1%-5% of your purchase will help support the PTC.

Worst TV Show of the Week Brought to you by the Parents Television Council	Share |
WARNING: Graphic Content!!! Do NOT push play if you don't want to see the explicit video!!!

24 on Fox

Fox’s 24 (Mondays, 9:00 p.m. ET) is known for its intense, pulse-pounding storylines that unfold in real-time.  Unfortunately, those storylines are often spiked with moments of intense violence.  When Jack Bauer isn’t torturing a suspect or being tortured himself, others around him are swallowed up in the vortex of violence.  And this season, a bit of Jack has rubbed off on his troubled colleague Rene Walker, who’s back working with CTU after a nervous breakdown, triggered by her last interaction with the pragmatic Mr. Bauer.  In the February 8^th episode, however, Rene completely snaps under the strain of past traumas and the subsequent horrific violence has earned the show the title of Worst TV Show of the Week.

First, a little back-story: Rene has resurrected an old cover to help Jack identify the supplier of nuclear material within the Russian crime syndicate who plans to sell the weapons-grade plutonium to terrorists inside the United States.  While undercover, Rene reconnects with her former associate Vladimir Laitanan – a brutal, possessive Russian mobster with an obsessive streak.  Apparently, the last time they saw each other, he tried to rape her.  Jack wants to remove Rene from the operation because he believes she’s not mentally fit for it. 

He had reason to worry.

In the previous episode, Vladimir became forceful with Rene.  But in order to salvage the op, she became submissive and allowed him to sleep with her.  Since then, Vladimir has grown increasingly controlling.  Yet, at Rene’s behest he calls all of his contacts about potentially buying the plutonium through a competing buyer.  When Vladimir exhausts all of his contacts, Rene begs him to try again.  He grabs her and yells, “Look, it’s over!  What is wrong with you?”

She pleads, “I need this deal!”

“That is why you’re here.  The deal?”

“Why else?  Do you think that I’m here for you?” she snorts.

Vladimir punches her in the face.  He cocks his arm back and punches her even harder.  She falls to the ground, knocking down a cutting board and a knife.  She grabs the knife, pops back up and stabs him in the eye.  Outside, Jack – posing as the competing buyer – hears Vladimir’s screams and rushes into the room to see Vladimir’s gaping, bloody eye socket; meanwhile, Rene stabs Vladimir’s chest repeatedly.  Jack peels her off of Vladimir but in her blind rage she stabs Jack in the stomach.  Jack falls to the ground as Vladimir’s henchmen enter the room.  Jack pries the knife out of his gut and tosses it into the throat of one of the men.  Jack takes out his gun and shoots the rest.  Rene stands in the midst of all this, completely stunned.

Did Vladimir deserve what he got?  Perhaps.  But audiences didn’t need to see it.  Unfortunately, with every passing minute of the show, viewers can be sure that they’re inching closer to yet another gruesome act.

For excessive violence, 24 has been named Worst TV Show of the Week.