Posted on 01/22/2007 1:30:58 PM PST by presidio9
When the ABCNews.com column assignment arrived mid-morning --"Is the TV show "24" going too far by depicting a nuclear attack in Los Angeles in its opening episode?"-- the drama went out of tonight's two-hour program. Or so I thought. As zero hour approached, I found myself assuming that the program really wouldn't actually depict a nuclear detonation near Los Angeles. I noted as the show unfolded that the script had the doomsday scenario putting the casualties of such an event at somewhere north of a hundred thousand, a remarkably low estimate, and that no mention was made of the catastrophic impact of radiation sickness or the second level but still devastating impact to surrounding infrastructure, the immediate refugee problem, or the collapse of the national economy. Given that the consequences of such a blast, I found myself doubting that the program would risk absurdity by depicting a post-nuclear attack America far more simple than anyone has a right to conceive.
But blow the nuke, the writers did, and apparently there are four more where that came from. How Jack and gang deals with the aftermath remains to be seen --martial law at least from Bakersfield to San Diego, and from the Pacific to Vegas, perhaps, and a Dow 1200? -- But the question put to me remains: Did the program "go too far?"
Given that there are easily, oh, 10 million people in the world who would stand up and cheer at the real version of Monday night's fictionalized attack, and at least a few tens of thousands trying hard to do a deed of at least proportionate scale given the weaponry available, it is silly to argue that "it" couldn't possibly happen. Of course it could happen. Eventually another nuke will go off, and it is not likely to be the obvious action of a state actor. So what is the "too far" in the question supposed to mean? It can only be that "24" is engaged in fear-mongering, and that is as stupid a charge as can be made.
Would the BBC have been going "too far" if in 1937 it had broadcast a radio drama depicting life in a Hitler-authorized death camp where hundreds of thousands of Jews were being executed in gas chambers, one of a string of such camps springing up across Europe?
Would a Paris newspaper have been going "too far" if it had run a short story in 1913 supposing trench warfare that would claim millions of casualties?
Had PBS run a drama proposing a Communist massacre of millions of Cambodians in 1973 or a Rawandan genocide of more than a half million Tutsis twenty years later, would those prophecies have been going "too far?"
The problem of the last century was a failure in the imagining of evil, a failure which was in some ways evil's accomplice. "It can't happen" often masked the very unfolding of the too-awful-to-occur event.
So now a few people are shuddering that "24" has gone and done it: Blown up Los Angeles and left the most productive part of the national economy crippled and hundreds of thousands dead. An event much more likely to occur in our lifetime than any catastrophe unleashed by global warming has been put on the table (and the LCD) and suddenly tongues are wagging about responsibility.
"Israel must be wiped off the map," Iranian President Ahmadinejad has declared, and he's been repeating the same basic message for a couple of years. No "too far" language regarding him from the critics of "24" I'll wager.
It isn't "only a television show," and appeals to the First Amendment are beside the point. The key question is whether the drama is a bit of absurd science fiction, or the projection of a not-so-distant future, not in its particulars, but in its awful core depiction.
Americans don't like to think of such an attack upon America. But prior to 9/11, they didn't like to think of airplanes crashing into skyscrapers and thousands dead in a moment and the government within hours of being decapitated.
Give the producers another fistful of Emmys and settle in to see how Jack handles post-nuclear America. "OK, I think we can agree that this is a big step up from the canister plot," Dave Barry wrote on his blog in real time after the blinding flash, a reference to the rather labored plot from last year, and an indication that even the veteran humorist who has been dining out on "24" for the past few years to the delight of a huge audience was taken aback. A shock to many, an upsetting nightmare for others.
A depiction of a happy ending for our enemies.
Trouble is, they would probably take the easy way out and re=invent Rambo.
I would like it to be like Winds of War and War and Rememberance.
Robert Mitchum.....he was great.
"Clancy had the chance."
Right you are.
That book scared the living daylights out of me. I remember when and where it was I finished that thing.
No kidding... I live very close to DC, and I figure when it happens it will be DC, NY or LA.
I have spent new years back home before, literally because it was spooky being in DC for the ball drop in 2002/3. With the way things are going with the libs and the wiener republicans its probably more likely these days.
***Did anyone ask the Islamic terrorists, who planned and hit the World Trade Center, if they went to far?***
Post of the week.
I wouldn't be suprised if the folks that think "24" "went too far"...
...are the same ones that think the latest avant garde offering at
The Sundance Film Festival is...
SIMPLY MARVELOUS!!!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1771851/posts
"Does the movie "Zoo" go too far?"
Where's THAT headline....
No, actually I don't realize that. Wikipedia, like the good leftist tools they are, splits hairs to say their are only "backpack nukes". OK. We don't see the device being carried in a suitcase, we are told it is a 1 Megaton bomb, I believe (which lines up with the details on our smallest weapon outlined below).
Net-net: do suitcase nukes exist? Yes, at least close enough for me. And for the jihadi wack-jobs who want one so badly.
From Wikipedia entry for "suitcase nuke" Only a nation with an extremely advanced nuclear program could manufacture warheads small enough to fit into a suitcase. Both the USA and the USSR manufactured nuclear weapons small enough to fit into large backpacks during the Cold War, but neither have ever made public the existence or development of weapons small enough to fit into a suitcase.
The smallest nuclear warhead manufactured by the USA was the W54, used for the Davy Crockett warhead which could be fired from a 120 mm recoilless rifle, and a backpack version called the Mk-54 SADM (Small Atomic Demolition Munition). While this warhead, with a weight of only 51 lb (23 kg), could potentially fit into a large suitcase, it would be a very tight fit.
While the explosive power of the W54 — up to an equivalent of 1 kiloton of TNT — is not much by the normal standards of a nuclear weapon (the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II were around 13 to 15 kilotons each), it could still do tremendous physical damage to a structure (it would be many, many times more powerful than the explosive attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1995, for example, with a yield of 0.002 kiloton).
Not far enough
It was too delicious having ABC fret about "24" going too far when that network had their own nuclear explosion movie.
Something like that happened to me too.
I ended up ordering the first four episodes
from Amazon.
That's exactly what I did. Netflix'd the first five seasons and am now watching season six as it airs. It is KILLING me to have to wait an entire week between episodes!
Did "24" go too far?
Not in my opinion.
Lol...true, but didn't they have these in 4 other cities? Oops...
I thought so, too...POed me so badly, I stopped watching and just returned this season.
I hope we have that feature. We have the HiDef unit that goes with satellite. New features were just made available. I will search. Thanks for your help.
Do you mean season or episodes? I am missing last Monday's 2 hour installment. You think I can get that at Best Buy? Thanks.
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