"24" takes a left turn
Betsy's Page
The Wall Street Journal had a piece this weekend about how the popular Fox show has been trying to reinvent itself in response to criticism it had received for the regular plotlines involving Jack Bauer torturing suspected terrorists.
<<< As public opinion about the Iraq War turned south, the show's depiction of torture came to be seen as glorifying the practice in the wake of real-world reports of waterboarding and other interrogation techniques used on detainees.
Ratings dropped by a third over the course of last year's sixth season. Producers would later experience trouble casting roles, once some of the most desirable in television, because the actors disapproved of the show's depiction of torture. "The fear and wish-fulfillment the show represented after 9/11 ended up boomeranging against us," says the show's head writer, Howard Gordon. "We were suddenly facing a blowback from current events." >>>
Well, some longtime fans of the show might have said that the drop in ratings resulted from having several plotlines that were either tedious or too close to what they'd already done. And the show's executive producers didn't like the image that the show was receiving as being tied to the Bush administration and the war on terror. Wall Street Journal hypothesizes that the show's ratings fell along with Bush's approval ratings. Correlation was, apparently, cause So in response to all the criticism, the show's producers asked the writers to reimagine the show and come up with some sort of response to all the criticism that the show had received from liberal critics as well as members of the military who didn't like the depictions of torture to extract information.
<<< On May 31, the show's head writers went in for a meeting at the studio to present their first big idea: sending Jack to Africa. In various incarnations, Jack would begin the season digging ditches, building houses, tending to orphans, providing security for an embassy or escorting around a visiting dignitary. "One of the themes we discussed was penance, that Africa was a place Jack had gone to seek some kind of penance. Some sanctuary too, but also penance for things he's done in his life," Mr. Gordon says. >>>
Ugh! Who wants to tune in to watch Jack Bauer digging ditches? So, after some debate they decided to throw out the Jack doing penance plot and go back to the drawing board. The writers and producer retreated to their office and their liberal paraphernalia to search out a new story.
<<< Here, the technical crew keeps a billboard with hand-drawn pictures of Vice President Cheney with fangs and one Photoshopped image of President Bush eating a kitten. Mr. Gordon keeps on his desk a copy of his wife's book, co-written with prominent Hollywood environmental activist Laurie David, about the dangers of global warming. As part of a larger "green" movement within News Corp., "24" is aiming to be the first television show to go carbon neutral next season, limiting energy use and filming public service announcements.
The writers worked almost without interruption for two days, and the pressure began to show. There were shouting matches, not just about the creative substance of the show, but about how the writing process itself was working. But by Sunday afternoon, they had a new idea: Jack is Bad.
It was another significant departure for the show: In the first six seasons, Jack had an unfailing moral compass. In the next few weeks, the group wrote or "broke" scripts for the first two episodes, inventing a female character, an FBI agent, who would hunt Jack down from the dark side and drag him back to the light. >>>
But they decided that Bad Jack wasn't going to lead them back to ratings gold. So they came up with a new idea: allow Jack to defend his choices.
<<< On the evening of July 21, Ms. Walden was driving down Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles when she got a call from Mr. Gordon. She pulled to the side of the road and listened as he breathlessly explained the latest vision.
The new season would introduce a female character, someone like Jack but at an earlier point in her career. Jack's made certain choices and is willing to pay the price, but this character's soul is still in play. "We decided that Jack is Jack, and these questions [about torture] are more deftly handled through a character who hasn't been defined yet," Mr. Gordon says.
The writers decided to scrap the Counter Terrorist Unit, the government agency for which Jack worked for the first six seasons of the show. Instead Jack would go to Washington to address head-on the accusations that his tactics were out of line. He will make his case. He has nothing to apologize for.
"For five years, this was a wish fulfillment show," Mr. Gordon said. "At the beginning, when everybody's fear was more acute, people's tolerance for violence, their own rage, seemed to make Jack's tactics more acceptable. But in the wake of our own abuses in prosecuting this so-called War on Terror, we feel Jack is getting a bum rap. So instead of selling out the entire show and its history and its legacy and apologizing for it and ultimately invalidating it, we decided to defend it."
It was as if they were defending the show itself from charges that it was reckless and partisan. Ms. Walden says she accepted it immediately, and other Fox executives followed suit.
"You can take the position that it is basically reflecting what's going on in the Beltway right now," said Mr. Liguori. "I could look at it and say basically it's the show that's on trial." >>>
Bingo! They decided to go with this plot, but now they've been delayed by the writer's strike. The WSJ also tells of a couple of actors who refused to take roles because of ideological objections to plots.
<<< Two actors declined roles due to moral objections. One Muslim actor turned down a job as a terrorist. Another actor, the former "thirtysomething" star Dave Clennon, was threatening to turn down a role as the senator who would interrogate Jack at the hearings. Through a publicist, Mr. Sutherland declined to be interviewed.
In a series of emails with Mr. Gordon, which Mr. Clennon provided to the Journal, the actor and the producer debated the show's impact. "Perhaps my involvement in the show has created an elaborate system of rationalization, because I would hate to think that I've somehow been the midwife to some public acceptance of torture," Mr. Gordon writes in an email dated Sept. 26. "But I lack conviction that torture is, under any circumstances an unacceptable option. Mostly I lack conviction because I lack the knowledge."
Mr. Clennon decided to walk away. "At the end of the day, my sense of the show is that it promotes torture and I don't want to be a part of that," he says.
At least two actors who openly oppose torture have accepted parts on the show. In season seven, the liberal comedian Janeane Garofalo will play an intelligence agent. In season six, the Oscar-nominated actor James Cromwell played Mr. Sutherland's father on the show. >>>
You know, I think there are enough actors in Hollywood who would like a job that "24" can still cast their show. The WSJ doesn't seem to buy the show's producer's argument that it's just a TV show. In Hollywood, they always have to convince themselves that they are depicting some sort of higher art.
Libertas has the final word on all these tergiversations about the show.
Yeah, that’s what I want; a guy running 24 who uses the
words , “so-called, War on Terror.
How come when The West Wing’s ratings collapsed no
one “reinvented” that show’s ideology?
This show is done.
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