Media Studies Paper

24 is 24 Hours Too Long
Socially Responsible Programming After 9/11

The events of September 11th forever changed America. It changed the country’s perception of the world and of its own security. This change in perception created a ripple effect that ran through all aspects of society. All manner of thought and expression were indelibly changed forever. One of the most notable and visible changes was that of television. Programs produced after 9/11 reflected this change in the nation’s sensibilities and sought to bring meaning to the world after that fateful day.
Many programs that have premiered since 9/11 have attempted to portray changes in the way people think about terrorism. In fact, many shows have blatantly tried to capitalize on people’s fears and misconceptions about terrorism. Shows like 24 glamorize the new style of counter espionage. No longer are the police enough, now secret branches of the government like the one run by Jack Bauer are all that stand between freedom and terrorism. These shows add fuel to the fire and reinforce the message that terrorists are evil and unstoppable except by people like Mr. Bauer. These shows, created by people with no real social conscience, make people believe that the acquiescence of the removal of certain freedoms by the government is the only way to avoid certain doom. These programs do not ask people to think about terrorism, but rather present a horrific picture that the viewer is required to accept as truth.
It is fortunate that other shows that attempt to portray the world after 9/11 try to do so in such a way that the viewer becomes informed about the changes in the world. These shows attempt to create a dialogue where people can attempt to come to some sort of understanding about the new concepts and ideas that have become a way of life. Before 9/11, things like torture and suicide bombings were easy to understand, or so the world thought. These things were wrong. But as the world changed after 9/11 so did the view of these things. Shows like Battlestar Galactica attempt to make people see different viewpoints of ideas and ideologies through the use of metaphors in terms of a war between the last of the human race and the robotic race that they created.
Battlestar Galactica begins with the destruction of planet Caprica, home of the human race, in a sneak attack by the Cylons. The series follows a fleet of civilian ships that travel with the last military battleship, or battlestar, as they search for Earth. The Cylons continue to attempt to eradicate the humans by any means necessary. It isn’t long before the humans discover that all Cylons don’t look like machines, some have been designed that look like humans and are incredibly difficult to distinguish from actual humans. Only through a medical test are these Cylon agents able to be differentiated.
Already we have the development of the metaphor for the post 9/11 world that Battlestar Galactica is. The attack on the human home world of Caprica is reminiscent of the attack on the twin towers. The Cylon infiltrators are not unlike the modern conception of terrorists, people that look like anyone else, an indistinguishable enemy in our midst. By creating a non-human enemy like the Cylons, the writers develop a metaphor for the way the government portrays terrorists, not as people, but as something less than human.
It is because of concepts like this that people are able to accept things like the use of torture in interrogations of terrorists. Terrorists aren’t people, so they don’t deserve the same basic rights we as a society afford onto other people. In the episode “Flesh and Blood” the humans have discovered the fact that Cylons are now able to look human. They have captured the Cylon, Leoben, and need to question him in order to learn more about this new face of the enemy. Admiral Adama, leader of the human military, sends in Kara Thrace, aka Starbuck, one of his top officers, to interrogate their prisoner. Starbuck asks what methods she should use and is told by Adama to use whatever means are necessary. Starbuck proceeds to question Leoben, eventually resorting to beating him and using a bucket of water to nearly drown him. Starbuck tells Leoben to turn off his pain, that because he’s a machine he doesn’t have to endure the torture. This is important because pain is what makes us human, both the ability to experience it and the ability to observe it in others. “When we doubt the truth of another’s pain, we doubt their humanity (Johnson-Lewis 34).” Starbuck attempts to make Leoben a machine, not a person. While Leoben, as a Cylon, is an artificial construction, this scene forces the viewer to think about a question that will underlie the entire series: What makes someone a person? Much like “enemy combatants” in the real world, the Cylons are less than people and as such are not entitled to the rights we, as a society, impart upon individual persons. Starbuck can use whatever methods, no matter how brutal, in her interrogation of Leoben because he’s not a person, he’s something less.
Battlestar Galactica also makes an effort to take concepts that, although alien, have become a part of the post-9/11 world and change them in a way that calls for a re-evaluation. Practices that seem so senseless that they seem to defy rationality are depicted in Battlestar Galactica in such a way that, again, a dialogue is the anticipated result. Most notably, the concept of suicide bombing was presented in such a way that this seemingly senseless and barbaric practice was portrayed realistically as the last resort of people fighting oppression.
At the end of the second season, the humans settle upon a planet they call New Caprica, it’s not Earth, but it’s good enough. Not long after they settle, however, the Cylon fleet catches up with them again. Battlestar Galactica, in orbit with the Battlestar Pegasus, has only a skeleton crew and both ships are in no condition to fight; both ships have to engage their jump drives and flee, leaving the settlers on the planet to their fates. In short order the Cylons become an occupying army. As season three begins we see the results of the Cylons’ “benevolent” rule. Humans are being detained, interrogated and tortured. The president of the colony is a figurehead, with no power and merely a puppet of the occupying force. The writers have created a metaphor for America’s occupation of Iraq, but the humans are the Iraqis and the Cylons are the Americans. The viewer is invested in the plight of the humans and is forced to conceptualize the Iraq war from the viewpoint of the Iraqis.
As the first episode of the third season, “Occupation”, starts, we see Colonel Tigh, former second-in-command of Battlestar Galactica, being released from the detention center, where he was interrogated and tortured, losing his eye in the process. We discover that Tigh is the leader of the resistance on New Caprica. Meeting with his trusted lieutenants, he calls for an increase in attacks on the Cylons. He calls for suicide bombings. Justifiably, his idea is met with opposition. Chief Tyrol, second to Tigh, is horrified and says, “There are some things you just don’t do… not even in war.”(3.01)
Tigh is a bit more pragmatic and responds, “It’s not the first time we sent a soldier on a one way mission. You know that.” (3.01)
But it doesn’t take long before there are volunteers for the bombings; people who have lost their loved ones and feel they have nothing else to live for. The first target is a graduation ceremony for the human police force created by the Cylons. These humans are viewed as traitors by the other humans for becoming the tool of the Cylon oppression, they carry out their duties under cover of night with masks to conceal their identities. The suicide bomber, Duck, infiltrates the ceremony for the new class of recruits. The viewer watches as he presses the button and detonates his bomb, in the name of freedom.
Battlestar Galactica presents the viewer with the idea of suicide bombing, but not from the view of the “liberating” force that has to deal with these attacks upon itself, but rather from the view of the “enemy combatant”. The show “presents us with the futility of a situation in which suicide bombing becomes a justifiable tactic of resistance, but also asks if defeating the Cylons is worth self-destruction (Johnson-Lewis 36).” The show presents us with a view of the suicide bomber, not as a foreign extremist but rather as a person, like us, and makes the viewer decide if what the bomber does is justifiable. Again, the show hopes to create a dialogue in which the question is asked: In a similar situation, what would I do? In this way the show makes what seems an extreme action into an action that has motives that may seem acceptable.
It in these ways that shows like Battlestar Galactica better represent post-9/11 culture than shows like 24 ever could. 24 gives us the hero, Jack Bauer. He must be the hero, he’s played by Kiefer Sutherland and he works for the American government. This only strengthens the assertion that questioning the government and its actions are unacceptable. In the world of 24, America is the good guys and terrorists are the bad guys.
This isn’t the case in Battlestar Galactica. The use of low-key lighting and a very shallow depth of field create a feeling of unease. Characters tend to be slightly out of focus, not unlike their motives. Post-feministic attitudes are prevalent throughout; women are portrayed as being strong or weak based on their moral character, not because of an attempt to compensate for misogynistic ideals of a woman’s role in positions of leadership. Women are not portrayed as “either bitch-betrayer or terrorized victim (Hark 138)” like they are in 24.
The events of 9/11 forever changed the American conscience. The ways in which Americans view themselves, others, and the rest of the world will never be the same. Numerous programs will not only be affected by these changes, but will attempt to analyze these new perceptions and depict them in their storylines. While shows like Battlestar Galactica will portray these new ideas in a socially conscious way in order to create an atmosphere for critical thought about these issues, shows like 24 will only attempt to glamorize these changes in the worst ways possible. It is up to the viewer to decide what makes for watchable television.






Hark, Ina Rae. “Today is the Longest Day of My Life.” In Film and Television After 9/11, edited by Wheeler Winston Dixon, 121-140. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2004

Johnson-Lewis, Erika. “Torture, Terrorism, and Other Aspects of Human Nature.” In Cylons in America: Critical Studies in Battlestar Galactica, edited by Tiffany Potter and C.W. Marshall, 27-39. New York: Continuum Publishing, 2008