The Politics Of 24

As I look back on the last ten years of television and began prepare to make my best of the decade list, I wanted to reserve my top spot for a show, for THE show that not only represents cutting edge quality entertainment in terms of cinematography, writing, editing, formatting, pacing, performances and the sheer rush of adrenaline. But I also wanted to pick a serialized television program that captured the pulse of the decade in the same way that (as noir author James Elroy pointed out in a recent Total Film interview)The Fugitive encased the turmoil, political, and cultural landscape of that the 1960's.

That show is 24. Kiefer Sutherland as the tortured (often literally) Jack Bauer is the embodiment of the decade's ultimate brooding anti-hero, much in the same way as David Janssen's man on the run Richard Kimble was to that era. And contrary to the way the show has been misread by the liberal AND conservative press, 24 is not a showcase of right wing propaganda or a dramatic extension of Fox's infamous news channel.

24 is, and has been from its inception, an insightful, superbly crafted, and expertly executed piece of fiction that has its pulse on what IS happening. The writers of the show do what all crafty and shrewd entertainers and storytellers do. They use the premise, milk it, get inside it, and fully exploits it for every bit of tension possible in order to make for the most exciting and dramatically entertaining hours of television of the past decade.

So the politics of 24? To entertain, to thrill, to shake you up and leave your heart pounding and emotions soaring and adrenaline cascading into a crescendo with each tick of the digital clock. Right wing, left wing...it can be and is both, yet it is neither. And let us not forget that 24 gave us a progressive African American President 7 years before Obama and last season gave us the greatest villain in the storied history of 24 villains. A Halburton/Blackwater government subcontracted corporation created and helmed by a Dick Cheney inspired paranoid, power obsessed control freak played with frightening realism by John Voight.

I cannot wait to see what season 8 has in store for us.

My best of the decade list in television.

1) 24
2) Taken (2002 SF Channel Emmy winning miniseries)
3) Six Feet Under (best depressing show ever)
4) Lost (watching year 5 now and loving it)
5) Soprano's (except for his damn kids and that finally)
6) MSNBC (Made the 2008 election year alot of fun)
7) American Idol (hey, guilty pleasure)
8) Curb Your Enthusiasm (the Seinfeld of the decade)
9) Fringe (the X-Files of the decade)
10)HBO Sports (anything narrated by Liev Schrieber)