So, since the third season ended up on everyone's "Best of 2004" lists, I decided to check out the fourth season of 24. And, after four hours, I'm out. (I had given up on the series about 2/3 of the way through the second season, but, for some reason, bought the third on DVD. An impulse, really. But I've only seen a few episodes of it so far. And I won't be buying Season 4...)

Now, this season has been getting some flack for featuring a Muslim family as part of an Islamic terrorist cell. Apparently, the Islamic Anti-Defamation League (not their real name) is concerned that if every single Arab character in this season of 24 is a terrorist, it might send the wrong message, and reinforce popularly-held if incorrect stereotypes. And they're right, of course, although that's not why I'm bailing so soon.

No, I'm bailing because I can't enjoy the series. It's entirely possible that if I could ignore the politics, it would be a perfectly acceptable piece of escapism. (Although I doubt it; it was already getting pretty stupid in Hour 3, when in order to stall a terrorist suspect, hero Jack Bauer stages a fake convenience-store robbery/hostage crisis.) No, the thing is this: the subtext is all about how due process and human rights are just useless--or, worse, a hinderance--when it comes to dealing with them Furrin Turrists. (Read it like a mumbling, barely literate, probably not sober Texan, and it'll make sense). Early on, the Counter Terrorist Unit is making no headway in questioning a suspect using traditional methods, so what does Bauer do? Shoots the guy in the knee. Maybe just the leg. Either way, bullets, lower extremity, pain... you get the message. And the guy spills his guts. (Not literally, though that might have been the next step.) You see? You see how dealing with the Turrrists like anything better than animals just won't work? You see how we need extreme measures to get what we need?

So Bauer and a by-the-book CTU operative go after another suspect, only when Bauer is ready to do something else illegal--I don't even remember what, at this point--his partner handcuffs him. And promptly gets shot and killed by the Turrrist. And Bauer can't get immediately after him, because he is literally handcuffed by the establishment, and needs to get free first. (Can anyone hear the waves lapping against the shores of Guantanamo Bay?)

Meanwhile, the Turrrrrists have kidnapped the Secretary of Defense, and plan on putting him on trial for war crimes--something the US would never submit to in the real world, so such things must be the acts of outlaws--and the Secretary keeps shouting about how he is the Secretary of Defense of the Unites States of America, like the constant reinforcement of that is enough to convince us that he shouldn't be held accountable for his actions. (I mean, I'm not saying that our officials should be kidnapped by criminals, but I think it's telling that the show threatens to put the Secretary on trial in public, instead of just threatening to kill him. As if the message is that holding the government of the US accountable could only be the actions of terrorists.)

I kept hoping to enjoy 24, because it's by the folks who made La Femme Nikita, a show I really liked. Ironically, Nikita was all about people who were drafted into some sort of extra-governmental counter-intelligence/counterterrorism agency that completely dehumanized its operatives. It stripped them of their rights as individuals, doing whatever it needed to do to achieve its ends, no matter who was trampled on as a result, and the main characters constantly fought against that. And the difference between 24 and Nikita is that in Nikita, the counterterrorists were the bad guys.