Comments Posted By Jim Zackey
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On both sides of the Atlantic media critics are raising
questions what the spy-idol opera '24' is actually about.
The Guardian, London wonders if ‘24’ “trafficking in fearâ€. Is the serial used for softening opinions to sanction heavy-handed approach of the authorities? To Slate’s media editors it appears to be peddling “torture porn.â€While common people are at liberty to the views they fancy, this tendency becomes risky when it affects those who vow to safeguard the American values. Following White House guidelines after Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay regarding what kinds of torture are officially acceptable, many have been struggling with the realization that the use of torture is no longer one of the ways by which you can recognize the bad guys. Not for Fox’s super spy opera star Sutherland's Jack Bauer and his fellow agents, there's never any question of civil liberties or other liberal wimpishness taking precedence over the urgency of their mission, notes British critic Adam Sweeting.
For "24"s Producer, Creator and Writer, Joel Surnow, there's no question that torture can be a legitimate counter-terrorism tool. It's shocking to find this once-deplorable practice embedded in a TV drama, as if it's routine enough to serve as a mere strand in TV's entertainment mix, complains The Independent London. Surnow's take on torture in the show, and in the war on terror, is a little more controversial as clear from his quote to The Guardian's John Patterson: "I think torture does work. It would work on me! I believe torture has been around since the beginning of time because it works. I just think that for any person in the circumstances that Jack Bauer is in, you'd be a fool not to."
Comment Posted By Jim Zackey On 27.01.2007 @ 17:55
