For the past several months, I’ve been dabbling my toes in the ocean of pop culture. Several of the endeavors have been worth the effort. The HBO series, John Adams, was pure delight. Kathryn Stockett’s novel, The Help, was more enjoyable than any book I’ve read in recent memory. And as a fan of Hugh Laurie, I’m now hopelessly addicted to House. But my recent decision to watch the first season of the popular television series 24 proved to be a big disappointment.
At first I liked the show, and the values it seemed to champion. The show’s star Jack Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland, is trying to restore his broken marriage. David Palmer, the presidential candidate Bauer is charged to protect from an assassination attempt, is an honorable man. The pace of the first few episodes was fast, and the spy gadgets were captivatingly cool. But by the fourth or fifth show the killings, car crashes, and general mayhem escalated into sickening regularity.
But what disturbed me most weren’t the twists and turns of the plots, but the underlying value lessons that emerged as the show progressed and the characters developed. Here are a few things that made me uneasy:
- If a very important person or someone he loved was in danger, Jack Bauer broke all the rules and/or killed as many people as necessary to save them.
- Value Lesson: Some lives are worth saving and others are expendable, and the rules only apply to expendable lives.
- Main characters used the phrase “I promise,” but rarely (and perhaps never) kept those promises after getting what they wanted.
- Value Lesson: Promises are a means to whatever end you need to achieve and nothing more. So pretend to be trustworthy and don’t trust anyone.
- David Palmer, the presidential candidate, was portrayed as a man of honor but his wife of nearly 30 years proved to be a scheming, evil woman.
- Value Lesson: Honorable people are admirable, but are so innocent and trusting, they’re terrible judges of character. To succeed, they need help from dishonorable people, and since they can’t judge character worth a hoot, surrounding honorable people with dishonorable ones is easy to do. So you can’t trust honorable people either.
If my kids were still home, no matter their age, 24 would be on our No Watch list, because I wouldn’t want them to absorb those values. And one season of 24 was enough for me. I now understand the culture of the show and no desire to explore it further.
It’s not worth my time when so many better choices are available.
