If any show really truly captured the anger & need for vengeance of post 9/11 America...24 was it. While Lost represented post 9/11 America's bright side...multi-cultural people working together to survive in a hostile environment 24 was our dark side & Jack Bauer was our Avenging Angel. What started out as an interesting concept...a show that operates in real time & takes place in one day turned into an 8 season show that stayed to it's unique formula & ended with our beaten & bruised hero on the run...to a Hollywood Full feature film. Over the years Jack took on threats to Americas securities that included Russians, failed Russian states, Chinese, Islamic Terrorists, American Presidents gone rogue(Logan), Us Militia nuts, African super-soldiers (that infiltrated the white house via the Potomac!), an ex-lover(Nina) a best friend(Tony Almeda), a Lady Macbeth like first Lady(Sherry Palmer) even a mountain lion going after his daughter Kim.
Jack endured every form of mental & physical beating throw his way. He is the personification of the American Underdog(interesting we still see ourselves this way since we are still the only real true superpower) a mutt, the average looking & built everyman..but skilled in the arts of war. Pretty much a Western hero that did what he had to do against impossible odds & yet being on the side of right persevered. He also used every means necessary to do so including beating, killing, hitting women, & torturing rather brutally in some cases to get the job done. Where this may have turned off those with more Liberal views...the fact that this show gave us our first African American President in David Palmer & our first female President in Rosalind Taylor showed that the show had a good grasp of who we are, where we are headed & tied in real world problems & issues.
Jack always had a great supporting cast...but who would have thought it would be meek little Chloe who ended up being Robin to Jack's Batman? One of the shows greatest moments I thought was when Chloe had to go into the field to retrieve something & an Assassin tracks her down. Jack talks her through how to use an M-16 (standard CTU issue in the trunk) to gun down the Assassin! Jacks Joker in a cruel twist is none other then his best friend & CTU co-worker Tony Almeda. The loss of Tony's wife Michelle a fellow CTU operative threw him over the edge. While we didn't see Tony this season...my call 24 the movie takes place in Europe(if it's not covered in volcanic ash or sunk into the sea from the debt of the PIIGS)w/ Tony as the antagonist.
All in all a fantastic show that had our hero beat up & drive one US President to commit murder & suicide, another to resign, made Chloe shoot him after he put her in a sleeper hold, bit off a guys ear, took out single-handledly in full body armor a Presidents entire security detail & in revenge for the Russians killing Renee after they finally give in & sleep with each Jack goes absolutely biblical...not medieval...but Biblical & slaughters an entire heavily armed security detail for a Russian Diplomat who ends up dead with a fire poker driven through his chest(the fact that they didn't show this happen...just the aftermath made it that much more powerful)! He gets captured, beaten, blown up, & when just about to be shot...saved by the President with a Predator Drone armed with hellfire missals...then wounded with nothing but the shirt on his back, on the run again after serving & saving American interests...he pixelates out...on his way to another 24 hours...
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