The average American out there loves the show 24. OK? They love Jack Bauer. They love 24. In my mind that’s close to a national referendum that it’s OK to use tough tactics against high-level Al Qaeda operatives as we’re going to get.

Oy.

My wife and I watched the first five seasons on DVD this past year, and we’re currently watching season six. Seeing all the episodes in such close proximity has made me very aware of some of the tricks they like to use (though I still enjoy the show a great deal).

A character named Burke—a federal employee of the C.T.U. who carries a briefcase filled with elephantine hypodermic needles—has proved indispensable. “He’ll inject chemicals that cause horrible pain that can knock down your defenses—a sort of sodium pentothal plus,” Gordon said. “When we’re stuck, we say, ‘Call Burke!’ ” He added, “The truth is, there’s a certain amount of fatigue. It’s getting hard not to repeat the same torture techniques over and over.”

And, frankly, while the torture scenes were an interesting deux ex machina in the first few seasons, they’ve become predictable now. It’s really not that interesting to see someone get injected with an unknown substance, writhe in pain, then give up important info — routinely. It’s a convention they’d do well to discard, both for the reasons cited in the article and because it’s not great for the show.

More on topic, I, too, was sympathetic with Surnow’s point that building rapport and coaxing information out of a suspect would just be boring on TV. It wouldn’t be an action show, it would be a drama, and probably not a very good one.

But given Surnow’s attitude about the whole thing (he clearly favors torture, and doesn’t care what impact that the show is having) I don’t feel particularly sympathetic. I suspect that there are plenty of ways that he count help counter the growing belief among impressionable young recruits that torture is effective, a la “24.” Sutherland speaking to troops is a good start. Heck, if he launched a whole anti-torture publicity campaign, the fact is that it’d only be good for the show. It would get more attention, more people would watch it, and it would even become game for intellectuals who might now think that the show is beneath them.

Very good article. I agree with one of its main points which was that using ruses or building rapport with a prisoner is the most effective interrogation technique. But as the show’s creators point out, it would be tough to incorporate those methods into a one hour (actually 44 mins of footage) program on a show whose season is supposed to take place in a day.