An antitorture TV plotline can still advertise torture’s necessity through framing.

Evidence

In season 7, which aired in 2008, the U.S. government puts Bauer on trial for his use of torture. Bauer is depicted as a broken human being, seemingly haunted by all the people he has tortured. His actions are questioned throughout the season by other characters who maintain that torture is not only illegal but also morally wrong. The antitorture message, it seems, is clear. And yet this plotline becomes, in effect, another simplified complex representational strategy: this explicit portrayal of the terrible consequences of inflicting violence on others is continually called into question by the season’s other, far more urgent events. As Bauer is confronted with one ticking time bomb scenario after another, the rest of the plot seems to be an advertisement for the unfortunate necessity of torture to divert terrorist attacks, consistent with simplified complex representational modes. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 303

Categorization

• DEFINE: Vividly illustrates the book’s ‘simplified complex’ representational strategy — where a show does create conscientious content, but surrounding events undercut it.
• SEED: An essay angle: ‘the apology scene’ as a recurring narrative device that lets media appear self-critical while preserving the underlying ideological message — apparent in everything from police procedurals to AI dystopia shows.