TV Watch: 24 Is Military Porn

Spoilers follow (for the whole series). You've been warned.

I've watched 24 since it began. At this point, I honestly watch because as a show it has managed to push credulity to insane proportions and somehow manages to get away with it ... often without much more than a grim mumble from its protagonist, Jack Bauer. This, of course, being a man who has now been betrayed by internal spies, had his heart stopped, faked his own death, faked betraying the United States and now spent two years vacationing with the Chinese penal system only to come home and willingly sacrifice his life for a relatively chincy plan to stop terrorists.

And honestly, that's just scratching the surface. You'll be hard pressed to find a more ubermench style action hero on television today. Jack's not only fairly indestructible, he's often the only competent person in the room. Heck, in the whole nation. Take into account that during his absence, terrorist activity in the nation rose to crticial proportions and The President is now negotiating directly with terrorist cells. In the first couple hours he was back on American soil, Jack managed to correct virtually his entire line of command (who, of course, didn't listen to him).

Is the show good? It's hard to say. The writers are savvy enough that the show always feels a little smarter than it actually is. If you pay close attention to the details, nothing makes any sense. One moment the lead terrorist can spy on every satellite in orbit - the next he's completely blind to the advancing "tac team". It's almost like security through obscurity ... some decent dialogue, some military jargon and some truly impressive production values (read - explosions) ... and you don't even question why they didn't "think of that".

At it's core though - the show is essentialy military porn. We all know porn comes in lots of flavors - lots more than just sex. Virtually any performance that slips a gratiutous layer of something so thick that you can practically ignore the plot is porn. A Jet Li movie is kung fu porn. A Jackie Chan movie is funny kung fu porn.

And so on. The show's oblique attempts at social commentary generally just service more of this porn by setting up new situations to find terrorists and use terms like "cavity search". Let's not sidestep it ... 24 is violent. It is really, really violent.

Take this into account:

On tonight's season premiere of the much-praised "24,'' the hero escaped being tortured by biting through the neck of a terrorist with the fury of a wild animal. The scene featured as much pretend savagery, fake blood and dramatic emphasis as anything you'd see in a movie theater -- but this was on broadcast TV (Fox) BEFORE 9 p.m.

I'd bet a lot of money that this TV event generates little or no outrage of any significance. Keep that in mind when the next "Grand Theft Auto'' video game controversy erupts. Keep it in mind when somebody besides Janet Jackson lets slip a body part for a fleeting moment. Or whenever the next media-and-children discussion heats up.

-- "24" and media violence[Mike Antonucci - Mercury News]

By the end of last night's two episode run - tack on a knee stabbing, a horribly burned body, a gun shot to the lower neck (plenty of spurting blood there), and (major spoiler) a nuclear explosion.

Don't get me wrong - I like 24. I like my military porn. I love watching planes fly through downtown and make missile strikes. It's exciting. It's titillating. It blows things up. I'm with Mike, though, I think it's indicative of a moral hypocrisy. The kind of hypocrisy that attacks video games while embracing professional wrestling. Let's not pretend that someone stabbing a guy in the patella is somehow a mile's distance from anything in Grand Theft Auto, especially not during prime time television.




tagged: television, gaming