Here is a crazy, evil man.
Here is the idealized actor who is playing the role of President of “the Islamic Republic” in season 8 of 24, where Jack Bauer plays the intrepid grandfather role.
So, we’re supposed to believe that a thinly disguised Iran is suddenly negotiating in good faith to cancel it’s nuclear weapons program? And that this President of the “Islamic Republic” is opposed by radical forces including his own brother, when all he wants is peace and friendship with the west?
Well… it IS TV. Fantasy land. Maybe the high forehead is supposed to convince us he’s the good guy.
What can you expect from a show that last season portrayed a private American security company (loosely modeled on Blackwater) as the villain that was launching bio-weapon missiles all over the place?
I’m afraid I’ve lost hope that TV shows can keep telling interesting stories based on who the terrorists actually are.
24 managed a couple of seasons that were actually about Islamic terrorists. Out of 7 complete ones, so far. It’s too early to know where this season is going… but the Ahmindinewhackjob substitute is going to try to make us think he is equal parts Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr., with a bit of Thomas Jefferson thrown in….. no, not the part about dedication to freedom and liberty, but the feet of clay where women are concerned.
Of course, on TV Superman can fly.
UPDATE: The second episode has the necessary criminal cop, who is willing to torture and murder Jack Bauer without trial because he thinks he killed a cop. It also has the innocent rookie cop who reluctantly stands by while the older, evil cop does the deed. Gosh… I wonder how they get such ground breaking ideas? This episode isn’t over yet… I’m sure they won’t kill Jack off this early in the season. But Jack has already been hit with a double Tazer dose, kicked, then struck in the head five times very hard… I’m sure after this commercial is over, he’s going to leap up in an amazing display of 50 yr old vitality and grandfatherly resilience, and triumph over the evil constables.
UPDATE 2: It turns out I was half right. Jack DID leap up and take down the older evil cop, but was delayed by the younger one, who, in a fit of conscience, seems to have decided to phone it in. Of course, the evil older cop was a white, shaved head type, and the younger, nicer one is some kind of Asian with a nice face. I expect central casting sent out for someone with the look of the White Aryan Brotherhood to play the older, evil cop.
Amazingly, Jack’s face does not even appear to be bruised.
On the other hand, the black CTU Director is obviously not the good-hearted, competent cliche we’ve seen in police Captain roles since the 1970s, trying to subdue unruly white detectives by yelling at them without really meaning it. He seems to be pig-headed and easy to fool with planted evidence. Oh well… can’t win ’em all.
The people who bought this show from the original creators at the beginning of year 7 have no apparent compunctions about resurrecting every Hollywood script cliche imaginable. I wonder what will be next. Maybe a criminally psychotic murderous priest? Yeah, that’s the ticket.
When it first started, 24 was a really original show. Now, it’s just an echo.
UPDATE 3: Oh NOOOOOO! It’s the Russians again! Maybe this time the evil priest will be Russian Orthodox.
