24

TV Milestones

Series Editors

Barry Keith Grant

Brock University

Jeannette Sloniowski

Brock University

TV Milestones is part of the Contemporary Approaches to Film and Media Series.

A complete listing of the books in this series can be found online at wsupress.wayne.edu

General Editor

Barry Keith Grant

Brock University

Advisory Editors

Robert J. Burgoyne

University of St. Andrews

Caren J. Deming

University of Arizona

Patricia B. Erens

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Peter X. Feng

University of Delaware

Lucy Fischer

University of Pittsburgh

Frances Gateward

California State University, Northridge

Tom Gunning

University of Chicago

Thomas Leitch

University of Delaware

Walter Metz

Southern Illinois University

24

John McCullough

TV MILESTONES SERIES

Wayne State University Press   Detroit

© 2014 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without formal permission. Manufactured in the United States of America.

ISBN 978-0-8143-3867-4 (paperback); ISBN: 978-0-8143-3868-1 (ebook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013954415

For Marnie, Aki, and Billy

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. 24 and Cultural Forms

2. 24 and Style

3. Themes and Meanings

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to extend my appreciation to the editors of the TV Milestones series, Barry Grant and Jeanette Sloniowski, for their enthusiasm, encouragement, and insight. At Wayne State University Press, I owe an enormous debt to Kristina Elizabeth Stonehill for her consistent leadership, Maya Whelan for her design suggestions, and Eric Schramm for his thoughtful and thorough copyediting. Along the way, I had the privilege of receiving incisive feedback from Scott Forsyth, Marnie Parrell, and the anonymous manuscript readers, all of whom took time from their own work to help me with mine.

Introduction

For eight seasons, between November 2001 and May 2010, 24 became one of the most popular shows in primetime, averaging about 10 million viewers per episode.¹ Its style and themes have exerted a powerful influence on the television industry and popular culture generally. Its distinguishing characteristics include its formal design, its visual style, and its compelling fictional account of the War on Terror (WOT). Its principal structural innovation, and what remains its unique contribution to the history of television drama, is its real-time premise in which each hour-long episode represents an hour of story time; thus its twenty-four-episode season depicts a single day in the life of its characters. The series’ structure thus simulates a live broadcast. Borrowing techniques from action news, reality television, and sports coverage, 24 mimics aspects of a live broadcast in order to intensify audience engagement, encouraging a viewing experience that many commentators described as addictive. For instance, conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh described how he got hooked on 24 on a flight to the United Arab Emirates: Sixteen hours later we landed in Dubai, having watched 18 episodes of Season 1. We did not sleep. . . . The only reason we stopped is because we landed in Dubai, and the whole week we’re in Afghanistan we can’t wait to get back to finish the final six episodes of Season 1 and watch Season 2 on the way back.²

While the series’ innovative plotting captured viewer attention, its cinematic style evoked the prestige of quality TV.³ A category of programming subject to extensive debate in the field of television studies, quality TV broadly refers to television entertainment that is relatively refined aesthetically and is driven by socially relevant themes. Certainly, threats of terrorism made 24 relevant, and it was not the only television series to tackle terrorism in primetime. In the autumn of 2001, it joined the third season of Third Watch (John Wells and Edward Allen Bernero, 1999–2005) and the premieres of The Agency (Michael Frost Beckner, 2001–2003) and Alias (J. J. Abrams, 2001–2006) to establish terrordrama as an increasingly popular entertainment option. These series’ success no doubt contributed to a culture of fear, and they inspired a wide variety of espionage and action-adventure programming, including MI-5 (aka Spooks) (David Wolstencroft, 2002–), Threat Matrix (Daniel Voll, 2003–2004), NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigation Service (Donald P. Bellasario, 2003–), Sleeper Cell (Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, 2005–2006), Prison Break (Paul Scheuring, 2005–2009), Jericho (Stephen Chobsky, Josh Schaer, Jonathan E. Steinberg, 2006–2008), The Unit (David Mamet, 2006–2009), The Kill Point (James Demonaco, 2007), Damages (Glenn Kessler, Todd A. Kessler and Daniel Zelman, 2007–), Generation Kill (Ed Burns and David Simon, 2008), The Border (Peter Raymont and Linda Lee Tracey, 2008–2010), and Hatufilm/Prisoners of War (Gideon Raff, 2009–2012). Even series that appeared after 24’s run, such as Falling Skies (Robert Rodat, 2011–), Homeland (Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon, 2011–), Touch (Tim Kring, 2012–), Nikita (Craig Silverstein, 2010–), and Person of Interest (Jonathan Nolan, 2011–), for instance, continued to mobilize many of its formal and aesthetic strategies in order to popularize themes of fear and paranoia. Yvonne Tasker argues that what she calls terror TV also influenced the narratives of detective and crime series in the period, and Stacy Takacs’s analysis of television post-9/11 reveals the influence of the theme of terrorism across a vast range of television formats, including teen fantasy, reality TV, and family dramas.⁴

24: Representing a culture of fear.

Influential as a popular hit, 24 also garnered critical accolades, winning several important awards including twenty Emmy awards and two Golden Globes (for best lead male performance in 2002 and best drama in 2004) while receiving multiple nominations in a variety of categories and competitions. It also served as the source material for an assortment of merchandise including action figures, sound tracks, a video game licensed to Playstation 2, and a vast array of print media including the novelizations entitled 24 Declassified.⁵ The success of the series’ paratextual elements, including webisodes, prequel teasers and social media, and innovative scheduling, also helped define the series as exemplary cutting-edge television in the period.⁶ In addition, of course, the series often found itself at the center of debates about the negative impact of mass media, and it was regularly singled out for criticism of its extreme violence, use of Muslim stereotypes, and its apparent endorsement of vigilantism and conservative social values. Throughout its run, 24 maintained a high level of recognition in the public sphere and, in conjunction with the revelations in 2004 of abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, the series inspired several commentators to draw links between popular culture and politics. For instance, the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, hosted a 2006 panel on the series’ depiction of violence and torture, while, at the other end of the political spectrum, the progressive media journal Jump Cut featured discussion of torture as a fundamental component of the American social imaginary.⁷ Though most military and political experts ridiculed the idea that the series realistically reflected the WOT, its influence on public understanding of government policy was considered substantial. Thus, given its formidable presence in popular culture and discourses of the time, 24 can be understood as one of the ur-texts of the first decade of the third millennium and, as such, stands out as a TV milestone.

In this book, I discuss 24’s form, style, and themes as not only unique and trendsetting but as complex creative responses to the series’ historical context: on the one hand, the changing nature of the global television industry and, on the other, the emergence of the geopolitics of terror and counter-terrorism. The stories that the series tells are overtly about the first ten years of the twenty-first century as seen from the global North. Consequently, it is driven by topics such as challenges to American sovereignty, the place of democracy in world affairs, the conflict between homeland security and the security state, the social role of families and communities, the meaning of patriotism and citizenship, the rise of nonstate warfare, and ultimately the meaning of redemption in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001.⁸ But the show is also a response to television culture in the post-network age, characterized by reality TV’s populist appeal and visceral content, on the one hand, and sophisticated boutique cable programming (quality TV), on the other.⁹ Produced by the Fox Network, 24 was part of a trend that saw the major networks invest heavily in high-concept primetime dramas, the most notable of which include Desperate Housewives (Marc Cherry, 2004–2012), the CSI franchise (Jerry Bruckheimer, Ann Donahue, and Anthony Zuiker, 2000–), and Lost (J. J. Abrams, 2004–2010). While these series were rarely among the most watched network programs (an honor typically achieved during the period by American Idol [Simon Fuller, 2002–], with approximately 30 million viewers), they nonetheless captured a valued demographic that had drifted away from the networks in the 1990s to other formats and distribution choices, including cable TV, TV on demand, and DVD. Thus 24 is not only an important series because it engages with the most pressing issues of world history and politics of its time but, on the strength of its form and style, it also represents significant global trends in television culture.¹⁰

Post-9/11 television: innovative style, terror around the clock, and product placement.

24’s consistent style and thematic content can be attributed to centralized creative control and the long-term contributions of the creative departments. Initially planned as a mini-series, it was conceived by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran, whose Real Time Productions co-produced the series with Imagine Entertainment, a company run by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. Film director Stephen Hopkins (Lost in Space [1998], Blown Away [1994], Judgment Night [1993]) directed half the episodes in Season 1, including the pilot and the finale, and made a wide range of contributions to the series, including suggesting Kiefer Sutherland for the lead role. His influence is credited with giving 24 a distinctly cinematic visual style, and he is also acknowledged as having suggested the use of multiple-frame compositions to heighten the live experience of the story, showing parallel actions simultaneously.¹¹

Surnow and Cochran began to work together as writers on the primetime soap Falcon Crest (Earl Hamner Jr., 1981–1990). Surnow had already worked as a writer and story editor on the acclaimed television series St. Elsewhere (Joshua Brand and John Falsey, 1982–1988) and Miami Vice (Michael Mann, 1984–1990) and, on the strength of his work on the latter, he became the show runner for The Equalizer (Richard Lindheim and Michael Sloan, 1985–1989). Cochran had written two episodes of L.A. Law (Steven Bochco, 1986–1994) before joining Falcon Crest. Throughout the 1990s the two worked together on several projects and, just prior to 24, they produced and wrote the television series La Femme Nikita (1997–2001) based on Luc Besson’s 1990 spy thriller film of the same name. While shooting that series in Toronto, Cochran and Surnow began working with the Canadian director Jon Cassar (director of the pilot episode of La Femme Nikita), who would eventually direct fifty-nine episodes of 24, the most of any director on the series. Another Canadian, Brad Turner, directed forty-six episodes of 24, second only to Cassar, and he too met Surnow and Cochran on La Femme Nikita, as did producer and writer Michael Loceff and composer Sean Callery.

Rounding out 24’s upper echelon of creative talent were series star Kiefer Sutherland, who defined the iconic character of Jack Bauer and also produced 171 episodes, and the show runner Howard Gordon, whose resume included work on Spencer: For Hire (William Robert Yates, 1984–1988), Beauty and the Beast (Ron Koslow, 1987–1990), The X-Files (Chris Carter, 1993–2002), and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Joss Whedon, 1997–2003). Notably, after 24, Gordon and another ex-24 staffer, Alex Gansa, produced Homeland to much acclaim. Although other writers and directors made substantial contributions, this