February 20, 2006, - 2:54 pm
“24” vs. “Sleeper Cell”
By
Tonight is yet another exciting episode of my favorite show, “” (my favorite, except for the ).
On this site, I’ve repeatedly lamented the lack of movies about terrorism in which the terrorists are 1) Islamic (as in most of real life), and 2) not sympathetic (also, as in real life).
At the request of friends and readers, I spent the last week watching tape of Showtime’s “Sleeper Cell,” which aired at the end of last year. (I will post a review soon, also at the request of readers. I liked it in general, but have my objections.)
“Sleeper Cell” and “24” have been compared to each other by the New York Times and other media. And they are similar. They are among the few Hollywood outputs that actually show terrorists who are 1) Islamic, and 2) not sympathetic.
But after watching last week’s episode of “24” and all ten episodes of “Sleeper Cell,” I noted something else: Hollywood not only won’t produce many of these shows, it also is not very creative in its choice of plots and actors.
Both shows draw from the same pool of both. Last week’s “24” showed terrorists trying to put anthrax (or some other poisonous chemical) into the airducts of a shopping mall. Same exact plot in an episode of “Sleeper Cell.” The malls, both in the L.A. area, even looked identical. Then, I noticed that actor Henri Lubatti, who plays a Bosnian Muslim terrorist in “Sleeper Cell”, looked familiar. In fact, he played a Kosovar Muslim terrorist in Season One of “24”.
Same plots, same actors playing Slavic Muslim terrorists. That’s what you get when most of Hollywood says “hands off” regarding the truth in the War on Terror, ie., not a lot of variety and a small pool of actors and ideas.
Tags: actor, anthrax, Debbie Schlussel Tonight, Henri Lubatti, Jack Bauer, Kiefer Sutherland, L.A., Michael Ealy, poisonous chemical, Same Terrorist, Sleeper Cell, The New York Times
I ahte to disagree with you Deb but 24 rcks, and Jack Bauer is one fo the greatest characters to come along in a while. You are entitled to your opinion but on behalf of Jack Bauer fans everywhere, “I disagree.”
raymondb.voteswagon.com on February 20, 2006 at 10:08 pm