24 (TV series) / Season 4

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Season 4 of 24
Original title 24: Day 4
24-Logo.svg
Episodes 24
Country of production United StatesUnited States United States
First broadcast Jan 9, 2005 - May 23, 2005 on Fox
German-language
first broadcast		 Ep. 1–9: Nov. 28, 2005 - Jan 9, 2006 on SF 2 , Ep. 10–24: Jan 12, 2006 - Feb. 16, 2006 on ATVplus0
◀   Season 3 Season 5   ▶
► Episode list
main actor
supporting cast
synchronization

The fourth season of the US television series 24 was first broadcast in the United States from January to May 2005, and in Germany , Austria and Switzerland between November 2005 and March 2006. It is essentially about the efforts of the fictional US counter-terrorism agency CTU, Tracking down terrorists of Arab origin and deterring them from terrorist attacks, including nuclear meltdowns in nuclear power plants and the explosion of a nuclear warhead. The plot also includes the kidnapping and rescue of the US Secretary of Defense and a terrorist air strike on the US presidential aircraft, Air Force One .

Before the start of the season, a new interior set was created for the CTU, and the main cast was largely renewed. The squadron is characterized by the more frequent use of torture as an interrogation method by the CTU compared to other squadrons. The discussion and portrayal of torture were controversial and criticized. The producers and the US television station FOX were criticized negatively by Islamic and Turkish interest groups for portraying Muslims and Turks as terrorists. There were eleven nominations and three prizes for the Primetime Emmy Award as well as - for the main actor Kiefer Sutherland - a Golden Globe nomination.

Prequel

Farmer performer Kiefer Sutherland

The prequel is an approximately six-minute long, untitled short film directed by Jon Cassar and Joseph A. Hodges , which has been set since the end of the third season . It was first published on the US DVD edition of the third season, which appeared on December 7, 2004, and later appeared on the Internet and on the German DVD edition of the fourth season. There is no German dubbed version .

The prequel begins with one of the last scenes of the third season, in which Jack Bauer bursts into tears over the events of the past few hours. Three months later he was fired by Erin Driscoll, the new head of the Counter Terrorist Unit - Los Angeles , because of his addiction to heroin, which she considered to be a threat to his work. Another year later crossed man, Thomas Sherek, the Mexico-United States border in the direction of USA . He then murders the men who helped him cross. Six hours before the fourth season begins, Bauer can be seen making love with his new girlfriend Audrey Raines. The viewer only learns the names of Sherek and Raines at the beginning of the fourth season.

action

The action takes place 18 months after the third season , starts at 7 a.m. and lasts until 7 a.m. the following day. 225 people die in this 24-hour period of action; 39 of them alone are killed by Jack Bauer, the protagonist . Season four is the first to begin without the announcement that "Everything you see" is happening in real time .

Summary

The Arab-born terrorist Habib Marwan, who wants to punish the USA for its foreign policy and who commands several terrorist cells , kidnaps the US Secretary of Defense James Heller and his daughter Audrey Raines in order to sentence Heller to death in a show trial broadcast live on the Internet . Jack Bauer, who works for CTU again, helps track down and rescue the abductees. For the CTU, the kidnapping turns out to be a means used by the terrorists for the purpose of overloading the Internet and thus the security systems of the US nuclear power plants while broadcasting the show trial . As a result, and with a stolen device used to remotely control the nuclear power plants, Marwan and his accomplices succeed in causing a core meltdown in one of the nuclear power plants ; CTU can prevent further core meltdowns in the other power plants.

One of Marwan's terrorist cells involves members of the Araz family of Arab descent, who live unrecognized as sleepers in Los Angeles. The CTU becomes aware of the family, triggered by a dispute within the family, and uses mother and son to track down Marwan. Nevertheless, the CTU can not prevent Marwan with a stolen stealth bomber , the Air Force One to shoot from the air and with the gained intel a nuclear warhead can steal. Because the US president fails to shoot due to the shooting, the vice president takes over the official business, but because of excessive demands he soon allows ex-president Palmer to help him in dealing with the terrorist threat. In the end, the CTU can stop the missile equipped with the nuclear warhead from exploding and stop Marwan. Not least because of one of Palmer's orders, diplomatic entanglements with China arise, as a result of which Bauer can only avoid his murder by faking his own death with friends.

In the anti-terror investigations, Bauer and the CTU repeatedly use torture as a means of obtaining information during interrogations. In most cases the interrogated persons quickly reveal the requested information, in some cases the tortured persons turn out to be innocent. Gunshot wounds, electric shocks and pain-causing injections are the main torture agents used. The love affair between Bauer and Raines suffers severely from Bauer's acts of torture.

Detailed playback

History and initial situation

After President David Palmer decided against running for president again at the end of the third day, there was a change in the US administration after the third day. Bauer became an employee of the US Secretary of Defense James Heller, who belongs to the government of the newly elected US President John Keeler. Bauer has a love affair with Heller's daughter and assistant Audrey Raines, who separates from her husband, businessman Paul Raines, at the beginning of the fourth day. Bauer successfully campaigned for David Palmer to get his friend and former colleague Tony Almeida out of prison. Nevertheless, Michelle Dessler divorced Almeida.

7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Nestor Serrano , actor of Navi Araz

The Araz family of Arab origin, consisting of the married couple Navi and Dina and their teenage son Behrooz, live in a suburb of Los Angeles . The family, whose country of origin is not mentioned, has been preparing for this day as a terrorist cell for almost five years. On Navi's behalf, Turkish criminal Tomas Sherek had an explosive attack carried out on a passenger train near Santa Clarita at 7 a.m. - at least 32 people died - in order to steal a suitcase from a passenger. Jack Bauer, currently at CTU for budget negotiations, helps track down Sherek.

A tip from Chloe O'Brian's college friend Andrew Paige, who was initially disregarded by Driscoll and who noticed a blockade of numerous routers on the Internet originating from Turkish servers , intensifies Bauer's suspicion that another attack is planned for 8 a.m. By torturing Sherek with gunshot wounds , farmer Sherek revealed shortly before 8 a.m. that an attack on Heller was planned for 8 a.m., but he was unable to warn him in time. At 7:59 a.m., while visiting Heller's son Richard in his house, Heller and - unplanned - Audrey were kidnapped on behalf of Navi's accomplice Omar and most of their Secret Service agents were shot.

Heller and his daughter are imprisoned in hiding in the Santa Clarita Valley by Omar and his accomplices . When Behrooz delivers the suitcase from the train on Navi's behalf, he is observed by his non-Muslim friend Debbie, with whom his parents have long since forbidden him to have contact. Out of hiding out Omar online about 9:00 leaves a video message to the bound Heller and the announcement transmitted it in a starting 12 o'clock show trial for crimes against humanity to accuse and condemn death . In the event of an unsuccessful attempt to escape, Heller can shoot a security guard, a little later they try to evade the show trial and their execution by suicide , albeit unsuccessfully.

Meanwhile, Paige flees from Navi's accomplices, who want to catch him because of his access to their servers and also murder his work colleagues and his mother in the process. To find Heller and Audrey, Bauer, blackmailing Driscoll with their misconduct, lets himself be hired as a temporary CTU agent. With Ronnie Lobell, Bauer's successor in his former CTU position, he wants to bring Paige to safety at the meeting point in Union Station . Navi's accomplice Kalil Hasan gets ahead of them, kidnaps Paige and shoots Lobell. As a result, left to his own devices, farmer continues to pursue Hasan unnoticed and against Driscoll's orders in order to be led to Heller's whereabouts. Jack prevents the murder of the tortured Paige by shooting Hasan's accomplice. Since O'Brian, who is unofficially supported by Bauer, cannot manage Hasan's satellite surveillance fast enough, Bauer stages a robbery in a gas station that Hasan is currently using to save time , in which he also takes Hasan hostage.

Shohreh Aghdashloo , actress in Dina Araz

When O'Brian uses the satellite to monitor Hasan's, her support for Bauer is noticed, which is why Driscoll arrests her. Bauer releases Hasan after being held hostage for around 40 minutes and follows him in traffic. Because Bauer is following the only lead to Heller's whereabouts, Driscoll is forced to have him support him again. Having become aware of his persecution through a police check, Hasan committed suicide seconds after saying goodbye to Omar with " Allahu akbar ". With a thermal image scan of the surroundings, the CTU found Omar's hiding place shortly before 12 noon, who was just starting the show trial in which Heller was found guilty of blasphemy, among other things . Also, because Keeler wants to bomb the building with a laser-guided missile in order to spare the US the disgrace of a public execution of Heller, Driscoll forbids Bauer, Heller and Audrey himself to free. Bauer defies the order and can free Audrey and - shortly before his execution in front of the camera - Heller. Heller and Bauer, together with the US Marines joining them, kill the predominantly Arab kidnappers. Keeler cancels the bombing.

The career-oriented Marianne Taylor, former CTU employee and then lover of her colleague Curtis Manning, blackmailed Driscoll to return to work at CTU by threatening to reveal Manning's former secrecy while making love. A little later, Edgar Stiles gave Taylor a more comprehensive security clearance for the CTU software, contrary to the regulations, by threatening Stiles with reporting his support for O'Brian to Driscoll.

Dina invites Debbie and Behrooz to her home on a pretext. Since Dina does not trust her son to murder Debbies, Dina poisons her fatally as a suspected accomplice. Because Navi and his client, Habib Marwan, see Behrooz as a security risk for their terrorist act, they want his death. Behrooz wants to thwart this, which is why he kills the killer who was set on him and flees from Navi's accomplices. In order to prevent the murder of her son, Dina also takes a stand shortly afterwards against Navi by supporting Behrooz in his escape.

After Driscoll's schizophrenic daughter Maya abuses neighbors because of suspended Thorazine use, Driscoll has Maya treated at the CTU infirmary.

At the location of Heller and Audrey's captivity, the CTU finds the empty suitcase stolen from the train. It was transported on the train by a courier from the fictional arms company McLennen-Forster, the third largest US arms manufacturer , and contained the so-called "Dobson Override", a prototype device developed by the company in cooperation with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the remote control of US nuclear power plants . After a cyber attack on the nuclear power plant safety systems, it can be misused to cause core meltdowns . The CTU is therefore convinced that the terrorists are planning to cause a nuclear catastrophe and that the broadcast of the show trial was only used to distract them, to overload the Internet and to weaken the firewalls of the nuclear power plants. The terrorists are now using the override to control all 104 active US nuclear power plants. At around 1 p.m., Stiles was able to shut down 98 of these with a risky combination of instructions and thus prevent the core meltdown in the reactors inside.

While in captivity, Audrey recognized an American who worked for Omar. To identify him, Jack, who has been reappointed by Driscoll to head the secret operations department, and Audrey go to the security company that saved the video footage for the event where Audrey first saw him. Once there, killers try to murder her on behalf of the American named Henry Powell, who Taylor spies at CTU for. After securing the video and with Tony Almeida called in by Bauer for help, they can kill the killers and, with the support of the US Department of Defense , identify Powell as a software engineer working for McLennen-Forster . When Bauer and Almeida arrest him, Powell is shot by a sniper .

Because the assassins at the security company knew of Jack and Audrey's whereabouts, Jack realizes that there must be a mole in CTU . Heller and Driscoll then have the CTU employee Sarah Gavin, who was secretly burdened with falsified evidence by Taylor, arrested as the guilty party and tortured with the use of stun gun and injections for the purpose of exposing their contacts . After Taylor is identified as the true traitor by Stiles, she tries unsuccessfully to flee; Several CTU guards died when a car bomb intended for their murder exploded.

As the only eyewitness and suspected of being responsible for the kidnapping, Richard, who is critical of the US government, is interrogated at CTU by means of sensory disorientation , also with the later consent of his father. Richard refuses to divulge information from his private life and is eventually released by Heller for lack of evidence.

3 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Arnold Vosloo , cast member of Habib Marwan

Around 3 p.m. there is a core meltdown in the nuclear power plant on the fictional island of San Gabriel Island ; in the remaining five plants controlled by Marwan with the override, the reactor core temperatures rise . Audrey Raines coordinates the coordination between the police and the National Guard to evacuate the residents. Meanwhile, thousands of people are fleeing the approaching radioactive cloud .

After evaluating Powell's call list, CTU finds the injured Dina in her hotel room. After she had the President assured her of impunity for Behrooz, she helped CTU locate GPS. He takes Behrooz hostage in a hospital; after Jack arrives, Behrooz shoots his father hatefully and in self-defense. Since her son is unharmed, Dina gives CTU the address of a building that the terrorists used as the planning center for their current activities and one of which is Paul's company. As a result , Paul is suspected of complicity , and Jack tortures Paul with electric shocks in order to divulge further information - in Audrey's presence . From Paul's testimony and from CTU information, it emerges that Marwan rented the building under an alias under which he also works in the Rockland building. Manning has gone there with the arrested Taylor to obtain information about Powell. After torturing Paul, Audrey begins to dislike Jack.

After Manning arrives at the Rockland building, the two CTU agents accompanying him and Taylor are shot dead by Marwan's accomplices, who are also responsible for Powell's death and the bomb in Taylor's car; they interrogate Manning to reveal the status of the CTU investigation, but are then overwhelmed by him. Meanwhile, Almeida, reinstated as a CTU agent by Bauer and Heller's approval, interrogates Dina Araz. Threatened with negative consequences for her son, she reveals information about Marwan, the Override and the Rockland building.

In the Rockland building, shortly before 5 p.m., Bauer and Manning discover Marwan and the override. With the override, the CTU can stop the beginning meltdown in the five nuclear power plants, Marwan escapes. CTU determined as an engineer at McLennen-Forster that he worked for years while developing the override, and fears that he other sleepers - cells could recruit for more terrorist attacks. To gather information on Marwan's activity, Jack, with the assistance of Paul, searches Marwan's files at McLennen-Forster's corporate headquarters. Since the company management fears serious legal consequences, they have an electromagnetic pulse bomb detonated shortly before 7 p.m. to destroy evidence , which paralyzes all electronic devices in the building and the 20 km² surrounding city area. Violent unrest and looting quickly broke out in the area during the blackout.

After Maya Driscoll has become once more abusive and therefore fixed to be, she commits in the CTU infirmary suicide. Emotionally burdened by this, Erin ends her service. As CTU head, she will be temporarily replaced by Almeida before he is replaced by his ex-wife Michelle Dessler at around 7 p.m. She fires Sarah Gavin, who has quickly returned to work, for demanding the raise Erin previously approved to compensate for her torture.

Paul is tortured by henchmen of the company management in order to get the information that incriminates the company and shortly afterwards freed by Jack. Together and with an encrypted document from Marwan's files, they flee from a heavily armed mercenary squad that they want to liquidate on behalf of the henchmen, to an arms store. Out of this, they provoke a firefight to attract the attention of the CTU. The plan succeeds and the mercenaries are killed, but Paul, protecting Jack, is also shot. Seriously injured, he is treated in the CTU infirmary, where Audrey is again aware of feelings of love for him. It is becoming apparent that Paul is now likely to be paraplegic .

The document that has been seized shows that Professor Joseph Fayed, of Arab descent, is another one of Marwan's terrorist cells. With the promise of impunity and acceptance into a witness protection program for Dina and Behrooz, Jack succeeds in getting Dina to take part in an undercover operation to find Marwan. Monitored by CTU, which Chloe O'Brian has reinstated as reinforcements, and with Jack as an alleged hostage, Dina then goes to Fayed. Shortly afterwards, this leads them towards a meeting point with Marwan. On the way there, Fayed commits suicide on Marwan's instructions to cover up tracks. Because Marwan sees through Dina's double game, he has Dina shot; He takes Jack hostage.

James Morrison , cast member for Bill Buchanan

Meanwhile, the once dishonorable dismissed military pilot Mitch Anderson , who worked for Marwan, blackmailed Air Force pilot Hansen, who allowed him to be smuggled into a US air force base . With the stolen identity of the murdered Hansen, whose family he has meanwhile also murdered, he gains access to the hangar. Marwan wants to distract the CTU from the missing person report that the police have received about Hansen's family and thus from the discovery of Anderson's activity and therefore organizes the exchange of Jack for Behrooz with the CTU . Because the CTU management is skeptical about Marwan's intentions in this regard, they torture Behrooz with a truth serum . CTU Regional Director Bill Buchanan, who has just arrived at CTU LA, is overseeing the implementation of the exchange. Jack is released shortly before 10 p.m. and Marwan's control of Behrooz. By monitoring the exchange, the CTU is so overloaded that the missing person report is left behind. This it remains unnoticed that Anderson to 22 clock of the base with an F-117A - Stealth Bomber starts.

By locating telephone lines that Jack short-circuited while in captivity, the CTU finds Marwan's hiding place, which it storms, shooting Marwan's accomplice. Marwan escapes beforehand and destroys most of the data carriers using remote-controlled bombs. Bauer learns from a dying accomplice of Marwan about another attack that is taking place this hour. He finds the name Anderson on the data carriers. When he arrives at his apartment, he is prevented from finding information about the impending attack for a while by an accomplice Marwan disguised as an FBI agent. It wasn't until a few minutes before 11 p.m. that he and CTU realized that Anderson had stolen a stealth bomber and that Air Force One with Keeler on board was his target. At 10:59 p.m., a few minutes before the planned landing in LA, she was hit by an air-to-air missile fired by Anderson at a height of several thousand meters.

11 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Air Force One is badly damaged by the rocket hit and forced to make an emergency landing. Over 70 other passengers die while Keeler is seriously injured. Bauer goes to the Mojave Desert , where the nuclear football transported in Air Force One fell , the suitcase that - in the series fiction - contains locations and activation codes of the US nuclear arsenal and that Marwan wants to acquire. Following Bauer's telephone instructions, a couple of lovers who found the suitcase in the desert flee from Marwan and his accomplices to an old power station so that Marwan cannot get to the suitcase. There Marwan tortures the couple in order to hand over the suitcase before it is rescued by Bauer. Marwan flees with essential information from the suitcase. Using these, he ambushed a military convoy in Iowa and stole a nuclear warhead.

Since Keeler is now incapacitated, the 25th Amendment to the Constitution applies and US Vice President Charles Logan is sworn in as the new President in the White House shortly before midnight. His agent, Mike Novick, is concerned that Logan is hesitant and insecure. For fear of the danger of further terrorist attacks for him personally, Logan rules from the air raid shelter under the White House from now on .

Buchanan refutes Almeida's suspicion that he had a love affair with Dessler while Almeida and Dessler were married. A little later, Dessler and Almeida decide to resume their love affair.

Secretly monitored by CTU, Marwan's accomplice Yosik Khatami, who has come under CTU's focus for carelessness, meets with escape agent Joe Prado who works for Marwan. Shortly before both of them were arrested by the CTU, Prado thwarted his own murder by the khatami, who had become aware of the CTU and was therefore suspicious, by shooting him. To prevent Prado from being tortured by CTU and thus unable to make any statements about Marwan, Marwan hires a lawyer from the fictional organization Amnesty Global. He appears about 20 minutes later in the CTU and forbids her to torture Prado with a judicial order. After Logan also banned Prado from torturing CTU for the time being, Bauer resigns from CTU. Because the CTU, which Prado is now free, no longer threatens legal consequences for torturing Prado, the farmer tortures Prado in his car on his own responsibility by breaking his fingers one by one, whereby Prado reveals information about Marwan's whereabouts.

Logan sends the Secret Service to arrest Bauer for torturing Prado . The CTU, including the reinstated farmer, is observing Marwan in the nightclub named by Prado, where Marwan is recording a video message addressed to the US population in which he tells them his motivation for the nuclear weapon explosion planned before the start of the next morning. With this attack and with the threat of further attacks, he wants the USA to end what he believes is imperialist and interventionist foreign policy . Forewarned as a result of the Secret Service's appearance at the nightclub, Marwan escapes the CTU underground. Because of this failure, Logan admits that Bauer's arrest was his own mistake and therefore immediately arranges for Bauer's release. Because Logan feels overwhelmed with the administration, he calls on Novick's suggestion to help ex-President David Palmer; Logan authorizes him to make all decisions regarding the search for the nuclear warhead.

The friend of Sabir Ardakani, who was involved in activating the nuclear warhead on Marwan's behalf in Iowa, suspects that Sabir is linked to terrorists. Arrived at her home, O'Brian secures microchip plans for the nuclear warhead, whereby she and the woman - unlike two CTU agents - survive an assassination attempt carried out on Marwan's behalf. The plans were sold to Sabir by the criminal and state-independent Chinese Lee Jong, who, fearing an investigation against himself, found refuge in the Chinese consulate in LA within the last hour . Koo cannot respond quickly enough to Palmer's urgent requests to the consul Koo Yin there to interrogate Lee in order to divulge information about Marwan's whereabouts. With Palmer's permission, unofficially and masked, Bauer forcibly kidnaps Lee from the consulate. Lee was seriously injured in the action, Koo was accidentally shot by a consulate guard and the CTU agent Howard Bern, who was part of Bauer's team, was briefly filmed unmasked by a surveillance camera.

Shortly before 3 o'clock, Lee, whose life is in danger, is admitted to the CTU infirmary, in which Paul - with whom Audrey had previously reconciled - is currently in a life-threatening situation. To interrogate Lee, Bauer forces the medics to treat Lee, Lee survives and Paul dies. Audrey's relationship with Jack is shaken by this. The Chinese regard the intrusion into their consulate and the alleged murder of Consul Koo as an act of war. In relation to the consulate, Palmer denies any US state involvement in Lee's kidnapping and Koo's death. After identifying Bern, Cheng Zhi, the head of security at the consulate, went to CTU with the permission of the US Secretary of State to investigate those responsible. Cheng sees his doubts about the cover-up made by Palmer and Novick that a Chinese terrorist organization was responsible for the kidnapping quickly confirmed when Bauer's alibi for the time in question proves to be fragile. Bauer has Bern fly from CTU to San Diego and thus bring it to safety from being discovered by the Chinese.

Threatened with refusal of medical help, Lee reveals the address of a factory as a possible whereabouts of Marwan. The CTU arrested him there, but could not prevent the launch of a missile in Iowa at 3:59 a.m., which Marwan had meanwhile equipped with the nuclear warhead. A few minutes after his arrest, Marwan is freed by accomplices. The analysis of calls made by the CTU on Marwan's cell phone shows that Richard Heller's cell phone had called it a few days earlier. During interrogation by Richard's father, whom Richard had not yet informed about his homosexuality , Richard admits that the cell phone must have been used on the night in question by a couple whom he had invited to their home and whose husband he was with Night slept. Bauer finds the man shot in an apartment building by the terrorist Mandy, who kills the CTU agent Castle and takes Almeida hostage. She had crashed a plane years ago and later carried out the acid attack on President Palmer.

Since the nuclear missile, which is flying at about 1000 km / h, has a cloaking device, the CTU cannot locate it. In a discussion of precautionary measures and countermeasures, Don Ashton, the Speaker of the House of Representatives , questions Logan's authority over Palmer's help. Logan, Novick and Palmer then stage a situation in which Ashton is convinced that Logan is in control.

In order to be able to escape, Mandy stages her and Tony's death by blackmailing and murdering her neighbors. Primarily because of Jack's tenacity, who has doubts about Mandy's alleged suicide, CTU can seize Mandy and free Tony. After obtaining impunity from Logan for all previous crimes, she announces Marwan's escape route. As a result, the CTU can prevent him from escaping from LA at the last second. Fleeing from being seized by Bauer, Marwan commits suicide by falling from a high-rise building. With the device seized in his helicopter, the CTU can locate the missile shortly before its alleged impact in LA and destroy it by fire from a fighter jet without the nuclear warhead exploding.

Meanwhile, Bern in San Diego is forced to admit that Bauer was in charge of the operation at the consulate by Cheng and the threat of deportation to a Chinese labor camp. Logan, confronted shortly afterwards by the Chinese Vice Consul with this confession, therefore gives in to the demand that Bauer be extradited to China. Concerned about diplomatic relations with China, Walt Cummings, Chief of Staff of the White House , changes the order to a killing order - without Logan forbidding it. In order to thwart Bauer's murder, Almeida, O'Brien and Dessler stage Bauer's death with the support of Bauer and Palmer and for the appearance of all others; they also help farmers escape with a new identity.

Emergence

Conception

For the plot of the fourth season, the scriptwriters used a different narrative style than in the previous seasons: If they had previously concentrated on three story arcs, each encompassing the entire season, they conceived the fourth season step-by-step with more than three consecutive story arcs of shorter length. Against this background, showrunner Joelhabenow said about the season that the scriptwriters deliberately placed the focus more on creating tension than on the plausibility of the real-time narrative.

Kumar said the scriptwriters had overhauled the first four timed episodes more than the rest of the season before shooting.

Production design

For the fourth season, production was relocated from Woodland Hills to Chatsworth . Over a period of several months, a new permanent set was created in a hall for the interior of the main CTU LA branch; it was also used in the following two seasons. The two-story set, which was larger than the previous set, was six meters high and had a lower noise level during filming , made it easier to choose the camera angles and offered more space for lighting. The set also served to embed thematic metaphors . One such metaphor is the barcode- representing strips on panes of glass, including those in the consultation room, which, in the words of the production designer Joseph Hodges, symbolize the presence and the concealment of things. The set's color scheme now consisted of red, white, and blue and was very similar to the short messages that FOX broadcast during the commercial breaks of 24 . Therefore, the new set can also be understood as a space for integrating the FOX brand into the series. It is also evident from the numerous flat screens on which fake FOX messages can be seen. Scientist Jennifer Gillan highlighted such an integration of the network broadcasting the series as a novelty in her book Television and New Media . The set redesign, says Gillan, “emphasizes brand consistency and marketing logic more than story logic; the room is more like a loft in the dotcom style as a government agency, especially since it is unlikely that the Government will send red desks budgeting would [...]. "

Twist and dedication

Part of Fort MacArthur, the site used for the terrorist base
Main director Jon Cassar

The shooting began in July of 2004.

Fort MacArthur , in the San Pedro district of Los Angeles , served as the backdrop for the terrorist base where the Secretary of Defense and his daughter are being held . For the assault on the place from which the double Emmy -prämierte, the sixth episode (Day 4: 12:00 to 13:00) is, real Marines arrived by helicopter gunships of the type Bell AH-1 Cobra used. The soldiers belonged to the unit "Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 775" of the United States Marine Corps , which had also been used in the Afghanistan war and the Iraq war . Lt. Col. Dave Greene, a member of the unit , fell in the Iraq war between the shooting, which took place in October 2004, and the US premiere. Therefore, the episode received a dedication to Greene before its credits .

cut

One of the scenes cut from the final versions of the episodes is a scene in which Heller learns that twelve people died as a result of the meltdown in the power plant. A scene was also cut in which Manning is interrogated by Marwan's accomplices and tortured with a substance that causes severe pain. In another scene, Marwan says goodbye to his family. Three further removed scenes take place in the arms shop in which Jack and Paul entrench themselves with the two brothers of Arab origin. Jack discovers the brothers' father who was shot and removes the bullet from his stomach. One scene shows Behrooz being freed from CTU after the prisoner exchange, shortly before he would have been executed by Marwan's accomplices. Three scenes that were scheduled for the episode, which takes place between 1 and 2 a.m., are set in CTU and deal with the Muslim CTU agent Azara. She takes Sabir Ardakani's friend's suspicions about Sabir over the phone. After a conversation with Edgar Stiles, in which she feels discriminated against him, they responded to Edgar's apology on the grounds repellent that he because of her hijab prejudiced have.

Cast and voice actor

For the start of the season, the main cast was largely renewed. With the exception of the farmer actor Kiefer Sutherland , only those main actors were used in the season who had not played in the previous seasons. In addition to Sutherland, only Kim Raver , who played Audrey Raines, was consistently part of the main cast. Lana Parrilla , who plays the CTU employee Sarah Gavin, was featured as a supporting actress until the sixth episode and as a leading actress from the seventh episode before she was eliminated after the twelfth episode. Roger Cross , cast member of Curtis Manning, also began as a supporting actor and was ranked as a leading actor from the 14th episode. The main cast also included William Devane , starring James Heller, and Alberta Watson , starring Erin Driscoll. In the course of the season, however, a number of characters who had been among the main characters in the previous seasons returned in supporting roles.

The Oscar- nominated Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo initially turned down the role of Dina Araz because she judged the portrayal as a terrorist with Middle Eastern origins to be too stereotypical. It was only weeks later that the producers convinced her to play the role; In an interview with the New York Times published on the occasion of the US premiere, she now characterized the role as challenging and the character as complex.

Role name actor German voice actor role
Jack Bauer Kiefer Sutherland Tobias Master Adviser to the Secretary of Defense, CTU Agent, Head of CTU's Secret Operations Division
Erin Driscoll Alberta Watson Kerstin Sanders-Dornseif CTU head
James Heller William Devane Michael Telloke Secretary of Defense, father of Audrey Raines and Richard Heller
Audrey Raines Kim Raver Ranja Bonalana Daughter and assistant to James Heller, sister of Richard Heller, wife of Paul Raines
Sarah Gavin Lana Parrilla Claudia Urbschat-Mingues CTU data analyst
Curtis Manning Roger Cross Peter Flechtner Deputy Head of CTU
Dina Araz Shohreh Aghdashloo Gertie Honeck Sleeper, wife of Navi Araz, mother of Behrooz Araz
Behrooz Araz Jonathan Ahdout David Turba Son of Dina and Navi Araz
Walt Cummings John Allen Nelson Matthias Klages White House Chief of Staff
Mike Novick Jew Ciccolella Norbert Gescher Adviser to the US President
Paul Raines James Frain Benjamin Völz Businessman, husband of Audrey Raines
Maya Driscoll Angela Goethals Maria Koschny Daughter of Erin Driscoll
Andrew Paige Lukas Haas Programmer, college friend of Chloe O'Brien
Mandy Mia Kirshner Dascha Lehmann Terrorist, Marwan's accomplice
Cheng Zhi Tzi Ma Wolfgang Condrus Security chief at the Chinese consulate in LA
Debbie Pendleton Leighton Meester Berenice Weichert Friend of Behrooz Araz
John Keeler Geoffrey Pierson Ernst Meincke US President
Omar Tony Plana Frank Glaubrecht Navi Araz's accomplice
Navi Araz Nestor Serrano Udo Schenk Terrorist, accomplice of Habib Marwan, husband of Dina Araz, father of Behrooz Araz
Marianne Taylor Aisha Tyler Martina Treger CTU employee, ex-lover of Curtis Manning, CTU mole for Henry Powell
Habib Marwan Arnold Vosloo Leon Boden Terrorist, McLennen-Forster employee
David Palmer Dennis Haysbert Tilo Schmitz Retired US President
Tony Almeida Carlos Bernard Robin Brosch unemployed, later CTU agent, temporary CTU head, ex-husband of Michelle Dessler
Michelle Dessler Reiko Aylesworth Ulrike Stürzbecher CTU director, ex-wife of Tony Almeida
Chloe O'Brian Mary Lynn Rajskub Julia digit Employee in the CTU communications department
Charles Logan Gregory Itzin Lutz Mackensy US Vice President, later US President
Bill Buchanan James Morrison Norbert Langer CTU regional director
Edgar Stiles Louis Lombardi Peter Reinhardt Employee in the CTU communications department
Ronnie Lobell Shawn Doyle Thomas Nero Wolff Head of CTU's Secret Operations Division
Henry Powell Robertson Dean Oliver Stritzel Freelance employee and software engineer at McLennen-Forster, accomplice of Habib Marwan
Kalil Hasan Anil Kumar Thomas Schmuckert Terrorist, accomplice of Omar, kidnapper of Andrew Paige
Richard Heller Logan Marshall-Green Julien Haggége Son of James Heller, brother of Audrey Raines, US government critic
Mitch Anderson Ned Vaughn Marwan accomplice, allegedly an Air Force pilot
Howard Bern Robert Cicchini Stefan Gossler CTU agent
Joe Prado John Thaddeus Michael Christian Escape helper, Marwan's accomplice

Television broadcast

English speaking countries

The network FOX , which is home to 24 , used the online game 24 Countdown , which FOX offered on its website from December 2004, to advertise the season . It offered the player the opportunity to play the role of Jack Bauer in anti-terror investigations and included product placements for LG cell phones.

FOX first aired the season from January 9th to May 23rd, 2005. In contrast to the previous seasons, the first broadcast did not begin at the beginning of the television season in autumn, but only in January in order to increase audience acceptance in view of the strongly coherent and cross-episode plot structure and to be able to broadcast the episodes without interruption through repetitions until the end of the season in May . In order to bind as many viewers as possible right from the start, the first four episodes were shown promptly in the form of two double episodes on Sunday and Monday, which is now the regular broadcast slot. About 15.3 million viewers watched on the first evening and 13.3 million on the second. The average reach of all 24 episodes was 12.1 million viewers - another source cites 11.9 million - and thus 20 percent more than measured for the third season. With the season 24 placed in the ranking of the US-wide most watched programs of the television season 2004/05 in 31st place.

In the UK , pay TV channel Sky One began airing on January 30, 2005. The double episode broadcast at the start reached around 617,000 viewers, around 400,000 fewer than at the beginning of the third season in the previous year.

German-speaking countries

In German-speaking countries, the German commercial broadcaster RTL II , the Swiss public broadcaster SF 2 and the Austrian commercial broadcaster ATV + broadcast the season between November 2005 and March 2006, overlapping each other and during prime time . The latter two were involved in the German-language first broadcast. SF 2 showed the episodes in German-English two-channel sound and - according to the announcement - uncensored . With an average audience of 105,000 viewers, the series was one of the station's most successful this season.

RTL II broadcast six episodes in pairs and the others in three. The first and the penultimate three could be seen on Friday evening, the others on Saturday evening, each from 8:15 p.m. The voluntary self-regulation television checked 22 episodes of the season and tied six of them for broadcast from 8 p.m. on editing requirements , which mainly apply to scenes with torture by CTU employees. At least episodes 8, 11 and 13 were broadcast by RTL II when it was first broadcast. The cut scenes, in which Sarah Gavin and Paul Raines, among others, are tortured with electric shocks, were classified by the FSF as "socio-ethically disorienting", "excessively frightening" and "potentially developmentally impairing". Pictorial peaks were removed within a few seconds.

The average reach of the episodes first broadcast by RTL II was 930,000 viewers, which corresponds to a market share of 3 percent in the group of 3-year-olds and over. In the advertising-relevant target group of 14 to 49 year olds, the average reach was 620,000, which equates to a market share of 4.9 percent. For the broadcaster, the audience ratings were unsatisfactory; they remained below the overall average achieved by RTL II in the 2005/06 television season.

DVD output

In the first week after the DVD box went on sale in the US on December 6, 2005, the season sold 56 percent more frequently than the third season in the equivalent period last year.

The German DVD box contains 39 extended scenes that were not taken into account for the final cut and - under the title Season 4 Director's Cut Promo - the prequel for the fourth season. It also contains four documentaries: Breaking Ground deals with the conception and construction of the new CTU interior set; in Blood on the Tracks is about the filming of the Zugattentat in the first episode; Lock and Load is a documentation of the shooting of the liberation action in the sixth episode; There is also a report on the filming of the prequel for the fifth season. With the included 'Music Video The Longest Day is one of Armin van Buuren listed remix of the 24 - topic .

In addition, the DVD bonus material includes 24: Conspiracy , a 24-part mini-series, the episodes of which are each one minute long and are referred to as Mobisodes because they are distributed via mobile phones . The miniseries served to advertise the fourth season and was offered to Vodafone customers with 3G mobile phones in Great Britain from January 30, 2005 , and later also to Verizon customers in the USA. The Mobisodes deal with a murder investigation by the CTU Washington, DC branch and also end up with cliffhangers . 24: Conspiracy was nominated in a newly created category for mobile content at the 2006 Daytime Emmy Awards .

Episodes

The date of the German-language first broadcast is highlighted in green.

First broadcast
No.
(total) 		No.
(St.) 		German-language title Original title USA
( FOX ) 		Germany
( RTL II ) 		Austria
( ATVplus ) 		Switzerland
( SF 2 ) 		Director script
73 1 Day 4: 7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m. Day 4: 7:00 am - 8:00 am 0Jan. 9, 2005 Jan. 13, 2006 Dec 15, 2005 Nov 28, 2005 Jon Cassar Joel Zusammenarbeit , Michael Loceff
74 2 Day 4: 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. Day 4: 8:00 am - 9:00 am 0Jan. 9, 2005 Jan. 13, 2006 Dec 15, 2005 Nov 28, 2005 Jon Cassar Howard Gordon
75 3 Day 4: 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. Day 4: 9:00 am - 10:00 am Jan. 10, 2005 Jan. 13, 2006 Dec 22, 2005 0Dec 5, 2005 Brad Turner Evan Katz
76 4th Day 4: 10:00 am - 11:00 am Day 4: 10:00 am - 11:00 am Jan. 10, 2005 Jan. 14, 2006 Dec 22, 2005 0Dec 5, 2005 Brad Turner Stephen Kronish
77 5 Day 4: 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Day 4: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm Jan. 17, 2005 Jan. 14, 2006 Dec 29, 2005 Dec 12, 2005 Jon Cassar Peter M. Lenkov
78 6th Day 4: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Day 4: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Jan. 24, 2005 Jan. 14, 2006 Dec 29, 2005 Dec 19, 2005 Jon Cassar Matt Michnovetz
79 7th Day 4: 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. Day 4: 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Jan. 31, 2005 Jan. 21, 2006 0Jan. 5, 2006 Dec 26, 2005 Ken Girotti Joel Zusammenarbeit, Michael Loceff
80 8th Day 4: 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. Day 4: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm 0Feb 7, 2005 Jan. 21, 2006 0Jan. 5, 2006 0Jan. 2, 2006 Ken Girotti Stephen Kronish, Peter M. Lenkov ;
Idea: Matt Michnovetz
81 9 Day 4: 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Day 4: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Feb 14, 2005 Jan. 28, 2006 Jan. 12, 2006 0Jan. 9, 2006 Brad Turner Howard Gordon, Evan Katz
82 10 Day 4: 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Day 4: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm Feb 21, 2005 Jan. 28, 2006 Jan. 12, 2006 Jan. 16, 2006 Brad Turner Stephen Kronish, Peter M. Lenkov
83 11 Day 4: 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Day 4: 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm Feb 28, 2005 0Feb. 4, 2006 Jan. 19, 2006 Jan. 23, 2006 Jon Cassar Joel Zusammenarbeit, Michael Loceff
84 12 Day 4: 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Day 4: 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm 07th Mar 2005 0Feb. 4, 2006 Jan. 19, 2006 Jan. 23, 2006 Jon Cassar Howard Gordon, Evan Katz
85 13 Day 4: 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Day 4: 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm 14 Mar 2005 Feb 11, 2006 Jan. 26, 2006 Jan. 30, 2006 Rodney Charters Anne Cofell Saunders
86 14th Day 4: 8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Day 4: 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm 21 Mar 2005 Feb 11, 2006 Jan. 26, 2006 Jan. 30, 2006 Tim Iacofano Howard Gordon, Evan Katz
87 15th Day 4: 9:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. Day 4: 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm 28 Mar 2005 Feb 11, 2006 0Feb 2, 2006 0Feb 6, 2006 Bryan Spicer Joel Zusammenarbeit, Michael Loceff
88 16 Day 4: 10:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. Day 4: 10:00 pm - 11:00 pm 0Apr 4, 2005 Feb. 18, 2006 0Feb 2, 2006 0Feb 6, 2006 Bryan Spicer Howard Gordon, Evan Katz ;
Idea: Robert Cochran
89 17th Day 4: 11:00 PM - 12:00 AM Day 4: 11:00 pm - 12:00 am Apr 11, 2005 Feb. 18, 2006 0Feb 9, 2006 Feb 13, 2006 Jon Cassar Duppy Demetrius
90 18th Day 4: 12:00 a.m. - 1:00 a.m. Day 4: 12:00 am - 1:00 am Apr 18, 2005 Feb. 18, 2006 0Feb 9, 2006 Feb. 20, 2006 Jon Cassar Joel Zusammenarbeit, Michael Loceff
91 19th Day 4: 1:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Day 4: 1:00 am - 2:00 am Apr 25, 2005 Feb 24, 2006 0Feb 9, 2006 Feb. 27, 2006 Bryan Spicer Howard Gordon, Evan Katz
92 20th Day 4: 2:00 am - 3:00 am Day 4: 2:00 am - 3:00 am 0May 2, 2005 Feb 24, 2006 0Feb 9, 2006 Feb. 27, 2006 Bryan Spicer Peter M. Lenkov
93 21st Day 4: 3:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Day 4: 3:00 am - 4:00 am 0May 9, 2005 Feb 24, 2006 Feb 16, 2006 06th Mar 2006 Kevin Hooks Joel Zusammenarbeit, Michael Loceff
94 22nd Day 4: 4:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Day 4: 4:00 am - 5:00 am May 16, 2005 Feb 25, 2006 Feb 16, 2006 06th Mar 2006 Kevin Hooks Matt Michnovetz, Duppy Demetrius
95 23 Day 4: 5:00 a.m. - 6:00 a.m. Day 4: 5:00 am - 6:00 am May 23, 2005 Feb 25, 2006 Feb 16, 2006 13 Mar 2006 Jon Cassar Sam Montgomery
96 24 Day 4: 6:00 a.m. - 7:00 a.m. Day 4: 6:00 am - 7:00 am May 23, 2005 Feb 25, 2006 Feb 16, 2006 13 Mar 2006 Jon Cassar Robert Cochran, Howard Gordon

Issues and controversies

Muslims and Turks as terrorists

Agh stressed that the season will address the fear of the US population of the Islamic terrorism , which the United States is fighting. This motif was also evident on posters that FOX used for advertising on the occasion of the first broadcast, showing the Araz family and the note: "They could be living right next door." (German for example: "They could be your neighbors.")

Public discussion

After viewing the first four episodes, in January 2005 the American-Islamic Relations Council (CAIR) confirmed its concerns that the story was developing in a dangerous direction and that ordinary American Muslims would appear as suspects. A meeting held by representatives from CAIR and FOX for this reason resulted in several episodes being revised in places before they were broadcast. In addition, a spot was made with the announcement made by Kiefer Sutherland that the villains shown in the series are not representative of all Muslims. The council thanked the broadcaster for being taken seriously. FOX aired the spot from the eighth episode on, but only as long as the Araz family played a role in the plot. Another reaction from FOX to the council's criticism was its announcement that it would offer its own television stations as well as its affiliates the broadcast of two commercials produced by CAIR in the previous year, which are intended to show Muslims in a positive light.

On the occasion of the UK's first broadcast, criticism, both published and replied in the Guardian , came from the British Council of Muslims that the manner in which the season portrayed Islam was promoting negative stereotypes and Islamophobia . Secretary General Iqbal Sacranie said of a preview of the first five episodes: "We are deeply affected by the consistently hostile and unbalanced portrayal of Muslims this season". The council called on the UK Media Authority to investigate the series for breaching broadcasting regulations by misrepresenting ethnic minorities . In response to this, the broadcaster Sky announced that the episodes rated so far did not violate the broadcasting regulations of the authority. Terry Sanderson of the UK's National Secular Society criticized the council for objecting, saying that no one should be prevented from speaking about Islam.

In January 2005, the Assembly of Turkish Americans Associations , which advocates for Turkish-Americans , expressed the fear that it could also be because of 24 Turkish-Americans, with a view to the season and the response to the film 12:00 PM - Midnight Express (1978) be followed. Based on negative reactions from viewers of the US premiere, the Turkish private broadcaster CNBC -e initially waived the Turkish premiere of the season, which was originally planned for autumn 2005. After protests from fans against the waiver, the station changed its mind and broadcast the season beginning in March 2006. Because the season raised suspicions that Turkey was the country of origin of the terrorists, the Turkish embassy in the United States criticized the 24 producers negatively.

In response to CAIR criticism, Dina actress Aghdashloo said in a newspaper interview in January 2005 that in today's world, unfortunately, most terrorists are Muslims, even though not all Muslims are terrorists. Aghdashloo's response was criticized as ignorant and dishonest in an article published on the World Socialist Web Site operated by the International Committee of the Fourth International in April 2005. Such statements, according to Debra Watson, the author of the article, come straight from the "playbook of Zionists who advocate the unbridled repression of the Palestinian people in the Middle East ." Watson saw himself confirmed because of a comment made by Daniel Pipes , the director of the conservative Middle East Forum , and criticized as negative by her. Pipes justified using a “family next door” as a terrorist and praised FOX for continuing to air the series. The also conservative Washington Times came to a contrary opinion after the first airing of the season; the scriptwriters would have given in under the criticism of the CAIR. Marwan, as a leading jihadist, was “comic-stripped”, German for example “robbed”, of his religious identity and motivation until the final episode, and was morally equal to the side he was fighting. Hollywood and the media, the paper concluded, are “cultural cowards” when it comes to addressing problems with war, Islam and jihad. The Washington Times' opinion was followed by a column on Townhall.com, run by the Conservative Heritage Foundation .

Before it premiered in the United States ,iganow announced in the New York Times that future episodes would include positive Muslim characters. Two such characters, appearing in a positive light, are the two brothers who run the arms business from which they help Jack Bauer and Paul Raines in the fight against the mercenaries.

Analysis and interpretation

When they first appeared at the beginning of the season, the Araz family still appears as an ordinary, average family. Gradually it is revealed that the family is a terrorist cell made up of sleepers and how its members relate to terrorism. Behrooz Araz is portrayed as a teenager with an increased awareness of humanity, which prevents him from becoming a terrorist like his father. The father's intention to kill Behrooz changes Dina's loyalty to her husband. By portraying the interpersonal relationships and motives of the terrorists, as in these cases, they are given a human face. The US cultural scientist Evelyn Alsultany (2012) named this humanization as an example of the changed portrayal of Arab or Muslim terrorists on film and television after 9/11. Before that, they were usually only depicted as evil and one-dimensional villains because of their ethnicity or religion. In 2008, the US magazine Jump Cut compared the suggestion made by the Araz family at the beginning of the season that Americans of Arab origin are likely terrorists with the fear generated by Nazi propaganda that Jewish neighbors could gain a foothold in Germany on behalf of the Soviet Union .

The Norwegian media scholar Rolf Halse (2011) came to the conclusion that the portrayal of the Araz family was largely unbalanced and shaped by stereotypes about Muslims that existed in popular culture in the western world . This is particularly clear in Navi Araz, who expresses the will to sacrifice everything for the success of the terrorist actions, and who thus corresponds to the cliché of the fanatical, targeted Muslim terrorist who is in heaven for his fight against the "infidels" is honored. His approval of Marwan's order to kill Behrooz is exemplary of his primitive nature. The behavior of Dina Araz, mainly because of her insidious approach to the murder of Behrooz's girlfriend, is consistent with the portrayal of Muslims on American television and is therefore stereotypical. Halse interpreted the portrayal of Jack Bauer, the CTU and the Araz family as a whole as orientalist : Bauer and the CTU, representing values ​​of the western world, would be portrayed as rational, “developed” and superior, while the Araz family was portrayed as irrational, “primitive “And inferior. Halse used the story told in the season as part of a study for focus group interviews in which 28 16 to 29 year olds were interviewed. While ethnic Norwegians, Halse said, had judged the story to be satisfactory, a majority of Norwegian Muslims saw it as unpleasant and insulting.

torture

At least among the first six seasons, the fourth season is the one with the most scenes of torture; Torture is thematized or depicted in more than half of the season's episodes. A characteristic of the season is that, compared to the other seasons and in addition to torture by villains, there is more torture carried out by Jack Bauer and the CTU, that is, by the state and the good guys respectively, during interrogations . Torture is forbidden under international and national laws and is the dominant topic of the 24 reception.

Some of the most watched scenes of the season include Joe Prado's torture by Jack Bauer and the attorney's previous attempt to prevent it in episode 18 (Day 4: 12:00 am - 1:00 am) . The scriptwriters used the human rights organization Amnesty International as a model for the organization Amnesty Global, to which the lawyer belongs . The Journal of International Human Rights , published by the US American Northwestern University , judged the episode as exemplary of the message of the series that torture works, is necessary and is presented as "an act of rebellious heroism " rather than as a tool of dictators and tyrants. From the episode, according to the British art historian Downey (2009), the message of the series proceeds that in a state of emergency, the end always justifies the means .

Debate in the United States

In the United States in 2004 torture were made public in April, members of the US military to inmates of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq had committed (→ Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse ) . Against the background of the resulting public debate about torture, 24 was also received. The debate also included Senator John McCain's October 2005 bill banning torture, which was passed into Congress at the end of the year.

In March 2005, the Baltimore Sun newspaper praised human rights organizations on the example of Amnesty International that 24 was helping to educate the public about the dangers of torture. In the cases of Sarah Gavin and Richard Heller, who turn out to be innocent, it is made clear to the viewer that torture is not always successful.

After Bauer tortured him, Paul Raines increasingly shows his solidarity with Bauer, helps him obtain information and protects him from being hit by bullets. In cases like these, said the left-liberal weekly The Nation , will torture used as a melodrama, making 24 the dehumanizing overthrow kind of actual torture and by sense of family and social replaced. An article in the New York Times came to a similar opinion : In such situations, torture does not represent the collapse of a society, but the turning point and sometimes even the beginning of social relationships. "With this artistic trick" make the series torture appear normal. The left-liberal political magazine The Progressive opposed this opinion: Torture had become normal in parts of US society long before 24 . With its “loud-mouthed depictions of extreme cruelty”, the series could inspire its fans to excite the US government in the face of decisions that made Abu Ghraib possible in the first place. The magazine stressed the inconsistency of the messages the series was sending out this season regarding torture. On the one hand, Jack's behavior is portrayed as reprehensible, for example through Audrey's reaction to seeing the Prado injured by torture. In doing so, she says that he cannot disregard the law without expecting consequences. One such consequence in the further course of the plot is that Audrey turns away from Jack. Praising the season, the magazine also emphasized the clarity with which the pain caused by the torture is shown. On the other hand, according to the magazine, Jack is portrayed as a hero, for example through Heller's justification that "we" need men like him.

There was support from the politically conservative spectrum. The Washington Times praised the season for resolute action against terrorism, particularly in relation to the issue of torture, and opposed “ politically correct evasive maneuvers” shown in prime time . An article in Townhall.com magazine criticized the US Army’s announced new version of an interrogation manual as being too ineffective because it dispensed with “harsh” interrogation methods, including those used in the Abu Ghuraib military prison, and therefore suggested that the manual be preferred to be written by a "Jack Bauer type". The season's content was also discussed on radio talk shows hosted by Conservative presenters Laura Ingraham and Rush Limbaugh in 2005 .

Although co-creator of the series continues to work on the scripts of 24 , he transferred the role of showrunner before the beginning of the US premiere of the fifth season to Howard Gordon . In this context ,iganow was quoted as having grown tired of the torture and judging the reactions to the torture portrayals in the series as exaggerated: "Perhaps Bush - tiredness - war tiredness - had set in and people were looking for ways to protest against the Expressing war also by using our series. "

The two 24 excerpts contained in the Oscar-winning , torture-critical US documentary Taxi to Hell are from season four ( → main article: 24 ); this also includes Bauer's electric shock torture of Paul Raines.

Controversy in Europe

The FSF examiners judged the topic and portrayal of torture in the season to be extremely controversial. FSF examiner Christina Heinen judged that the entire season was pervaded by a subliminal legitimation of torture, but emphasized that in a number of episodes dealing with torture there were situations that counteracted the promotion of attitudes in favor of violence, including the statement in the plot, “that Torture is illegal and the CTU is already wronging itself through its methods ”.

In several German press reports published on the occasion of the fourth season, in view of the depictions of violence and torture in 24, a similar wave of public outrage was missing, as it was in the Turkish film Valley of the Wolves - Iraq (2006). Bettina Gaus , political correspondent for the taz , believed that the reason for the lack of a public debate could be seen in the fact that in the series, unlike in the film, “the subtle nonchalance has its effect, with the monstrous on the screen declaring normality becomes."

Several recipients certified the season to convey a fascist message. Dietmar Dath, for example, interpreted the system in which Bauer operates in the FAZ as a bourgeois state without civil rights, which corresponds to Reinhard Kühnl's definition of fascism as a form of state and society. Several plot elements, including the "always indiscriminate" torture used and the raid on the Chinese consulate would use to goods of " due process to destroy" in the US Constitution guarantee contained that no one without the rule of law shall be sentenced process. The left-liberal Guardian condemned the episode in which the Amnesty Global lawyer prevents the CTU from torturing Prado as “shameful” and as the culmination of a development of the season towards an “unhinged neo-con bullshit” , neoconservative crap ”.

Using examples from only the fourth season, the philosopher Slavoj Žižek in the Guardian compared the torturers working at CTU with Heinrich Himmler and his role in organizing the Holocaust , “how to get people to do dirty things without turning them into monsters to transform ". The article, which appeared in January 2006 on the occasion of the first US broadcast of the fifth season , was also published in a different version by the socialist US magazine In These Times and, based on this, translated into German by the Kölner SoZ - Sozialistische Zeitung . Žižek believed in 24 that he recognized the “ideological lie” that it is not simply possible to keep human dignity when carrying out terrorist acts. If, on the other hand, an honorable person carries out such acts as an important duty, he is given a “tragic-ethical magnitude”. In the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger , the German film critic Georg Seeßlen judged the comparison between Bauer and Himmler to be fatal. “Because Bauer is the tragic subject of violence, not its author; the evil that passes through him does not remain without effect on his bourgeois identity. "This had already dissolved at the end of the first season , which includes the murder of his wife, which is emotionally heavily burdened by Bauer from now on. Seeßlen was addressing one of the main motives of the scriptwriters, namely that nobody can do what Bauer has done, including torture, and at the same time lead a satisfactory private life. In the fourth season, this development is shown by the fact that Bauer is a broken hero in the end, also because he has lost Audrey's love.

In January 2007, Swiss television reported on the show Kulturplatz about portrayals of torture in the media as a possible reflection of the war on terror waged by the USA . The focus of the post was on 24 ; all of the 24 excerpts shown as examples come from the fourth season without mentioning their season. The series is the “TV idea that torture makes sense if it helps save innocent people; that the hero is allowed to torture when there is no other way ”. In this regard, the Austrian cultural scientist Thomas Macho interviewed in the article said that such if-then constructions served to soften the ban on torture and to legitimize torture.

In October and November 2006, the Swiss lawyer Claude Schönthal lodged a complaint with the ombudsman of Swiss television against the broadcast of 24 on SRF 2 because of the torture allegations . Six of the seven episodes mentioned by Schönthal as examples, which in his opinion made propaganda for torture and thereby violated program regulations and constitutional articles, come from the fourth season. This also includes episodes 3 and 6 in which Richard Heller is interrogated. In his reaction to the complaint, editor-in-chief Michel Bodmer said about this example that the sympathy leadership of the audience was presented differently than Schönthal, because it would be outraged by the actions of the self-righteous defense minister and identify with the tormented son and his awareness of the reprehensibility of Torture would be awakened by Richard's innocence eventually being revealed. As a result of the complaint, a guideline for Swiss television was added ( → main article: 24 ).

Further acceptance by the public and criticism

After the introduction of the "Dobson override" into the action, numerous viewers turned to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission , concerned about the function of the device . She then published the declaration that no device could control all 104 US nuclear power plants via the Internet. After the first broadcast of the episode in which the meltdown in the reactor on San Gabriel Island was described for the first time, the agency issued a further statement, in which it referred to the systems and measures to maintain safety in the nuclear power plants.

The US Internet magazine Salon.com , quoting experts, judged a number of elements of the plot to be unrealistic. So it is pure fantasy that one can obtain information about the daily movements and locations of nuclear weapons from nuclear football . It is impossible to arm a US nuclear warhead without entering the PAL code. The fact that Marwan, as the head of the terrorists, also uses the services of people such as Mitch Anderson, who are not jihadists themselves , is extremely unrealistic, especially because of the confidentiality that this endangers. Compared to the security precautions taken by the attackers when planning the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 , Marwan does not ensure sufficient security when communicating with the terrorist cells to remain undetected by the CTU.

The New York Times found that while the season repeated many plot twists and turns, it still had some surprises in store and was exciting, even as the novelty of the real-time countdown wore off. The introduction of new leads is a good idea, but William Devane, for example, is "more of a distraction than an asset," and Kim Raver does not bring anything special into the role of Audrey. The Australian newspaper The Age joined in the New York Times' praise. The US magazine National Review praised the dramatic complexity of the season - with a view to terrorism and the partial overlap of family histories - as remarkable for a television series.

Metacritic calculated a Metascore of 79% for the season based on reviews in English.

The German radio correspondence praised the plot revolving around Dina Araz and asked in which film or in which series a terrorist had ever been seen, “the greatest anguish of soul suffered because she was caught between her mission, which she had taken on out of misguided religious convictions, and her love for her adolescent Son is torn back and forth ”. The FAZ complained that the action of the first half of the season was "viscous" and would "falter" and "stutter". There is a serious contradiction in the role of ex-president David Palmer, because he is committing exactly the “disguises” against which he has fought in the previous seasons.

Awards

At the Emmy Awards 2005 , the season was nominated three times for the best image editing and once each in eight other categories, including for the best drama series and for the best leading actor in a drama series. There were a total of three awards, one for stunt coordination and one for sound editing in the sixth episode and one for sound mixing in the final episode.

In 2006 , Sutherland received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Drama TV Series.

literature

English language reviews

German-language reviews

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ DiLullo 2007, p. 139
  2. ↑ DiLullo 2007, pp. 17 f., 114 f.
  3. ↑ a b DiLullo 2007, p. 18
  4. ↑ a b DiLullo 2007, p. 16
  5. ^ Documentary Breaking Ground: Building the New CTU , included in the bonus material of the German DVD edition
  6. ↑ a b Jennifer Gillan: Television and New Media - Must-Click TV , Routledge , New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-415-80238-3 , pp. 93 f.
  7. ↑ Quote p. 94: “The set redesign emphasizes brand consistency and marketing logic rather than story logic; the space resembles a flush dot.com-style loft rather than a government office, especially as it seems unlikely that the government would budget for chic red desktops […]. ”
  8. ^ Documentary Blood on the Tracks , included in the bonus material of the German DVD edition
  9. ↑ Day 4: 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM , in: TV.com , accessed January 10, 2015
  10. ↑ a b Documentary Lock and Load , included in the bonus material of the German DVD edition
  11. ↑ Maureen Ryan: '24' pays tribute to fallen Marine , in: Chicago Tribune, January 27, 2005, accessed Dec. 29, 2014
  12. ↑ cf. Bonus material from the German DVD edition
  13. ↑ Joe Rhodes: Playing Against (Stereo) type , in: The New York Times, January 23, 2005, accessed January 6, 2015
  14. ↑ 24 (TV series) / Season 4. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous file , accessed on December 6, 2014 .
  15. ↑ Kris Oser: LG BUYS AD SPACE IN ONLINE GAME FOR FOX SHOW , in: Advertising Age from Dec. 22, 2004, accessed on Feb. 16, 2015
  16. ↑ Shawn Shimpach: Television in Transition. The Life and Afterlife of the Narrative Action Hero , Wiley-Blackwell, Malden 2010, ISBN 978-1-4051-8535-6 , pp. 141 f.
  17. ↑ a b Fabian Riedner: US annual charts 2004/2005 , in: quotenmeter.de from May 28, 2005, accessed on January 26, 2015
  18. ↑ a b Neil Amdur: The Twist for '24' May Be in Its Ratings , in: The New York Times, January 14, 2006, accessed January 23, 2015
  19. ^ John Plunkett: Viewers resist double helping of 24 , in: The Guardian, January 31, 2005, accessed January 16, 2015
  20. ↑ New "24" episodes: Tension every minute , in: 20 minutes from November 27, 2005, accessed on January 23, 2015
  21. ↑ Jan Graber: Almost as gripping as the TV series , in: 20 minutes from March 15, 2006, accessed on January 23, 2015
  22. ↑ a b c Christina Heinen: Position 1 , in: Heinen and Gaus 2006
  23. ↑ 24 , in: Schnittberichte.com , accessed on January 26, 2015
  24. ↑ Fabian Riedner: Overall results of the fourth "24" season disappointing , in: quotenmeter.de of February 26, 2006, accessed on January 9, 2015
  25. ↑ a b 24 season 4 episode guide , in: fernsehserien.de, accessed on March 31, 2015
  26. ↑ a b Frank Rich: We'll Win This War - on '24' , in: The New York Times, January 9, 2005, accessed February 8, 2015
  27. ↑ DiLullo 2007, p. 17
  28. ↑ Harald Keller: lasting impressions. "24" - one of the most complex series narratives in television history , in: Funkkorrespondenz No. 7/2007, pp. 3–7
  29. ↑ Muslims unhappy over '24' portrayal , in: USA Today January 18, 2007, accessed January 23, 2015
  30. ↑ Fox responds to Muslim criticism of '24' , in: USA Today, January 14, 2005, accessed January 23, 2015
  31. ↑ a b c Jamie Doward: Muslim anger at terror plot in TV drama 24 , in: The Guardian from January 30, 2005, accessed on February 8, 2015, original quotation from Iqbal Sacranie : “We are greatly concerned by the unremittingly hostile and unbalanced portrait of Muslims in this series of 24 ”
  32. ^ Karl Vick: Two Allies, Two Angles , in: The Washington Post, February 14, 2006, accessed January 10, 2015
  33. ↑ Halse 2011, footnote 1
  34. ↑ a b Debra Watson: Fox's 24: propaganda thinly disguised as television programming , in: World Socialist Web Site, April 5, 2005, accessed January 24, 2015
  35. ↑ Original quote: “playbook of Zionists advocating unbridled repression of the Palestinian population in the Middle East”
  36. ↑ Hollywood knuckles under , in: The Washington Times of May 26, 2005, accessed on January 11, 2015, quote: “cultural cowards”
  37. ^ Diana West: The plight of 'submission' , in: Townhall.com, May 30, 2005, accessed January 31, 2015
  38. ↑ Tung Yin: Jack Bauer Syndrome: Hollywood's Depiction of National Security Law ( Memento of February 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) [ Jack Bauer Syndrome: Hollywood's Depiction of National Security Law ], in: Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal ( ISSN  1077-0704 ), Winter 2008 (17th year), No. 2, pp. 279–300, here: p. 297
  39. ↑ Evelyn Alsultany: Arabs and Muslims in the media. Race and Representation After 9/11 , New York University Press, New York 2012, ISBN 978-0-8147-2917-5 ( Kindle edition), item 626 ff.
  40. ↑ Christian Blauvelt: Reel Bad Arabs , in: Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media No. 50, Spring 2008, accessed online on January 24, 2015
  41. ↑ Halse 2011
  42. ^ Rolf Halse: Negotiating Boundaries between Us and Them. Ethnic Norwegians and Norwegian Muslims Speak out about the 'Next Door Neighbor Terrorist' in 24 , in: Nordicom Review No. 1/2012 (33rd vol.), Pp. 37-52
  43. ^ Sara Brady: Performance, Politics, and the War on Terror - “Whatever It Takes,” Palgrave MacMillan, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, New York 2012, ISBN 978-0-230-23490-1 , p. 118
  44. ↑ Heike Lesch: Portrayals of torture in films and series and their assessment by the voluntary self-regulation of the film industry and the voluntary self-regulation of television: a media law investigation , in: Karsten Altenhain et al. (Ed.): The return of torture? Interdisciplinary studies on an extreme form of violence, its media representation and its ostracism , V&R unipress, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8471-0008-9 , pp. 227–267, here: pp. 251–253
  45. ↑ DiLullo 2007, p. 125
  46. ↑ John Ip: Two Narratives of Torture , in: Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights No. 1/2009 (7th year), pp. 35-77, here: pp. 51 f., Accessed on February 17, 2015, Quote p. 52: “an act of rebellious heroism”
  47. ↑ Anthony Downey: At the Limits of the Image: Torture and its Re-Presentation in Popular Culture , in: Carlos Jiménez (Ed.): Iconoclasm - Iconolatry (Series: Brumaria, No. 14), Brumaria AC, Madrid 2009, ISBN 978-84-613-0423-3 , pp. 123-132, here: p. 129, accessed online ( memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) from the website of the Sotheby's Institute of Art on January 28, 2015
  48. ↑ Bill Keveney: Fictional '24' brings real issue of torture home , in: USA Today, March 14, 2005, accessed February 8, 2015
  49. ↑ cf. Documentary film Taxi to Hell
  50. ↑ Stephen Kiehl: Watching '24' Can Be Torture. , in: Daily Press of April 10, 2005, accessed on January 26, 2015
    Article originally published under the title Tortured Time , in: The Baltimore Sun of March 28, 2005, available online with incomplete text
  51. ↑ Richard Kim: Pop Torture , in: The Nation, December 7, 2005, accessed February 8, 2015
  52. ^ Adam Green: Normalizing Torture on '24' , in: The New York Times of May 22, 2005, accessed on February 8, 2015, quote: “Through this artistic sleight of hand”
  53. ^ Anne-Marie Cusac: Watching Torture in Prime Time , in: The Progressive from August 16, 2005, accessed on February 8, 2015, quote: “loudmouthed depictions of extreme cruelty”
  54. ↑ a b '24': An hour of realism , in: The Washington Times of April 27, 2005, accessed on February 3, 2015, quotations: “politically correct evasions”
  55. ↑ Cal Thomas: Modified interrogation tactics: Good news for the enemy , in: Townhall.com, May 2, 2005, accessed February 3, 2015
  56. ^ Alan Sepinwall: The Revolution Was Televised , Touchstone, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4767-3967-0 , p. 230, quotation from Joel Nachbarow: “Maybe Bush fatigue - war fatigue - had set in, and people were looking at ways to voice their protest about the war and using our show to do it as well. "
  57. ↑ Bettina Gaus : Position 2, in: Heinen and Gaus 2006, p. 75
  58. ↑ a b Dietmar Dath : The rule of law was yesterday. “24” continues , in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung No. 11 of January 13, 2006, p. 36
  59. ^ Charlie Brooker: Burned into the memory , in: The Guardian, December 31, 2005, accessed January 30, 2015
  60. ↑ Slavoj Žižek : Jack Bauer and the Ethics of Urgency , in: In These Times of January 27, 2006, accessed on January 28, 2015
    German translation by Hans-Günter Mull: Jack Bauer and the Ethics of Urgency , in: SoZ - Sozialistische Newspaper of March 2006, p. 20, article accessed     online on January 28, 2015
  61. ↑ Slavoj Žižek: The depraved heroes of 24 are the Himmlers of Hollywood , in: The Guardian from January 10, 2006, accessed on February 8, 2015, original quotations: “How to get people do the dirty work without turning them into monsters”, “Ideological lie”, “tragic-ethical grandeur”
  62. ↑ Georg Seeßlen : Bauer im Schachspiel des Terror , in: Tages-Anzeiger from January 30, 2006
  63. ↑ Film booklet “The Guantanamo Trap” (series: Filmbildung für den Studium , No. 4), Ed .: Film & Medienbüro Niedersachsen e. V .; Lower Saxony State Institute for School Quality Development , Hildesheim, October 2014, p. 12, “THE GUANTANAMO TRAP”. Retrieved January 7, 2019 .
  64. ^ Arnold 2007
  65. ↑ a b Spencer Ackerman: How real is “24”? , in: Salon.com on May 16, 2005, accessed February 8, 2015
  66. ↑ Alessandra Stanley: New Web of Fear, Same Secret Agent , in: The New York Times, January 7, 2005, accessed February 17, 2015; Quote: “more of a distraction than an asset”
  67. ↑ Brian Courtis: The spying game , in: The Age of 10 July 2005 Retrieved on February 17, 2015
  68. ↑ Thomas S. Hibbs: 60 Minutes of High Drama ( Memento of February 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), in: National Review Online of February 21, 2005
  69. ↑ 24: Season 4 , in: Metacritic , accessed on February 8, 2015
  70. ↑ Harald Keller: The Dilemma Principle - The thriller series “24” goes into its sixth season with new nuances , in: Funkkorrespondenz No. 25/2008, pp. 5–10, here: p. 6
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on March 10, 2015 in this version .