Reading 24: TV Against the Clock

by Steven Peacock (Editor)

Overview

When "24" exploded onto TV screens in 2001, "Time" magazine called it one of the 'Best Television Events of the Decade'. "24" has gone on to establish itself as groundbreaking and controversial entertainment that has changed the face of television. Each season of "24" traces the events of a single day in the life of CTU Field Agent Jack Bauer. Racing against the clock, Bauer battles assassination attempts, germ warfare and terrorist factions to 'save the day'. "24" presents the nail-biting events of each day through its use of split-screen and 'real-time' devices. Dramatically explosive and visually dynamic, "24" taps into a global sense of uncertainty and suspicion with its provocative depiction of America's role on the world stage and of terrorist activity and political double-dealing. "Reading '24'" is the first book to bring together critical discussions of "24" from a wide range of perspectives. Entertaining and illuminating, the book looks in detail at the creative and controversial features of "24". It considers, for example, "24"'s stylistic innovations, its engagement post 9/11 with the 'War on Terror', and its masking of identities.
The pioneering spirit of the show is matched by the original arguments on display here, celebrating and censuring "24" - TV on the edge.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845113292
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/15/2007
Series:	Reading Contemporary Television
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.81(w) x 8.33(h) x 0.77(d)

About the Author

Steven Peacock is a Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at Southampton Solent University. He is the author of 'Colour: Cinema Aesthetics' (Manchester University Press, 2007).

Table of Contents

Introduction * Part One: Splitting the Screen: Rewriting Television Conventions * 24 and Twenty-First Century Quality Television—Scott Ruston & Daniel Chamberlain * 24 and New Directions in Televisuality—Steven Peacock * Multi-Panelled Narrative in 24—Michael Allen * Reasons to Split Up—Interactivity, Realism and the Multiple Screen Image in 24—Deborah Jermyn * Interesting Times: The Demands 24's Real-Time Format Makes on its Audience— Jackie Furby * Part Two: America under Siege: Terrorism, Globalisation and the Politics of (American) Morality * "So what are you saying An oil consortium's behind the nuke?"24, Programme Sponsorship, SUVs, and the "War on Terror"—Paul Woolf * Days and Hours of the Apocalypse: 24 and the Nuclear Narrative—Daniel Herbert * 24 after 9/11: The American State of Exception— Samuel A. Chambers & Anne Caldwell * Just-in-time Security: Permanent Exceptions and Neoliberal Orders—Torin Monahan * "Tell me where the bomb is or I will kill your son": Situational Morality on 24—Sharon Sutherland & Sarah Swan * "You're going to tell me everything you know": Torture and Morality in Fox's 24—Douglas L. Howard * Part Three: Unmasking Identities: Sexuality, Difference, Culture * Damsels in Distress: Female Narrative Authority and Knowledge in 24—Janet McCabe * Gender and Genre in the Action-Soap 24—Joke Hermes * Techno-Soap: 24, Masculinity and Hybrid Forms—Tara McPherson * "She May Be a Little Weird": Chloe O'Brian—Paul Delaney * 24 and Postnational American Identities—Christopher Gair * Afterword—David Lavery