Torturous 24

There's been a lot being said lately about all the scenes of torture on 24 lately, so I thought I'd weigh in.

Yes, I think the majority of those who chose to join the military (esp to aide the current administration's agenda) are idiots. At the same time I know the military is a necessary evil and we need defense; but the amount of defense we've fooled ourselves into believing we need is ridiculous. Those idiots apparently are watching 24 and getting stupid ideas about torture. That it's acceptable, effective, and perhaps even needed. Groups against all the torture on the series are saying that it's hurting this country's image (as if it needed help). They're probably right.

So there's those reasons against it. As an avid fan of the show, here are my reasons against it. It's getting old. It's getting tired. It's become a convenient plot device to move the story forward. It's become a crutch used by the writers (by their own admission). I think there needs to be a scene where jack or someone else isn't rewarded by torturing someone, but that it back-fires and sets the tone for thinking about torture in the future.

There's also the perspective that it's turning a lot of people off just because of the gruesome value of it. Just a few weeks ago a terrorist put a drill in Morris's back to get him to build a bomb arming device. Though I personally don't have an aversion to on-screen violence, I could see how that could be a problem for some people's stomachs.

The show creators have already said they're going to ease up on that (for creative story reasons, of course). I just hope they don't get backed into a plot corner later this season and just use torture as an out again.