's return. He was pardoned for his actions last season, but he still has to earn his way back. He is working on his redemption.
The show allows for random effects. In the first season Jack fights all 24 hours to save his wife and daughter. He's faced with the choice of harming innocents or letting his family die. He has to work against his own people. He's put in impossible situations and has to come up with creative ways to work around the problem without sacrificing (too many) of his principles. In the end, his wife dies. Not from any of his actions, not even because of anything she does. She died just because she's in the wrong place at the wrong time. There was nothing anyone could have done to have stopped it, really. It's one of those random acts of evil that can happen. But that's life, too. Sometimes dead is what you get even when you chose to do all the right things.
The show has consequences. The people who make the hard choices, the people who are affected by the moral dilemmas -- they all react to those choices and dilemmas. There is a 'wearing on their souls', if you will. Mind you, it's done on the fly without the long and (for me) totally pointless dirge that usually accompanies Introspection and Suffering Over Hard Decisions(tm). The people on the show live and deal with the consequences.
The show never slows down. Sure, it takes a breath every once in a while, breathing is necessary. But there's never a 'Yay! We're done now moment' -- not even at the end of the season. You start at a run and you leave at a run. If you can't think on the fly, you're dead. And sometimes you're dead even if you can think on the fly.
The show kills off characters. Good characters. Likable characters. Important characters. Characters that you think you can't live without. And it does it quickly and ruthlessly. And it really makes you sorry to see them go -- even if you didn't like the character to begin with. Hell, it even makes you feel bad when the 'bad guy' gets killed. And no one is safe. I know that Jack Bauer is the lead and I know that the show will probably end without him... but I still fear that the writers will think: Gosh, imagine the impact if we kill off Jack Bauer. What a hell of an emotional payoff that would be." Then, they'll kill them off. Ask any fan and they'll admit that they fear TPTB will kill off the main character. Not many shows that you can say that about.
The show doesn't explain everything. Not every little loose end gets wrapped up. Now I know some people prefer tidy packages where everything is explained and rationalized. But I'm not one of them. I don't need to see a conclusion to everything. I can believe that things have an ending even if I don't see it. But more than that, the world works that way. We run into a million things every day where we never see the end. We don't know what happened to Rick the Druggie who helped Kim in season one. Nor do we know why Jack broke up with Kate from season two. For that matter we don't know how serious they ever were because the whole relationship took place between seasons. (Which is how I prefer my ships, really, especially when they aren't central to the plot). This year, we really don't know what happened between Michelle and Tony and exactly how things got the way they did between them. And you know what? I don't care because it doesn't matter to what is happening in the plot right now. Shipping Michelle and Tony was one of last year's interesting subplots (another way I prefer my ships) and the way they are now and the tension between the two of them is also an interesting subplot, but the 'how' of how did it get from there to here: not important.
The show can be brutal, it is often violent, and it is occasionally unsettling. It treads very close to the line of unacceptable but it stops short (IMHO) of crossing that line. No one gets any pleasure from the violence -- including, oddly enough, the bad guys. Jack Bauer can be a ruthless and implacable killer, but you never get the feeling that he enjoys what he does. The reactions are all non-verbal (something I truly love) and there is never any time to obsess over those reactions (something else I truly love) but the reactions are there. The characters never treat life as if it is valueless, even if they are willing to kill. There's a whole different post that needs to be written on the flaws of the world and fighting violence with violence and the price that is paid for doing or not doing that.
But mostly I love the show because I can see shades of reality in it. It's a giant morality play on speed. It leaves me wondering where they are going next and caring about what happens. I love how the actors are allowed to carry the scenes and how so much of what people get out of the show comes from what isn't said. It pushes edges of reality and touches on the dark side of the soul, but it doesn't glorify that dark side. It allows me to think about all those philosophical questions that I adore thinking about. What more can you ask from a television show?
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Date: 2005-03-18 10:44 pm (UTC)From: