KEY POINTS:
If a society is reflected in its popular culture, what does the TV series 24 tell us about contemporary America?
Firstly, that paranoiacs and conspiracy theorists are now sufficiently thick on the ground to constitute a prime-time audience. For avid 24 viewers, the true axis of evil is the political establishment, big business and the CIA. It's safe to assume that these people have never wavered in their belief that 9/11 was an inside job.
Secondly, that an audience brought up on Hollywood blockbusters, special effects extravaganzas and video games no longer demands or even expects a perfunctory nod to realism from its story-tellers.
In his rueful Hollywood expose Which Lie Did I Tell?, screenwriter William Goldman recalls a retired New York fireman describing the bravest act he ever witnessed. This incredible act of heroism, says Goldman, "is what Sylvester Stallone does in an action picture before the opening credits start to roll. That is what Arnold Schwarzenegger does in an action picture before breakfast. Stars do not play heroes. Stars play gods".
The willing suspension of disbelief has become a slack-jawed acceptance of the most brazen insult to one's intelligence.
Perhaps it's even worse. Perhaps this audience simply doesn't have a strong enough grip on reality - which requires a degree of informed awareness and common sense - to recognise that what's being presented as the truth behind tomorrow's headlines is actually utterly ludicrous.
Bearing in mind that each 24-episode series supposedly takes place in real time during the course of a single day, try this little quiz.
How many innocent civilians die in the just-concluded series: 15,000, 25,000, 100,000?
How many bad guys does special agent Jack Bauer kill: 40, 60, 100?
How many top-level US Government officials are NOT part of a sinister conspiracy: 0, 1, 2?
Get the picture? To put it another way, the following takes place in one day: there's a series of suicide bomb attacks on shopping malls and public transport; a suitcase nuclear bomb is detonated in a Los Angeles suburb.
Several similar catastrophes are narrowly averted. The US is within seconds of launching a retaliatory nuclear strike on an unnamed Arab country; an attempt is made on the President's life; his predecessor is stabbed to death by his ex-wife; the Vice-President is blackmailed out of challenging the President's fitness to serve in court. And his closest aide (and lover) passes top-secret information to Russia; a Chinese commando team storms the Counter-Terrorism Unit's headquarters; Russia is within minutes of unleashing World War III by attacking US military bases in Central Asia.
And no one in the history of the human race can possibly have had as an eventful a day as Jack Bauer's. Space doesn't permit a full summary but it's worth mentioning that among those he tortures - a hero for our times indeed - is his evil brother. During a pause in proceedings, the brother is permanently silenced by their even more evil father. As the Dude says in The Big Lebowski: "It's a complicated situation - lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-yous."
Throughout all this, the media is conspicuous by its absence. There are other anomalies. A similar series set in Auckland would have to be called 72 or 144 because of the time it takes to get from A to B. Despite LA's sprawl and gridlock, in 24 no one ever gets stuck in traffic.
24 is at the cutting edge technology-wise: what Bauer can't access on his PDA with a little help from the geeks at CTU HQ is hardly worth knowing.
Technology has become an issue for the crime/thriller genre since it threatens to eliminate the dogged individual quest which has traditionally formed the basis of the mystery story. American critic Joe Queenan has suggested that the current crop of retro crime movies - American Gangster, No Country for Old Men - reflects a desire to escape the constraints on plot and story-telling imposed by technology.
Alternatively film-makers can do what they do in 24: call on technology when it suits them and ignore it when it doesn't. The all-seeing satellite eye and array of eavesdropping devices can pick up a gopher breaking wind on the High Sierra but not the SUV convoy shuttling nukes around LA.
24 does more than pander to its audience's credulity. The key to its appeal is its exploitation of the serial formula: even though you feel mildly ashamed, you have to find out what happens next.
But the faux-worldly cynicism, the futuristic sheen and the sub-textual references to actual events imply this is the reality THEY don't tell you about. Clearly, there's no shortage of takers for this paranoid snake-oil.
