Do you hear that? It’s the sound of a clock ticking! And if we ever needed Jack Bauer, now is the time. Tonite on FOX, you can watch ‘24: Redemption’ – a movie prequel to Season 7. Read more about it below and see the trailer video.
Ok. So I am a ‘24′ junkie. I feel like I have been wandering in the wilderness without my ‘Jack Bauer fix’ for low these 18 months or so since the writers strike.
What is it about him that’s so appealing? He’s always yelling. “Dammit, Chloe, just do it now!” or torturing people — including his own brother, who admittedly was a pretty bad guy. In fact, when a convicted terrorist was sentenced to face Jack Bauer, he appealed to have the sentence reduced to death. He’s just that good. You can read Jack Bauer’s biography by going here.
Many in my circle say they admire Jack Bauer because of one thing: he’s committed to saving the United States from attack. And he’s willing to risk everything — his life, those he loves — to succeed. Remember, ‘24′ actually debuted 2 months following September 11th. During those dark days, he seemed to many to be that uncompromising hero – though flawed – who would protect us without apology.
Apparently, I am not alone in my love for the relentless defender of America: Supreme Court Justice Scalia is a Jack fan. Even the actor, Kiefer Sutherland, who plays Jack Bauer has missed ‘24.’ And actor Jon Voight joins the cast of ‘24′ as the shadowy villian (why are they always ’shadowy’ by the way?) and has this to say recently:
“I was looking forward to working with Kiefer. He said he was happy to have me. Then we got to work together. I was very impressed to have a front row seat at how Kiefer does that Jack Bauer.”
Of course Jack Bauer is just a fictional character, darn it. But I believe there are Jack Bauer-types out there somewhere, and there are teams out there as well dedicated to making sure we stay safe. Don’t you?
You can watch Jack Bauer in a prequel called ‘24: Redemption’. Look for it on FOX tonite at 8 pm. Season 7 of ‘24′ begins January 11th – the best show evah.
‘24: I need a Hero’ Video
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Its a dangerous show as it gets people hypnotized to watch torture frankly, using the national security coat of arms as somehow providing immunity as it degrades your soul. I saw a couple of episodes and concluded its tainted entertainment and not for children. It will lower their standards of how to treat others. Bauer is a sadist in my book and so are the people that seem to get off on him torturing people. While they don’t get to graphic they always make it clear that its ok and edgy for him to violate other peoples physical and mental spaces. Thats torture and torment yet it gets a free pass on the Aemrican tv highway.
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:55 pm
‘dangerous show’
really brian??!? that characterization is a bit strong isn’t it? simply don’t watch it then. and you may be thinking to hard about it all.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:09 pm
I was reading your blog as one does as you put the effort into typing it, and yep if you are a feeling human being you viscerally know torture when you see it, or its presentation on tv. I think Americans would watch anything without conciousness of what they are doing they are so programmed. I am simply waking them up to the fact that what sells that show is “torture”. Sutherland is an intense edgy over the edge actor, very good at what he does, he did a great horror movie picking up a hitchiker that ended horrificallly, so he’s got a gift for this sort of thing and the producers know it. Why can’t our hero’s be people who make hard moral choices and end up on the side of light instead of the dark side? What happened to lake woebegone’s milder denizens? I really don’t want to watch people hurt other people outside of the usual non-twisted action drama. I like movies and some television and numerous genre’s so I am exactly the kind of viewer you want commenting in response to your blog, that way you can comapre and contrast and be rewarded for your work of typing in the paragraphs. Its a dangerous show because it lures the viewer into trusting the guy with the white hat who goes from a dedicated typical hero to one who plays on the dark side causing pain and suffering to his prisoners who are his prisoners and can’t escape his minestrations. A kid will have his moral boundries crossed and not know it as its done just smooth enough people don’t go running from their tv’s. I think a movie can limit access by age and destination to keep it for adults, but this show invades kids bedrooms at home without supervision. What is creepy about the show is they find modern ways to torture people that don’t leave marks so they are totally unaccountable. Yes, that is dangerous for kids to learn.
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I am the real Jack Bauer.
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:59 pm
they just played an ad for 24 with fire and mayhem and indian war drums. Man, even with bush bowing out americans still want more war. Why are we so warlike? Its making me think of the indian wars chronicled so well by pbs last week. It was just like the intense response to 911 but a hundred and fifty years earlier.
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:54 pm
micky you ARE our jack bauer.
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:21 pm
well to keep it current, 24 just started with a little boy chopping a machete into a grown mans bald head who was humiliated and forced on his knees to be executed by another adult. They avoided showing the machete actaully go in or his head rolling off his neck, but…. Then all the other little boys started shouting in glee and joy right after showing the glow and lust for killing in their nearly simian eyes. yes kate, its dangerous if you have a soul…….
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
brian with all due respect, do you think that actually doesn’t happen? this is about the boy soldiers – i know you have heard of them.
would you have the only thing on tv be pbs or my little pony?
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:44 pm
my idea is that this type of tv lowers the threshold of violence for our own children who recieve little mature guidance on the matter in home, school, or our wider popular culture. It fuses killing with the high of the beastial joy, and encourages mimicry of this if you want to be somebody. Columbine. I was actually aghast thinking that they were showing this on prime time when all the kiddies can see. Then they just had the scene where one kid shot two other 10 yaer olds in the back running away because they went to the American school to induce the appropriate subliminal paranoia in our coutnrykid watchers. I was thinking of the cheaply built ak47 and a few cents of bullets can so negate a decade of lives built painstakingly day by day. I understand you like the action drama and enjoy the show, but I think the way its being presented to our kids is appalling. Yeah, I would rather they watch how to raise a pony and snoopy and then go work chores in the corral tomorrow. I think we’d all be better off brushing a horse than turning our minds over to these people for the two hours. And yes its done technically well, nice colored cinematography values,and good acting, and all that, but its the content, the content…
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:51 pm
now I just watched jack kill 7 soldjiers with a handgun and outrun a machine gun and rocket propellar grenade.. Then he stabbed another guy twice his size with one stab killing him and shot another. this is so ridiculous. now he is having four machine gun at him as he hides behind a log and he throws a stick of dynamite kills one, shoots another, and is running with nothing intoo the jungle as two armed bandits chase him. so he climbs a tree and jumps on them using karate and beats them up but the chief sneaks up and knocks him out. how can this be?
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:52 pm
this is so reminiscent of the Man for Uncle its not even funny.
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:56 pm
brian for a guy who hates ‘24′ and jack bauer and all it represents, you are sure watching this show awfully closely!
i bet you are a closet ‘24′ junkie after all.
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:04 pm
ha ha. no I only watched it a few times, like two when it first came out, and got the message. The fact is I am an expert at making accurate observations and curious about the propaganda value of popular culture. I am recognize the danger it represents but have all the centuries of warrior imprinting like anyone else. Wasn’t Eishenhower the number one critic of the military industrial complex? The very themes we are facing today aren’t nearly as new as our propagandists would have us believe, they are time immemorial, heck they are routine.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Brian, do you believe that Wily E. Coyote could really live after falling off just one of those cliffs ?
Its TV for Crust sake.
I watched two movies (Lost City Raiders and somethin else) on the Sci Fi channel this weekend and they both were asserting the dangers of global warming.
I didnt go spewing my frootloops because I think GW is a huge crock.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Oh, and by the way.
I live in Hawaii, I get alot of programs anywhere from 3 to 6 hours behind you guys.
STOP TELLING ME WHAT HAPPENED !!!
November 24th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Brian hates Bush, but says nothing about the young boys being forced into a army. These are kids as young as 6 being brainwashed to kill.
And yet Bush is the devil. Brian and his liberal friends would have us sitting and having coffee and cookies with these people. Brian, sometimes kicking some butt is required to get one’s attention.
Did your parents ever paddle you or did they sit you in time out and talk to you and have milk and cookies. Please don’t comment on 24 if you don’t really know what you are talking about.
Kind of the same thing with voting.
November 24th, 2008 at 11:17 am
kate,
you should only be watching shows that depict a republican administration plotting to steal the oil from and then murder friendly happy-go-lucky muslims who like my little pony and pbs
November 24th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Yea George.
I also like the way they portrayed the U.N as a bunch of usless CMA nothings.
“I’ll just put on my pastel baby blue helmet here and its all gonna work out”
November 25th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Lisab,
What kind of crack are you smoking? What oil did we steal? How much oil do we get from the Middle East? Bet you don’t know.
There are no friendly happy-go-lucky Muslims? What part of they hate us and want to kill do you not get?
At least a Republican President had balls enough to fight back. If we had done nothing after 911 like Clinton did in the 90’s, we would have been attacked again.
I tell what, why don’t you call the White House and tell them you would like to open your home up to the “friendly happy-go-lucky Muslims” so they don’t have to go to prison. That is such an awful place for them and you know they don’t have “My Little Pony in prison. But watching PBS would make me want to go to prison.
It is going to be a long four years with this kind of crap being recited everyday and every night.
November 25th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
George.
I’m gonna take a gamble here and guess that knowing Lisabs sense of humor she was being fasicious and sarcastic more or less in response to Brian.
Her and I dont get along half the time but I figured at least she deserved that explanation.
I just hope I’m right.
I’ll tell you, it went right over my head, how little I care about that station, I thought PBS was a peanut butter samich without the jelly
November 25th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
george is just being hackneyed is all. he fails to see just how conservative I am compared to all you programmed republobots. Bush let this whole wallstreet mess go overboard with his lazy faire ideology and now its going to ruin all of our savings, so is that fair? His ideology for our money? Its more than him its the system that put him in the rooster house to watch the hens. Virtually all the finanical excesses have come home to roost exactly like I warned long ago, so that should show you my good sense on matters. I think the bauer show could be said to be a political statement against child armys, its just the torture tantalizing that sells the show to so many viewers I find offensive plus kids shouldn’t watch certain kinds of violence. A lot can be said for an etch a sketch for a substitute for a tv. I would suppose the devil is in all of us, but when we legislate legal certain expressions of him its troubling and then teach that to our children. Its telling that the first US president harvard mba presides over a finanical meltdown hatched during their administration because of their ideology and malfeasance in regulating these industries.
November 25th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
“I’m gonna take a gamble here and guess that knowing Lisab’s sense of humor she was being facetious and sarcastic more or less in response to Brian.” mickey
yup
actually my family are mostly old style dems, from south boston. many are marines. two were flag officers … if you don’t know what that means, it means they were really high up there in rank. one was assigned to the marines who went to the chosun resevior.
even two of my female relatives are in the service.
although, i am pretty sure there are some happy-go-lucky muslims who like my little pony and pbs
November 25th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
i have not met any … but i am pretty sure there are some
November 25th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
I hope you all got to watch the hugo chavez channel on pbs tonight. very informative.
November 26th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Sorry,
I was in a crappy mood yesterday and that just hit me wrong. I am so conservative, I use 20ply toilet paper.
There are no smart people in Washington anymore. I say let’s get rid of all of them and start over.