What was the purpose of "24" ?

[changemonger]

It might suprise you, but I've never really watched the series cos I don't watch anything other than the news on TV until yesterday when a friend who is a die-hard fan of the show brought me the whole collection since season 1 and insisted we watch it together. He hoped watching it would make me understand his passion for the series and probably make me become a fan also, but I had a very different reaction. I don't exactly know when the show started , but it obviously is a very effective and fabulously done propaganda hit piece . It you wanted the best propaganda example ever, "24" is among your choices.
There's no doubt this was also done to "sell" the so-called war on terror and if it needs to be sold , then it's bogus.

Your thoughts

[leftofthedial]

1. absolutely

police state propaganda

and a black president to boot

[valerief]

2. I never watched it. People told me it was about torture, so I figured it was

propaganda to justify Bush's torturing.

[changemonger]

19. It "surprisingly" justifies a lot of right-wing talking points

fearmongering at its "best" .

[valerief]

47. That's what teevee is for, after all. It manipulates our desires and outrage. nt

[FiveGoodMen]

3. I agree.

I would never watch it.

I would never have a kind (or neutral) word for the piece of shit that starred in it.

[quiet.american]

4. The one or two episodes I caught never compelled me to "love" it.

But then again, I never bought into The Sopranos either.

[wryter2000]

5. I haven't seen it

It sounds perfectly horrid, and I have no desire to watch.

There's some kind of crime show on CBS on Saturday right after the news. If I don't get to the television quickly, my house if filled with screaming and gunfire before I can shut that crap off. One night, it was kind of quiet, so I watched for a minute to see what the heck was going on. Then, a dead female body dropped into a hamper of laundry. Who needs that?

[Mojambo]

6. It's good popcorn tv. n/t

[hlthe2b]

7. true on the propaganda, but also a positive...

I really think on some not insignificant level, shows like this that portrayed a heroic black (or female) in the role of President helped pave the way for acceptance of the idea among some Americans. 24 had a wonderful black actor portraying the highly competent President, fighting the good fight during the early years. I think, with Bush* in the WH, it got a lot of people dreaming of having someone that articulate and competent--that he was black was merely an afterthought.

[Bucky]

15. Plus remember how terrible the previous "black president" was in office

Before David Palmer, our only experience with African American presidents was the utterly incompetent Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact. Had it not been for 24, most voters would have expected an Obama administration to lead to earth's destruction by a giant comet.

Damn you, Morgan Freeman, damn you.

[melm00se]

8. entertainment

for some members of the viewing audience

[Robb]

9. So everyone who hates it never watched it.

Imagine my surprise.

FWIW, I've enjoyed it quite a bit. It's good popcorn TV, and quite thoughtful.

Of course, this may out me as a GOP mole...

[Posteritatis]

21. I've been watching West Wing for a few weeks

I go in and out of being curious about 24. For the most part I just can't be bothered to look it up. On the other hand, after a season or two of this show I might get whiplashed hard enough to put myself into a wheelchair if I actually started seriously watching 24 for a bit.

[liberalmuse]

10. It's entertaining, or it used to be, but...

you have to get through the right wing crap they put in there (the torture, terrorist shit). Jack Bauer is kind of a soulless asshole and he's way to quick to kill or torture. I have a theory that '24' was highly influential in helping the older people in this nation get used to the idea of a black President. Take that for what it's worth (nothing, really). That, and Morgan Freeman.

I once watched an entire season of '24' over the course of a weekend. It's like an adrenaline-boosting drug.

[Greyhound]

11. I've seen a few episodes and, while I like Kiefer Sutherland, the show I saw

were just as you describe, pure propaganda, not to mention inaccurate, contrived, and just plain simple minded.

[Justyce]

12. The only purpose it served for me was to waste an entire day of my life.

I had never even heard of it & was hopped up on pain killers after a surgery & got involved in it one day. I kept watching it thinking it was a mini-series/movie & kept thinking I've spent this much time, surely something will happen eventually & it'll end, but it just kept going and going & the stupidity never got any better... then my dad came in & told me it was a TV show & they were running it on a marathon that day - LOL Pain killers and marathon TV don't mix.

[Lerkfish]

20. LOL! reminds me of when I was getting prepped for surgery

they gave me something to reduce my inhibitions or something before surgery (never knew what it was)
but in the hospital room, they were replaying "Buckaroo Bonzai across the ninth dimension" and because of the drug, I thought I was seeing the epiphany of enlightenment, the coalescence of string theory and every secret of the universe. the orderly came to get me and I said, "no way, I HAVE to see the end of this movie!" he just laughed and wheeled me away.

months later, I rented the movie and thought "wtf was I thinking? "

[Chulanowa]

32. Just be glad it wasn't Flash Gordon! n/t

[Lerkfish]

35. I'm glad it wasn't Modern Problems

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082763 /

one of the worst movies ever made.

although, perhaps with that drug, it might have made it bearable.

[Bucky]

13. I enjoyed the first season (watched it on DVD over a couple of weeks)

I did start laughing that last time his daughter got kidnapped (about hour 19, I think), because the superpowerful, omnipresent enemy who had turned half the agents in the CTU into moles just kinda got silly. It probably seems less silly when you take about 7-8 months to watch a season.

I watched about two episodes of season 2, but it just didn't grab me cause I knew it would all end up with the daughter being kidnapped again.

I know that the producer of the show has a rightwing, pro-invasion of Iraq, neocon bias and that it's made life a little tougher for the army instructors who teach actual interrogation techniques, but I don't think the show was launched specifically to sell the war craze. It exists to capitalize on the pro-war mentality that exists any time you have a Republican in office. It exists to sell soap. If they were just out to sell the Iraq (and probably Iran) campaigns, why would they make the Bush & Cheney type characters such utter villains in the later seasons?

[changemonger]

27. not the Iraq war specifically, but the war on terror as a whole

n.t

[Bucky]

34. Actually the show was in production months before 9/11 & the GWOT

Although that by itself probably constitutes proof of MIHOP for some people.

[TomInTib]

14. A Rovian creation

Remember, after The Day That Changed Everything, the WH sent people to interact with television and cinema producers to enlist them in The Just Cause.

God, this is one fucked up, chickenshit Nation.

'24' is propaganda thinly disguised as entertainment.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

16. Propaganda cloaked as entertainment.

My friend from Panama once called it a "neo-conservative's wet dream". Just wanted to share that.

[changemonger]

31. that would be the best way to describe it

n.t

[datasuspect]

17. you might want to distance yourself from people who are "passionate" about television programming

scary.

[TahitiNut]

18. Catharsis for the lower end of the Tom Clancy literacy scale.

[rocktivity]

22. "Terrorism chic," I called it

part of the corporate media's effort to make pre-emptive war and torture seem normal, natural, and All-American.


rocknation

[aikoaiko]

23. Dramatic, thrilling entertainment that tapped into the spirit of the times.

I'm doubtful that it was planned propoganda from the warloads. If they could sell commercials for a show depecting a pacifist avoiding violence on weekly basis, there would be 10 shows of that type.

[changemonger]

24. I disagree

There are just too many "coincidences" . This was planned propaganda, there's no doubt about it.

[aikoaiko]

25. I'm open to reading about the coincidences.

It really wasn't that different from Mission Impossible or Jame Bond.

[changemonger]

29. I'm not an expert...

but you should watch and decide for yourself. It's all about promoting the image of the ruthless and extremely powerful and well organised terrorists posing a constant threat to the country ( "War on terror"), promoting torture as an effective interrogation method (Guantanamo) , broad surveillance and spying as vital in the fight against terrorism (FISA)...

[Posteritatis]

42. I came across an article or interview a few years back that said just that

It was planned as propaganda, but not by the government (though the government appreciated it, of course). I've been thinking back to it a few times lately.

I need to try to dig up that article now, anyway, since I want to re-read it in the context of this thread...

[lapfog_1]

26. From the few times that I've watched

the main purpose seem to be to promote the use of cell phones.

[bananas]

28. That's weird, I had the opposite impression

I don't watch the news because it's full of propaganda,
but I watched 24 because it was a good action-adventure show.

I'd rephrase one of your sentences to this:
'If you wanted the best propaganda example ever, "the news on TV" is among your choices.'

[changemonger]

30. did you ever study propaganda ?

I agree with you that there's propaganda in the news, but I don't think you know quite well how propaganda works.
do some research on that and watch 24 again.

[Adsos Letter]

46. Have you read "Propaganda" by Jacques Ellul?...

some interesting insights on the real nature of propoganda in that work.

[onenote]

33. to attract viewers, get ratings, sell ads and make money

Just like any other television show.

[Deja Q]

36. Seconded.

Some of the writers may have various personal beliefs, but I am not going to put on some damn tinfoil hat whenever somebody in the media industry sneezes, or to keep "Family Guy" fans happy, whenever someone in the media industry suffers a premature ejaculation.

[RB TexLa]

37. To make money for the people that produce it.

Pretty simple.

[Chulanowa]

38. Of course it's propaganda

But it's not propaganda to sell the war on terror. It's propaganda to justify "extreme treatment" of those in custody and absolve authority figures of any wrongdoing in the pursuit of "public safety." In this, it's hardly new - "Law and Order" has been doing the same thing for a very long time. In fact most cop shows / legal dramas that focus on the prosecution serve this end. "Whatever the cops do is okay because the perp is always guilty, and the ACLU / Defense Attorneys need to be strangled for the good of society"

"24" just ditches the court drama and kicks right into sating its audience's need for, ahem, justice (that is to say, revenge. Americans can rarely tell the two apart).

And then Kim Bauer nearly gets eaten by a cougar. Clearly a sleeper cell.

[Seen the light]

39. Up until Season 6, it was the best show on TV

I find it funny that you claim to have watched the entire series, yet completely ignore the fact that the whole premises behind the second and fifth seasons were that the US was being set up for a war with the Middle East on behalf of oil companies. Season 2 had a nuke blow up in the US that was funded by an oil company so they could make a killing off of a war with the Middle East. Season 5 had the Republican President of the United States in cahoots with terrorists in order to start yet another war with the Middle East for the same reasons.

I mean...really. Do you think actors like James Cromwell and Janeane Garofalo would REALLY sign up to play major roles on a series that is supposedly nothing but propaganda?

[dysfunctional press]

40. to get people to watch the commercials that the advertisers paid for.

i've never seen a single episode.

[Feron]

41. It's just a TV show.

24 is the TV equivalent of an action movie. It's mindless entertainment with cartoon violence and nothing more.

Nothing in that show ever sold me on supporting torture or the war on terror. And anyone that thinks that 24 has a basis in reality probably also thinks that Rambo is a documentary.

There are many ridiculous plotlines in 24: the cougar, Bauer kicking a heroin addiction in hours, CTU's perimeters always failing, Bauer never getting stuck in traffic or traveling a ridiculous amount of distance in an incredibly short amount of time, etc. But if you suspend your disbelief, it's an exicting show.

[Blue-Jay]

43. It's TV. Nothing nefarious.

[AZBlue]

44. There's enough violence in the world, why would I watch a fictional account of more violence?

Sorry, I can't help you understand it, I hate the show.

[Gwendolyn]

45. Not surprising at all.

Only watched 14.3 mins of the 24 hour thing they did one time, and didn't get it... but loved Mad TVs take on it.