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NINA MYERS: It didn't have to be like this, Jack. I never meant for it to be personal. - "24"
Press
"24 misogyny watch: Day 3" TeeVee.org
(6/14/2004)
It's become something of a self-imposed curse: I can't watch 24
anymore without noticing how it treats its female characters.
I've written before on how the first two seasons of 24
seemed to suggest some bizarre woman-hatin' streak among the
show's writers. Nearly every female character came across as an
idiot, victim, schemer or some combination of the three.
by Nathan Alderman
Granted, it's a bit silly for me to examine 24 for
mistreatment of women when the Fox network is offering up so many
more rich, meaty examples of misogyny — this is your cue to
think of The Swan and recoil in finger-curling, full-grimace
horror. The crucial difference, in my opinion, is that 24
seems to be made by smart people who want to create reasonably
high-quality television, instead of, say, chattering cacodemons
from the ninth circle of Hell. 24 promises more, and
deserves to be held to a higher standard.
The good news is that this season was a significant improvement
from the series' first two years. Female characters were mostly
treated as something other than Satan's Own Hausfraus. Mostly.
Without further ado, here's your scorecard:
NINA MEYERS Pure evil, in convenient womanly form.
THE GOOD: Nina actually got to stick around for a while this
year, and she definitely made an impression. Fierce,
uncompromising, and terrifyingly good at sowing mayhem, Nina was
certainly no one's victim.
THE BAD: Nina's amped-up badassitude wiped away any sort of
ambiguity about her character's morals. Unlike last season's
brief glimpse or two of humanity, she was one-note evil all the
way. And yes, she was reaching for that gun in her final moments,
but Jack still shot her like a dog, in cold blood.
OVERALL: Next season won't be as much fun without her.
