In the public mind, Jack Bauer is, if not the exemplary man of his era, at least a leading
and widely touted candidate for that role.
This attitude says something rather troubling about our society’s ethical outlook;
and we can see this perhaps most clearly through considering how 24 as a narrative
proposes to revise the traditional philosophical notion of a moral dilemma for the
post-9/11 age. Such an examination is what I undertake in this essay. Focusing
specifically on 24’s Season Five (the year the show won the Emmy for Best Dramatic
Series), this essay will show how 24’s creators have substituted in the public mind almost
a parody of the standard philosophical account of a moral dilemma in place of the
traditional notion. Their methods for this conceptual revision have included both an
extravagant, even baroque portrayal of the grand dilemmas which confront Jack Bauer
and his fellow patriots, on the one hand, and on the other, a subtle de-valuing of the moral
stakes in the more pedestrian variety of ethical conflicts Bauer and company must
overcome in their quest to keep America safe, whatever the cost.
The Ethics of 24
When 24 premiered in the fall of 2001, a few weeks after 9/11, its chief novelty
was its unconventional narrative structure. Nothing like its gimmick of twenty-four
episodes each containing one hour’s worth of action in “real-time” had ever been
attempted before on television, and this aspect of it engaged the most critical comment at
the time. But from the long view, 24’s most novel contribution was not an innovation of
style but rather of character. In Jack Bauer we find the first character on television,
perhaps in literature, who is both ready to perform torture and other atrocities at a
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Convention