I’ve enjoyed previous episodes of “24.” They were good action, no more, no less. I had a hard time sitting through the 4 hour premier broadcast. (Okay, not that hard.) I kept waiting for a correction in the program’s tenor. No such luck.

Bauer was kidnapped and imprisoned by the Chinese. The American government lost interest in him for about two years, but quickly regains it when a new terrorist appears on the horizon. He promises to stop suicide-bomber attacks on American cities in exchange for Bauer, who killed his brother in better times.

Bauer, fresh from Chinese torture, is only too happy to give his life for the Greater Good. As he is being turned over to his new owner, chained like a dog to a fence (the government doesn’t trust him, even though you’d think his dog-like loyalty would have, by now, convinced the Top Dogs), he mutters about the approaching meaningful end. This guy never tires of being used and abused by successive governments. Some individualist.

What really sickens in this series —other than how Bauer turns appeaser of terrorists, and worse —is the depiction of the aggression ordinary Americans allegedly direct at American Muslims. Some even break down their Muslim neighbors’ front doors and beat them up. Certain Hollywood themes are here to stay.

Also, in real life the typical Islamic organization —take the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) —is full of dissemblers and defenders of terrorists. Ordinarily, these are media-savvy mouthpieces for militant Islam. “24” recasts the head of such an outfit as their new, true patriot.

To top this fiction up, Jack becomes attached to Assad, a reformed terrorist, now wanting to “enter the political process” (that cliché has really taken off). Jack wrangles immunity and a pardon from the president for his new consort.

But the point at which I removed myself (admittedly near the end; I’m weak) was when, to save his pet terrorist, Jackass shoots Curtis Manning, director of Fields Operations. Curtis is a moral, ex-military, man; he doesn’t buy this amnesty business. During Desert Storm (I think), Assad had captured and beheaded a few of his men. Curtis thinks that son of sixty dogs needs killing. Jackass chooses to shoot Curtis in order to save Assad. He then whimpers something about not being able to do this any longer.

Jack murdering a good man and a colleague to save a career killer, the saintly American Muslim organization, the saintlier reformed terrorist (modeled, no doubt, after Mahmoud Abbas), the mean Muslim-hating Americans —it all added up to a script Jimmy Carter would have approved.

Other fatuities and disappointments: Hollywood retains its mythical, infantile concept of computers. Seat a PC savvy type in front of the screen, and, evidently, there is no end to the information he or she can squeeze from the thing. That’s plain rubbish. And, CTU’s Chloe O’Brian has lost her famous furrow: it’s been botoxed away.

Count me out of the Bauer frenzy. I’m looking forward to the new season of The Shield. It doesn’t have 24’s hysterical, frenzied pitch, but has plenty of action, sports absolutely no bimbos (I’ll watch another episode of “24” if Jack Bauer’s daughter, Kimberley, is bumped off), has created some very interesting, complex characters, which are acted very ably.

Update: Constant camera wobble, now that’s another headache. Camera wobble is very much in vogue in all these productions. A reader brought it up in the Comments Section.

Updated Again: One of Larry Auster’s readers has become the second person (that I know of) to notice the leftist subtext of the series “24.” Everyone else is gushing indiscriminately. Let me parse the latest biases:
One of the central heroes, can’t recall who, asserted in the last episode that we are alienating the very community upon which we depend to fight terrorism. There is some heavy guilt-tripping on that front. (Read here how “indispensable” that community has been.) I predict that in the next episode we may see Jack visit a mosque as mea culpa.
Some of the central villains are … American businessmen. In fact, terrorism plots keep leading to … Americans.
Jack nearly kills his brother, who apparently richly deserved it for selling nuclear material to terrorists. Happens all the time. When Jack fails to complete the job, Pater completes it for him, but for reasons less noble!! Fratricide, patricide —it’s all in a day’s work for your average, dysfunctional, American family, at least as Hollywood sees it.

Correction: James Merritt writes:

“My wife and I love ’24,’ but we don’t call it by that name. For us, it is ‘Jack Bauer: Federal Zombie.’ He is the unstoppable, undead agent who has actually been killed and brought back to life, in service–and thrall–to the State. Instead of the ‘brains’ that normal zombies seek, the Federal Zombie feeds on ‘intelligence.'”

I agree about the PC-ignorance. In early seasons, the PCs used by CTU were Apples, even though Apple Computer had a negligible penetration within the Federal Government, and almost none at all within the security services.”