Jack Bauer, a bloody "God of Justice"

Image by K!T via Flickr

I have never been fond of any type of EXTREME patriotism, nor anti-terrorism, such as the TV show "24" conveys, but I had been enjoyed watching this show like nothing before. 8 seasons, 192 episodes total, I finally finished watching them with a feeling of emptiness. This is truly the best action show I ever watched, albeit I have not watched many.

Living in chronic health condition and often feel inadequate for simple tasks, I found it perfectly meaningful to indulge myself into all those impossible missions and surreal heroes.

The show is incredibly intense, fast paced with complicated twisted story lines. I highly enjoyed all of these, include many of supporting rules like Nina, Tony and finally the best Chloe, however, what really stroke me was the protagonist's "extreme" temperament, his almost faithful insistence on "justice" and "truth" - Jack Bauer (an agent of "CTU") does not negotiate! He has passion for vengeance! And he is always right and he always wins!

"Revenge" has never been a concept supported by any cultural ideologies or religions, but it is such a instinct nature of human that no one can deny the experience of it. Since I am from a culture that is good at self denial, maybe just as good as or, even better than any other cultures, plus my own experience tells me things quite differently from those boring moral teachings, I found this show extra attractive.

Another striking element of this show was that Jack Bauer was always alone: he was often alone during his missions, he was always left alone after the missions. He was easily misunderstood by government and his country, even sometime by his fellow agents. He saved the country millions times and he saved millions people's lives, but the country and people still hated him, still tried as hard as possible to eliminate him.

"Deja vu!" One against all! For me, this is another perfect truth in real life.

One negative aspect I found from Jack Bauer is that he virtually was just a tool of government. He was used every time when the country was in needs of him (once the country even handed him to terrorists for death, in order to save "millions people's lives"). And after missions impossible were done, he was not protected at all and often had to run alone. For his job, Bauer paid immeasurable price - he lost love ones and could not have a normal life. But still, he was loyal to his country, put his life aside from his missions, just like a perfect model of patriots.

This reminds me communist government back in China. They are doing exactly the same thing in their propagandist art. As an individualist, I despise such political propaganda.

Nevertheless, this show overall is a tremendous success. I am in love with Jack Bauer, and Kiefer Sutherland will never be forgotton as Jack Bauer - a bloody "God of justice"!