‘24’: Gets wonky
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Just when it appeared that “24” had exhausted its zest for excitement, the gun battles and interrogations becoming a matter of course, Monday night’s episode discovered fresh juice in a very unexpected place: the Constitution.
Having survived an exploding podium hours ago (in show time) and just out of a doctor-induced coma, President Palmer (D.B. Woodside) confronted his Vice President (Powers Boothe) in a struggle for control of the White House and the U.S. armed forces. In one of the season’s most engrossing scenes so far, Palmer and Vice President Daniels presented their cases before cabinet members, arguing for and against the right to invoke the 25th amendment, which deals with the succession of power in case of a presidential disability.
“24” has never been a show known for its introspection or wonkish policy discussions, but somehow it managed to conjure some of the governmental mojo that kept “The West Wing” going for seven years and gave it a very “24”-like twist. Where the Aaron Sorkin drama would have ended with a stirring speech and a reaffirmation of the system’s soundness, “24” exposed how arbitrary the rule of law can be at its highest levels. When the process descended into haggling over nit-picking details, neither man managed to lead by example or display the nobility of office. Instead, they lawyered-up and got ready for a showdown in the Supreme Court.
With an impending U.S.-led nuclear strike against the Middle East as the backdrop, the in-fighting seemed ridiculous, absurd, irresponsible, and probably much more realistic than the show’s producers meant it to be. Ineffectiveness and reckless ambition in the nation’s highest offices have been in real life headlines too often lately for this to play as pure escapism.
The naked power grabs in the president’s inner circle combined with agent Mike “Choke Hold” Doyle’s (Ricky Schroder) destabilizing internal investigations at the CTU office have revealed a really ugly side to the men and women who are supposedly sworn to defend the country from nuclear terrorist attacks: self-interest knows neither good nor evil.
When the episode’s cliffhanger revealed that Palmer planned to launch a nuclear strike against the Middle East –- something he’d seemingly been trying to stop the Vice President from doing -- his reason had nothing to do with America’s best intentions. “I risked my life to reassert my authority,” he told advisor Tom Lennox. “I’ve got Vice President Daniels calling me weak.”
At least when Russian terrorist Gredenko (Rade Sherbedgia) asked for his arm to be cut off to evade CTU agents, he wasn’t operating under the illusion of a higher calling.
Even Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) wasn’t free of the taint that the presidential chaos caused.
Informed of the nation’s uncertain leadership in a time of crisis, the always-driven Bauer saw it as an opportunity to invalidate an immunity deal he’d made with a terrorist to track down the loose nukes. If you can’t trust Jack Bauer’s word, what can you trust?
Once again, though, Bauer seemed to be a bit player in his own show. But he did manage to show up for the episode’s other highlight. Running through a Santa Monica bar filled with scared Americans, Gredenko double-crossed Arab terrorist Fayed (Adoni Maropis), calling him out as the man behind the attacks and inviting the bar flies to act on all those urges Toby Keith’s been singing about since 2002 by putting their boots in an uncomfortable spot on Fayed’s body. Even Bauer couldn’t resist getting in a good kick.
Like the greatest moments of “24,” it was violent, cathartic and completely irresponsible.
(Photo courtesy Fox)