24: Jack Bauer Subjected to B.S.
I am getting sick of the way 24 plays hard and fast with reality. Sure, it's a television program and we're supposed to suspend disbelief, but give me a break — that can only go so far. The plutonium dust was all right, but by the time we got to Air Force One being shot down by an F-117A Stealth Fighter — a plane that doesn't even carry any air-to-air weapons and can only attack ground targets — a line had been crossed.
<SPOILER ALERT>
Tonight, they jumped up and down on the far side of that line and thumbed their nose at the audience. Put aside the fact that they have a highly respected source giving them more than enough reason to call off the air strike on Assad — heck, put aside the fact that they are launching a missile attack on a house in Suburbia, U.S.A. — the entire attack is based on information given to them by a known terrorist. This level of intel isn't good enough to get this mission approved if it were in Baghdad and I am beside myself that 24 would stoop so low even with their prior history of insulting their audience.
Perhaps FOX upper-management has rubbed off on them over the years and they have gotten to the point where they think the average American is an idiot. To the extent that may be true, it's due to the irresponsible media treating them that way. If great television shows made Americans think, they wouldn't turn them off and just maybe they'd learn to think a little more independantly. Instead the media, along with both major political parties continue to foster, intentionally or unintentionally, an atmosphere which encourages dependent thinking where people get their opinions from other people's opinions instead of from facts.
All right, that was a bit of a rant but frankly I am fuming. I can accept the little things, like Assad having Jack's cellphone number on a stolen cellphone Jack himself probably didn't have the number to. These things brush right past me as they are supposed to. But, fool me once… you know? When a plane that has no air-to-air capability shoots down Air Force One I can chalk that up to lazy writers. When the President of the United States (who seems to be highly concered about not violating people's civil liberties) authorizes an air strike, on U.S. soil, based on questionable intel, with no ground confirmation (for all he knew it could have been Kim Bauer's apartment he was blowing up), that is B.S. on so many levels my jaw is still hanging open.
Add to that having a significantly better source telling him that not only was Assad the "wrong guy" but he was actually their best hope of finding the real bad guy — apparently Wayne Palmer is the absolute worst President this country has ever seen. Say what you will about George W. Bush, but he walks a fine line of violating the law. Wayne Palmer, one of the guys we're supposed to *like*, just pulled an operation that would have had Bush impeached by even a Republican congress. If you stuck the real Karl Rove into the imaginary Oval Office from tonight's show he would have been the voice of reason. That is how pathetic the 24 writing staff is.
- one
