The Subversive Message of 24
I have addressed the messages (though, they are likely not intentional) in television cop dramas before. See the following:
Now, Matthew Hisrich addresses the subversive message in the TV show 24. A snippet:
In foreign policy, the problem is arguably worse than in domestic policy, because the government deals with political systems its supposed experts cannot understand, cultures that are unfamiliar, and unleashes forces and responses that it never expected. The result is always some “crisis,” which means nothing more than a dangerous development that had not been part of the plan.
“24’s” preoccupation with this theme seems indicative of an underlying message for viewers. Season after season, we are confronted with the reality that meddling in the affairs of other countries brings deadly consequences home to American soil.
This perspective has raised the claim that “24” is subtly blaming the victim with the claim that somehow America is responsible for the terrorism unleashed against Americans. Writing in the Jewish World Review, Steven Zak puts it this way: 24 is merely “a dramatic expression of the idea that America is responsible for the attacks this country experienced or may yet suffer.”
May 28th, 2004 at 2:25 pm
To say the plotlines are the specific result of American foreign interventionist policies is ludicrous.
If this guy had actually watched the show for three seasons instead of maybe reading the synopses (or having someone tell him what happened), he’d know that:
a) In Season 1, Victor Drazen (former heavyweight bad guy in Kosovo) lost part of his family in the US covert attack. His subsequent assassination attempt on Senator Palmer and kidnapping of Bauer’s family was simply out of revenge for their deaths – it had nothing to do with US foreign policy. It was a human conflict, not political.
b) In Season 2, American officials conspired with Islamic terrorists to detonate a nuclear bomb on American soil, to force the President to act unilaterally in attacking the Middle East – all this to control oil prices. Purely business and power grab.
c) In the just completed Season 3, one of the operatives in the 1st Season Cosovo mission was left behind by Bauer and his team, and sought revenge against the US that he saw “betrayed” him. He lofted around big terms like “American Imperialism” and “expansionism”, but it was clear Saunders was blinded by hatred and vengeance. Again, personal not political.
You can’t write a critique from press clippings, people….
May 28th, 2004 at 2:38 pm
I’ll have to take your word for it because I don’t watch the show. The Mrs. watched the first season though and I caught some of it.
May 30th, 2004 at 10:16 am
It is the political that creates the personal.
June 17th, 2004 at 1:02 am
[…] Where have you gone, Sheriff Taylor?. Aside from the comparison to Bush, it is quite odd compared to cop shows today. Obviously, Andy Griffith was a sitcom. […]