Screenwriters for the hit television show 24 now say that they are going to cut back on the number of torture scenes in the show.
But the writers say that they aren't doing it because the U.S. military, along with children's rights and human rights groups, have asked them to. They're doing it because the torture scenes are starting to overwhelm the show and the storytelling.
So said Howard Gordon, an executive producer of the hit thriller starring Emmy winner Kiefer Sutherland as secret anti-terrorist operative Jack Bauer, whose interrogation tactics make oatmeal of the Geneva Conventions.
Our hero routinely shoots, suffocates, drugs and/or electrocutes suspects.
The decision to cut back on torture is driven by creativity, said Gordon. In its sixth season, 24 has become so torture-heavy that it borders on cliche, he said.
"It's not something that we, as writers, want to use as a crutch. We'd like to find other ways for Jack to get information out of suspects," said Gordon. "Our appetite has decreased. Personally, I think the audience may be tiring of it as well. My wife says it's too much."
The final eight to 10 episodes this season will include fewer torture scenes, Gordon said, adding that 16 of the 24 ordered segments have been shot.
The decision to tone down 24 "is all to the good, but in my view they could have cut back significantly the past few seasons," said Melissa Caldwell, senior director of programs at Parents Television Council. "It's almost too little, too late."
We're sure the change has nothing to do with the fact that
Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan personally travelled to California to meet producers of the show, to tell them that all the illegal torture promoted on the show is having a damaging effect on young troops and to ask them to tone it down.
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