Has he been briefed on Jack???

This show was great once upon a time. But enough is enough. Tony Almeida rises from the dead? Is he pissed about his deceased wife? Does anyone care? And what about the Hillary look-alike President? I guess Surnow the wingnut figured HRC would be in office. This show has already joined the long list of good ones that lingered far, far too long. I have a friend who loves it still and who will be mad when I laugh when Jack screams, "I SAID DROP THE WEAPON!!!" or whatever. But I wouldn't miss is.

Jack will be angry with my typo.

Michelle is alive… her death was a fake. She atually works for the DHARMA initiative…

That is the good news…

The bad news is that Manny Coto gave Brannon Braga a Job on 24…

And that after Coto almost salvaged the miserable ENTERPRISE in it's 4th season from all the damage the Braga managed to inflict with his soulless, boring writing.

Face it Brannon, you are a failure.

where are the 2000 word screeds about evil imperialist neocon fascism?

where are the 2000 word screeds about evil imperialist neocon fascism?

We decided not to post it.

Instead, we've decided to expand the idea into a deal for three books, a movie franchise, and a line of action figures. Percentage-of-gross and royalty streams. Let's just say, it's complicated.

You neocons make great bad guys, sort of like updated Nazis. Thanks for everything!

I expect the show to have quite a half-life among conservatives. 24's had quite a half-life by providing conservatives with fictional rationales to show liberals are wrong. It's a lot easier than using real world examples of war and torture, because that might bring the actual facts and failures of certain sainted conservatives back up from the memory hole...

Salon has consistently come out against torture.

And yet, here is Salon publishing a story that promotes "24", which in turn consistently promotes torture.

I just don't get it.

Right on cue, the holier-than-thou types have come out to denounce "24" because it "promotes torture". Okay, you've got at least half a point: my least favorite part of the show is the way it depicts torture as generally effective, contrary to what I read about how these techniques often simply do not produce results in the real world. And of course that doesn't even address its legal or ethical status.

But... whatever compromises its paranoia makes with realism, "24" has been riveting entertainment, and the bad guys, although yes - generally foreign - have included none other than a Nixon-esque president of the U.S. a few seasons back. I admire its daring in this regard, and I enjoy visiting its cynical, dark vision of humanity, even if it's a place where I don't want to live all the time.

Here's the rub: don't we all harbor fantasies about sticking it to evil people? I'd confess to Jack Bauer or anyone else that I might actually enjoy seeing Osama bin Laden tortured, or seeing high-ranking members of the Taliban treated the way they treat women. Just a week or so ago, there was a report about schoolgirls in Afghanistan who'd had acid thrown on them because of their "crime" of attending school. There's a part of me that would relish the thought of doing the very same thing to those who committed that horrible act.

To deny that people have violent fantasies (revenge, in particular) is effectively to deny a part of our humanity, regardless of ethics. It may be politically correct to make pious denunciations of TV shows, but this moral grandstanding is woefully at odds with the broad spectrum of human nature. If one function of art is to be a catharsis for sentiments that are taboo to express directly, I think "24" succeeds admirably. This is one liberal who will definitely be watching this season.

It's just entertainment.... don't take it so seriously!!!!

Of course even liberals have dark fantasies. I often imagine performing heroic feats of martial arts (which I do not practice) to protect my innocent companions from variously, gangsters with knives, crazed dogs, et cetera.

I feel one should be perfectly open about such fantasies, but one should recognize them as fantasies. They are going to happen, and I am not going base my behavior on the assumption they will.

I for one am sick of the oft-repeated claim, by militaristic types, that the heroic Jack Bauers do the things I don't want to think about so I don't have to. I know quite a few otherwise sensible people who subscribe to the fantasy of the brave few who face the darkness to keep the rest of us safe.

I know these people like to see themselves that way, but they never consulted me. They just arrogated the decision to themselves.

The problem with this outlook is it is fantasy. It is based on false premise. That's the problem with the show, not that it is fantasy, but that too many people act as if the supposed moral dilemmas faced by Jack Bauer were universal, and were actually the determining realities of our time.

They aren't. As far as I am concerned, watch the show if you want to. I haven't watched it since midway through the first season, when I saw where it was heading, and I have not missed it in the least, so maybe it is not all that compelling.

They are NOT going to happen (these fantasy scenarios) is what I clearly meant. Just forgot to put the negative in.

New Deal Democrat wrote: Okay, you've got at least half a point: my least favorite part of the show is the way it depicts torture as generally effective, contrary to what I read about how these techniques often simply do not produce results in the real world.

True, but then fictional portrayals in whatever generally diverge from reality.

In the last series, when Jack had one terr'ist in a basement and a nuclear weapon was set to go off in LA, I kept yelling at the TV for Jack to slice off the damn guy's ear. "Take it off, man! Cut it off! Then do the other one!"

Wifey looked at me in horror and astonishment, then joined in until Jack did the deed...and got the key info on where the bomb was.

Go dude!