"24" is a Brutal Comic

Quote of the day:
“He looked like a cardboard display of a friendly person.”
--Mary Gaitskill

Quote of the day no. 2:
"We have no alternative but to protest. For many years we have shown an amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice."
--Martin Luther King, in his first speech to the Montgomery Improvement Association

Two hours down, 22 to go. Another season of 24 is upon us.

A couple of things occur to me after the first episodes. First, is all the cruel brutality really necessary? I know that intelligence and counter-intelligence can be a violent business. But this much so quickly? The point here is entertainment, and I don’t find in-my-face torture entertaining.

The show seems to be either more ridiculous or deliberately campy, depending on how you look at it. The plot is structured like a comic book, with very broadly-drawn characters, heavy-handed dialog and idiotic good-versus-evil statements every two or three minutes. And the plot is unusually predictable so far.

Doesn’t Jack Bauer look remarkably good, having just been released by the Chinese two hours ago, undergoing unimaginable torture, kicking a suicide bomb off a subway (didn’t he burn his feet?) and not having anything to eat so far? Stop at Jack-in the-Box, Jack.