24 Analysis

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24 Analysis Ginia Bellafante is a journalist for the New York Times, and in 2007 she wrote an article entitled “In the 24 World, Family Is the Main Casualty” that dives into the family relationship problems of the popular television show, 24. 24 is a television show that revolves around United States Counter-Terrorism Agent Jack Bauer and his continuous attempts at thwarting the destruction of the United States. The show was criticized for many reasons by many organizations for depicting government sanctioned torture, stereotyping Muslims as bad, and the common portrayal of domestic violence, as normal. In Bellafante’s critical analysis of 24, she focuses primarily on the issue of domestic violence, referencing the show’s apparent lack of respect for family ties. As Bellafante analyses the family connections in 24, she inadvertently reveals that the show’s plotline is making a broader statement about what officers and soldiers sacrifice in the line of duty for the sake of our country, and is furthermore making suggesting that the creators of 24 are using the show to express their gratitude. In the first part of Bellafante’s analysis, she describes her realization that the show 24 operates under two different themes. The first theme is the most obvious one, the apocalyptic thriller that the show is based upon. However, there is a subtler, more significant theme hidden within the plotline, and that is the idea of “domestic horrors” (Bellafante 39), upon which she builds the remainder of her analysis. She covers a broad range of events from the series that support this thematic find, explaining, that in the show “[p]arents kill children…husbands abuse wives…sisters try to kill sisters…wives fire husbands-or stab them” (Bellafante 39). All of these examples of corrupt family relationships within the fictional, post-apocalyptic world of 24 add to the idea that
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