The Gray Area

"This episode was a lesson in, to use the term Nathanson did, realpolitik — the nexus where the niceties of politics collide with real-world cynicism and evil. Logan has been operating under a gutless form of realpolitik from the start of the season, though he probably couldn't spell the word without his aide, Mike, thumbing through a dictionary for him.
More broadly speaking, 24 is moving into areas of political suspense that, until now, were mostly the province of novels, such as those by Charles McCarry, Ross Thomas, and — on the other side of the pond — John le Carre. I'm sure that at Fox News (shown, as always, prominently reporting 24's fictional news on this Fox-network series) there are studios full of pundits who'd side with Logan on nearly all his decisions. But 24 forces us to parse our own moral decisions even while we're getting off on the pulse-increasing editing, the chases, and the gunplay. Yes, we want Jack to capture the bad guys, but this season, we're also being asked, At what cost to our souls?"
- Ken Tucker


Everytime I talk to my dad about 24, he always calls Jack Bauer a "bad guy." His basic argument is that, whatever his motivations, Jack still does "bad guy" things (addicting himself to heroin, torture, murder, etc...) To him, the ends don't justify the means.
On the other hand, one of my friends argues that Jack is a "good guy." He's always trying to help people, no matter the cost to himself. All he wants to do is protect his family and his country from serious evil.


We like to believe that right and wrong are absolutes. In fact,we like almost everything to be polarizing. It's much easier to make decisions when you only have two choices. Good/evil, healthy/sick, Liberal/conservative; you are either black or white, no in-between.

But reality is usually in the gray area.