“24: Legacy” thoughts, Season One, Episode One: “12:00 Noon – 1:00 PM”

The climax of Oliver Stone’s 1994 film Natural Born Killers takes place on Super Bowl Sunday. Wayne Gale, the tabloid-TV sleazeball played by Robert Downey Jr., has booked an interview with Woody Harrelson’s mass-murdering media sensation Mickey Knox, airing live from prison immediately after the Big Game. The killer’s Zen-nihilism ramblings and the host’s how-dare-you-sir platitudes are interrupted with soft-drink ads and shots of happy families watching at home. When the show cuts to commercial, the inmates riot. Mickey slaughters his guards, rescues his wife, and escapes, leaving literally hundreds dead, including the host of the interview. All of it is broadcast live to viewers nationwide.

This is only a slightly less responsible programming decision than the one Fox made when it chose to put 24: Legacy on the air.

I reviewed the absolutely abhorrent pilot episode of 24: Legacy for Vulture. This show features a teenage Muslim girl who immigrated to the United States for the express purpose of blowing up a high school. Ghastly, irresponsible, dangerous television.

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2 Responses to “24: Legacy” thoughts, Season One, Episode One: “12:00 Noon – 1:00 PM”

  1. Bruce Baugh says:

    Sean, damn your ambiguity and reluctance to commit. Did you like it or not?!?

    More seriously, I appreciate the vigor to these things. They are pernicious, and it’s good to say so.

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