It may have fallen out of favor with critics during its final season, but Fox's "24" hasn't lost its ability to thrill viewers -- or challenge broadcast standards. I thought after eight years of mass
killings, graphic bloodshed and brutal violence there was nothing more this groundbreaking series could do to shock me, but the climactic sequence of this week's episode, in which rogue
counter-terrorism agent Jack Bauer literally and without hesitation tortured a man to death, proved me wrong.
If "24" were still in top form, the media would have been all over this. Here was a
beloved television action-hero, a character with whom viewers have bonded during eight seasons as they watched him save the country from numerous terrorist attacks, pushed beyond the brink by the
brutal murder of yet another person he loved (fellow agent Renee Walker) and doing unspeakable things to the killer, a Russian operative named Pavel.
On the surface, Jack was determined to
extract from his torture target vital information about an international crisis that has already resulted in countless atrocities. But as far as his true motivation was concerned, the need to access
this information seemed to be secondary to the execution of bloodthirsty revenge. He literally destroyed the screaming Pavel, first tearing skin from his chest with pliers, then pummeling his face and
torso into hamburger, then taking a knife to his abdomen and making several nasty slices, and then spraying alcohol into Pavel's fresh wounds. Then he produced a blow torch! (As smoke drifted up from
Pavel's burning belly I could smell his cooked flesh.)
advertisement
advertisement
Jack then realized that he could get the information he needed from Pavel's cell phone, but he needed its SIM card. Turns out Pavel had
swallowed it, prompting Jack to gut him like a fish and claim his prize. By that point Pavel was history. So was the Jack we have come to know since September, 2001.
Joel Bissonnette, the
actor who played Pavel, will never get an Emmy nomination for this role, but damn, was he ever convincing as a man dying a thousand deaths. For his part, series star Kiefer Sutherland seemed to relish
letting his character finally cut loose after years of relative restraint. A lesser man would have snapped many hardships ago.
This being the last season for "24," I suppose its executive
producers are feeling free to do just about anything they want. But as I watched Jack go mercilessly medieval on Pavel's ass, I couldn't help but wonder if Fox would have allowed so potentially
controversial a scene to be telecast were the series going to continue for several more seasons. In today's world, could any broadcast network move forward with a series that revolved around a heroic
torturer? Jack has done terrible things in the past, including shooting one friend and one colleague point-blank (for very different reasons), but this was something else entirely.
There has been much talk about continuing the "24" franchise in a series of theatrical movies. Perhaps the idea in play here is to use the final hours of the show to transform a PG-13 television
hero into an R-rated box-office anti-hero. A rougher, tougher, bloodthirsty Bauer would likely do very well in theaters and on DVD. Certainly, the kids would love him.