And there was evening and there was morning: on 24

Day 5:

This is why I don't own a TV: I stopped by a friend's apartment earlier this evening and he was strung out on his 4th DVD of 24 which apparently he's been watching for the last 12 hours--straight.

I used to find 24 immensely entertaining until Jack Bauer (and the show in general) became certain that torture was the way to go. Now we--the audience--let Jack get away with, and righteously enjoy the torture because his hyper-moral clarity and certitude tell us its ok, necessary, inevitable.

In earlier seasons of 24, torture was not the sadistic show-stopper it has become--torture was even dismissed as an option by Jack on several occasions because "it would take too much time"... but now, it's really become sick and I've definitely watched people "getting off" on this... maybe the lack of a grey zone surrounding the torture on 24 (a FOX network show after all) makes it easier for conservatives and liberals to sleep after Abu Ghraib. I don't know...

I work in theatre. I direct plays. I'm not exactly known for directing light-hearted pieces. Like Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, when given choice of material, I'll always go over to the dark side (they have cookies) and praise shadows specifically because rolling that way demands rigor of interpretation. Why? Because, if you "fake it," if you try to to force the light from the dark in these plays, then you quickly realize that you're practicing kitsch.

And kitsch, like certainty, seems to me to be one of the worst bad-faith gestures I can think of.

So dark plays can sometimes force honesty from us. 24 isn't dark. It's gauzed up, bloody kitsch. It doesn't really confront torture--it denies its awfulness by making it safe to enjoy.

Right now, I'm rehearsing Samuel Beckett's "Endgame"--what a force against certainty, against fascist aesthetics; relentlessly questioning and without answer.

If Freud is right, or even partially right, our need for psychic payback, vengeance against perceived wrongs, and aggression in general is a drive which cannot and should not be denied. But how we express this need, as artists, or consumers of art--even when watching 24--perhaps there is a demand for more questioning, no?