TV's 24: entertaining--as fiction: weekly "lifeboat" decisions of super-agent Jack Bauer protect the lives of fictional millions, but without addressing the real moral consequences of situational ethics.

A Disclaimer: Before starting this review, you should know that I love the television show 24. I may even be addicted to this unusually timely and thrilling show about the intelligence world, a fast-paced hour-long adventure that follows the fictional CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit), a Los Angeles-based division of the real U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

But there's a thin line between love and hate. Even as I watch this remarkable show, I can't help thinking about relatively recent news, which claims U.S. agencies with similar powers to CTU have performed extraconstitutional renditions on our captives of war, sending them off to certain torture in foreign lands. It also seems that the CIA has tortured a few suspected Taliban, Iraqi insurgents, and al-Qaeda themselves.

And recently, Michael Chertoff, the head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, not only told the New York Times Magazine that he had seen almost every episode of 24, and consequently had "operation-center envy," but he also appeared publicly with the show's producers, writer, and some of its actors at an event sponsored by the Heritage Foundation.

All of which is kind of cute, except that Chertoff's TV-watching habits, "center envy," and appearance at the event entitled "24 and America's Image in Fighting Terrorism: Fact, Fiction or Does It Matter?" made it appear that the United States' top Homeland Security official endorses 24's extra-legal attitude toward rendition, torture, murder, and other illegal activities. The quandary for us quaint TV-watching moralists, of course, is that 24 is a terrific show, maybe one of the best ever.

During each segment of 24, the CTU crew battles an incredibly sophisticated enemy that has plotted, during different seasons, to: kill the United States' first Afro-American president; explode a nuclear bomb in downtown Los Angeles: release military-grade nerve gas in a high-density metropolitan area; plant a body with an incurable bio-weapon/virus in a Western city; and override the controls at every nuclear plant in the United States, resulting in a massive meltdown.

24 is unique. Unlike any other show in television history, it not only purports that its one-hour segments are occurring in "real time," but the two dozen shows in each season cover the 24 hours in a single, action-packed day, also in real time. Plus, the show's production values (camera work, sets, costumes, special effects, hardware, etc.) appear equal to that of a multi-million dollar movie. In fact, that's how 24 could be described, as a long, but really exciting, Hollywood movie.

Viewers of 24 tend to flock together and talk obsessively about the show, and usually the topic of the moment is along the lines of: "Could you believe what happened! I never would have expected that they would have ...!"

24 never would have gained its present popularity, and currency, if it were simply about guns vs. guns, or hardware vs. hardware. What is the reason for its popularity? The real issue that stands out about 24 is how its very current and disturbing story lines present such morally challenging dilemmas for the characters. Imagine: here we have a fictional division of the Department of Homeland Security, charged with the protection of the United States from the most heinous monsters and evil missions that the human imagination can dredge up.

As each side tries to get the tipper hand, the 24 characters, especially CTU Agent Jack Bauer, often act with the same callousness and disregard for human life that is the hallmark of their inhuman enemies.

There has perhaps never been a moment on television to equal the one on 24 when Jack Bauer, at the instigation of a terrorist. executes one of his own superiors. Here's how Wikipedia describes the action, which appeared in 2003-2004, Season Three:

   [Ryan] Chappelle [CTU's Los Angeles
   Regional Division Director] followed
   the lead of a bank transaction to
   reach bio-terrorist attack mastermind
   Stephen Saunders, who was holding
   the U.S. government hostage with the
   threat of releasing a deadly virus into
   the general population. Saunders discovered
   Chappelle's investigation and
   ordered the President of the United
   States, David Palmer, to arrange for
   his execution. Palmer had Jack take
   the task of executing Chappelle.

      At 06:59 that day, Chappelle and
   Bauer met some men in a black van
   in a downtown train yard. After Chase
   Edmunds, Jack's partner, failed to
   catch Saunders, Bauer had no choice
   but to execute Chappelle and leave
   his body to them. Chappelle asked to
   take his own life, but was unable to
   do so. Before killing Chappelle. Jack
   asked if there was anyone he wanted
   to call. Ryan replied by saying he
   had no friends, and his only brother
   didn't speak to him. Jack then said
   simply "I'm sorry we let you down,
   Ryan. God forgive me." Bauer then
   shot him point blank in the head just
   a few seconds before 07:00.

Unfortunately, but predictably, Saunders was unassuaged by Chappelle's death, and continued to ply his nasty tricks through the end of the season. As acted in 24, the above script moment was just as wrenching as it reads. It was painful to watch, and 24 is filled with these kinds of moments, where Jack (usually) is faced with a decision that could have the power to haunt him the rest of his life. But he is relatively selfless and cannot stop himself from making the choices that (he thinks) will benefit others.

And that is the most fascinating, agonizing, and unbelievable aspect of 24. While we are all faced with moral choices, they are seldom along the lines of, "Let's see, if I do this, millions of people will be saved from (your choice: nuclear destruction, death from an untreatable virus, murder by a deadly toxin, etc.)." Our daily moral choices are banal at best, and even our most horrendous choices are, perhaps, about betraying a friend, committing adultery, stealing from an employer, cheating a competitor in business, etc.

But that is probably the point. When I watch 24, I look at Jack Bauer making these incredible moral choices, and always choosing for the greater good of mankind, for the lives of the residents of Los Angeles, or for the protection of the president of the United States. Jack may err, but he always errs on the side of trying to save millions of lives. We forgive him because his choices are not only terrible, but understandable.

The obvious downside to this is that the immense power for good and for saving lives that is wielded by the Department of Homeland Security and the fictional Counter Terrorism Unit only works when there are really good intentions and really good people wielding that power. Of course, while that is what we hope for, it is seldom the case in real life, due to basic human nature and Lord Acton's famous dictum that "power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

So, while Jack Bauer and the other characters on 24 have the purest intentions and the innate character to make the right decisions, real life is very different. If there were a real CTU operating in the United States, and it had the extra-constitutional powers of the fictional CTU, it would almost certainly be a case of: watch out!

There are constraints on individual and group behavior, and a United States Constitution to uphold, for very good reasons. Thousands of years of human history have led to an unavoidable conclusion: when we make choices that are immoral, there are always major, real consequences, unlike in TV-land. And so while we enjoy, and even love, 24 for its difficult moral choices, we should wonder whether there is a real CTU operating out there. Because if there is a real CTU, i.e. an extra-constitutional counterterrorism unit with the power to make life and death decisions over U.S. citizens, there will certainly come a day when we become the collateral damage of a difficult moral decision, whether through good or bad intentions. And that's not very entertaining.