In the hugely popular television series 24, federal agent Jack Bauer always gets his man, even if he has to play a little rough. Suffocating, electrocuting or drugging a suspect are all in a day’s work. As Bauer – played by the Emmy Award winner Kiefer Sutherland – tells one baddie: ” You are going to tell me what I want to know – it’s just a matter of how much you want it to hurt.”
But while 24 draws millions of viewers, it appears some people are becoming a little squeamish.  The US military has appealed to the producers of 24 to tone down the torture scenes because of the impact they are having both on troops in the field and America’s reputation abroad. Forget about Abu Ghraib, forget about Guantanamo Bay, forget even that the White House has authorised interrogation techniques that some classify as torture, that damned Jack Bauer is giving us a bad name.
The United States Military Academy at West Point yesterday confirmed that Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan recently travelled to California to meet producers of the show, broadcast on the Fox channel. He told them that promoting illegal behaviour in the series – apparently hugely popular among the US military – was having a damaging effect on young troops.
Speaking of Jack Bauer and torture, I found this new website:
And one final 24 note, WifeGeeding and I finished watching season 2 over the weekend. Season 3 will probably be watch on our 20-something-hour-flight to Vietnam. I have only one big gripe about the DVD’s, especially for those who are watching it for the first time. Before you play an episode, you see an image from that episode you are about to watch on the DVD menu – you can’t avoid this image.  It’s not that I don’t think there needs to be an image, but the image they usually use gives away the big plot.
For instance, one episode ends with the president and vice-president fighting over who should be commander in chief – that’s the cliff hanger. In the next episode, the image you see on the DVD menu is the vice-president taking the oath of office. Urghh.