Much ado about nothing...

Gosh, I didn’t realize that one silly little post about 24 would stir up such controversy. (I’m continually surprised by the posts that generate lots of comments, versus the posts that generate very few… it’s usually not the way I expect it to be. :)) It WAS simply meant to be nothing more than an amusing commentary on the show – I mean, if I honestly cared about “realism” that much, I certainly wouldn’t be watching something like Lost. Lost is one of my favorite shows on TV right now, but I still find myself often wondering things like, “how do they all keep their clothes looking so clean and wrinkle-free when they’re always sitting in sand and running through the jungle?” Or, “how did she get her hair to look so nice? I can’t even get mine to look that good with fifteen different hair products and a curling iron.” Or, “is Claire actually wearing eyeliner??” Or, “why won’t Sayid take his shirt off more often?” (Oh wait… that has nothing to do with realism… never mind…) Okay, but how about, “how on earth did all those people survive a plane crash from cruising altitude???”

Or how about shows like CSI and House, where various tests and experiments are run and the results are immediately available? When does anyone EVER get the results of a blood test the same day it’s taken? Generally, it seems to take weeks for things like that to be done… yet if you believed television, you’d think the same person who drew your blood is the same one who’ll run it to the lab, look at it under a microscope, and come running right back up to you – where you, no doubt, are lounging around in a well-lighted, comfortable waiting room, reading an up-to-date magazine. No, television certainly isn’t known for its absolute realism…

My favorite TV show of all time is Northern Exposure – a show which was quite far removed from reality. But its LACK of reality was part of its quirky appeal. If the show had been “normal,” it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun to watch. If the characters had not been true “characters,” the show wouldn’t have worked as well as it did. There was the Jewish New York City doctor thrown into the middle of the vast Alaskan wilderness; the young Native American who frequently spoke to his invisible spirit guide; the super-rich, staunch Republican ex-NASA astronaut who alternately despised and appreciated the only gay couple in town (who had much more in common with him than he wanted to admit); the Saskatchewan beauty queen and her much-older barkeep boyfriend; the fiercely independent female bush pilot; and my personal favorite – the introspective, well-read, artistic, ex-con DJ. Not to mention the guy who lived in the bubble, the mute flying circus performer, the exceptionally quiet doctor’s office receptionist, the septuagenarian owner of the general store, the dirty and barefoot gourmet chef and his hypochondriac wife, and the over-zealous cop.

Northern Exposure bid farewell to its main character – the New York doctor Joel Fleischman – by sending him on a literary-themed journey through the Aleutians, where he eventually strolled past the snow and evergreens directly into a glittering city skyline. Realistic? Not in the least. Great television? Absolutely. The amazing thing about Northern Exposure was that it engaged viewers in such a way that we could forget about the unrealistic aspects of the show. In fact, the fanciful nature of the show is what MADE it what it was – a perfect means of “escape” from our boring everyday lives. For one hour, you could almost believe that a mute circus performer COULD fly. You could almost believe that a bizarre, barefoot man could create the best dinner you’d ever tasted. You could almost believe that living in the middle of nowhere in Alaska would be the most interesting experience of your life.

And for ME, at least, this is where 24 failed – it failed to engage me in such a way that I could forget about the lack of realism. The fact that no one ever eats or sleeps SHOULDN’T be a big deal, and yet somewhere around hour 14 or 15, they BECAME a big deal. Not because I cared all that much about the reality, but more because I was so bored with the storyline that my mind wandered into minutiae. I began to think that perhaps the show should’ve been called “15 Or Possibly 16,” because that’s about the point where I decided it had pretty much run its course. But hey, it’s just my opinion, and it’s obviously a very popular show. To each his own.

But honestly, everyone DOES understand that Jack Bauer is a fictional character, right? Just checking… :)