Reading 24: TV against the Clock »

Steven Peacock is Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at the Southampton Solent University.

Time has named 24 one of the "Best Television Events of the Decade." With an innovative format that uses one hour of real time for each episode, and a season that comprises one twenty-four hour period, the show zeroes in on the fears and dangers of a post-9/11 world and the ways in which threats are transmitted, tracked down, and fought. From assassination attempts and germ warfare to horrific terrorist plots, Kiefer Sutherland's Agent Jack Bauer embodies America's darkest fears and its perilous place in the world today. This book brings together critical discussions of the series from many different perspectives. It covers everything from the show's unconventional format to discussions of globalism, oil, the politics of torture, and gender, and includes an episode guide.

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