What Jack Bauer Taught Me About Creating Compelling Characters

Anyone out there remember Jack Bauer? 24? It was - and is - only the greatest television show of all time.

I'll gush for a moment: I'm a total 24 addict. I was since the beginning of the first episode, and I continued to transform into full-blown fanboy geek by the time Fox aired the last episode of the eighth season. I own every DVD set including 24: Redemption - the made-for-TV movie, along with various comic books, graphic novels, soundtracks, TV Guides, and anything else that had to do with Jack Bauer, 24, or anything in the realm of those two things.

I was obsessed. I'll admit it. Still am a bit. A man crush? Maybe. I'm not ashamed.

Jack Bauer become my all-time favorite character...of all time. Of every book, comic book, television series and movie I ever subjected myself to in my lifetime, the character of Jack Bauer enthralled me more than any other.

Why?

Because his character was compelling. His character was edgy, tragic, heroic. The character of Jack Bauer fell somewhere in the gray area of morals and ethics. He did things he didn't want to do because he knew he had to do them if he wanted to succeed in his mission in keeping the world - and his home/family - safe and secure.

Jack Bauer tortures his brother, Graem.

Jack was an antihero of sorts. He rebelled against convention, he went up against the powers-that-be to unveil corruption at its vilest, and he risked the few for the many. He wrestled with the demons of his wife's death, he went up against his own brother and father who were corrupt, he killed an innocent government agent to appease a terrorist - and to save hundreds of people. He made the tough decisions you and I hope we never have to face in our lifetime. He wasn't just a good government/rogue agent - he was an effective agent. He got results, and didn't care what had to be done to achieve those results.

His character helped me in my own writing ventures. When I realized that 'good' characters aren't always good, it dawned on me that I had been raised to believe otherwise: good is good, bad is bad. There are definite boundaries that define the difference between the two, but when you're fighting terrorism at the level Jack was, where the bad guys don't play fair, where the lives of innocent people are on the line, a simple moral/ethic rulebook can't be followed. It has to be thrown out. One man - Jack Bauer - was there to save the day, save the world, even if he had to sacrifice part of himself and/or his relationships in the process.

Jack holds up a gas station - and takes a terrorist hostage!

Jack's character inspired me and helped influence some of the behavior of my own character, David Corbin, an ex-hero from my young adult, scifi-fantasy novel series. In one particular scene taken from Lost Birth, the second novel in the series, David, through a chain of events, finds himself in a jewelry store where the object he's been searching for - a necklace that is said to unlock an ancient timepiece that can save the world - is located. The cops and mall security are on him, and so he does the only thing he can faced with his impossible circumstances: he takes one of the jewelry store employees hostage. (My inspiration from this scene came from Jack's own actions in Season 4, episodes 3 and 4, when he holds up a gas station and takes hostages to buy himself time to catch some terrorists.) In doing so, David puts the jewelry store employee's life at risk, and in the end, his choice has tragic consequences.

I love characters like this. Characters who go beyond convention. Characters who aren't always fighting the bad guy with the twirling mustache, but are also fighting the everyday citizens who want to make the hero's day worse, fighting the demons within, fighting the very stereotype of what a hero is supposed to be.

Jack Bauer opened my eyes to the full potential my own characters can have. And even though 24 isn't airing on television anymore, he'll always be somewhere near my writing desk, adding to my muse.

24 Still Alive And Ticking

In its 8th - and final - season, 24 never ceases to amaze me. I've been a huge fan of the show since it's first 'real-time' episode back in 2001 and I think Jack Bauer has become one of the most iconic figures of television during the show's run. The show has successfully kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what's going to happen next, what ingenious twist the writers are going to come up with for the next episode.

Last night was no different. As of today, there are only 7 episodes left in the season and the series as a whole and rumors of a 24 movie that's set to come out after the end of the season. As far as this season goes, it has quickly become one of my favorite, aside from season 5 which I think may have been the best of all of them.

All of that being said, I've had my gripes and complaints about the direction the writers have taken in certain seasons. The cougar in season 2? Vampire Jack in season 6? Some crazy stuff has come down the wire, but overall I have always enjoyed the series and continue to enjoy the series, especially after last night's turn of events.

Any fan of 24 will tell you that Jack never really gets the woman. He's a hero, but one whose life is full of sacrifice and misery. Those two things never really stop Jack from doing what he does best, but they add a flavor to the show that you don't find very often nowadays. In 24 there are really no definitive happy endings. This season had Renee Walker, a former FBI agent who showed up in season 7, tagging along with Jack. She was essentially a female Jack Bauer and the perfect counterpart to his isolated existence. And just when mostly everyone watching the show thought the writer's would give Jack a happy ending in Renee Walker, they go off and kill her on last night's episode.

I won't be the first to say this didn't shock me. Last week's episode had President Hassan dying at the hands of Samir, despite Jack's determination to save him. Hassan does receive the legendary silent clock at the end of the episode that the show's producers give to main characters that pass. Jack failed - or thought he failed - the President. With that heavy heartiness, he entered last night's episode with the grim realization that he had nowhere to really go after those events except for his place with Renee. There, in his apartment, she is shot by a sniper that recognized her at the scene of President Hassan's death. Jack races her to the hospital but she dies, receiving the second silent clock in two consecutive episodes, making this one of the more tragic episodes, up there with the death of President Palmer, Michelle Almeida, and Teri Bauer.

I see people all over the internet today complaining about how stupid the writers are to write Renee off like that. But if everyone stops to look at the big picture, they'll realize - hopefully - that it was really the only way to get the show moving in the direction the writers want to go for the last 7 episodes of the season. See, Jack had no reason to go back to CTU. He had no idea there were still bad guys roaming around. Renee dying put Jack back into his 'nothing to lose' mode that he is so famous for. Now he knows there are others involved with the terrorist activities of the day and he will find them and hunt them down and hopefully kill them. His character has always been dark, misunderstood, but always conquering when it comes to doing what needs to be done. I feel Renee's death only put things into a straight perspective for him, brought him back to his real purpose which is to save the day. He learned in season 1 that he can't do what he does and have a family at the same time.

Now, whether he dies at the end of the season or not is to be seen, but even if he did, it would be a hero's death - hopefully. I think the writers have something great set up, it's all hinging on the execution now.