But as some pointed out, the ongoing drone wars and the hazy acceptance of Bush-era "enhanced interrogation techniques" as legal and morally permissible didn't end when Obama became president.

And after several years of films and TV shows that have wrestled with the complicated legacy of torture -- like "Homeland" and "Zero Dark Thirty" -- the Bush era is about to return to prime time.

Fox is bringing "24" and star Kiefer Sutherland back for another 12 episodes in summer 2014, which raises this question: As the investigation continues into the Boston Marathon bombing, and with Benghazi still a partisan flashpoint, is the culture suddenly thirsting for shows that take revenge?

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When asked the very same set of questions posed in 2007 and 2005 polls, respondents this year answered more positively in favor of both torture and the use of nuclear weapons. Forty-one percent of the 1,000 individuals asked advocated for the use of torture on prisoners (a rise of seven percentage points since 2007). A quarter of respondents would be willing to use nuclear weapons to strike terrorists.

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The first Camelot drama out of the chute is "The Kennedys," the controversial miniseries that was canceled by the History Channel under pressure from Carolyn Kennedy and historians, who argued that the channel should at least make some effort to root the story in, well, history. This was a quaint argument, since the History Channel abandoned history long ago in favor of ice-road truckers, gator wrestlers and other reality sideshows. But the network owners were sufficiently embarrassed by the ruckus to dump the series. "The Kennedys" then took a long, downward trip through television's alimentary canal, ending up in some dark cavity called the Reelz Channel. The six-episode series begins plopping out on Sunday.

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Dear "24":

So it's over. After nine years, our time together has come to an end. Lord knows, we've had our ups and downs, and there have been times, like with Kim and the cougar, when perhaps we should have called it quits. But I'm glad we stuck it out, even though I'm not sorry to say goodbye.

It could have been worse. Somewhere in season six, the one where you set off your second nuclear explosion, we drifted apart, and I thought I was done. The first time you did it, back in season two, it was a genuine shock, even if the bomb did detonate in the middle of the desert. But the second time, it just seemed sad. I know it's hard to keep things fresh over the long haul, and there are days when the best any of can do is go through the motions. But by that point, it seemed like you weren't even trying.

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"If you're looking for a series to remind you what it felt like to be alive and American in the aughts, '24' is the show to beat. 'The Sopranos,' 'Deadwood,' 'The Shield' and other cable series were more acclaimed for their artistry, perhaps rightly so, but '24' was as conceptually bold as its peers, and it aired on a broadcast network, a venue in which job 1 was to thrill. And with its combination beat-the-clock plotting, R-rated violence, and straightforward engagement with the dominant political issues of the day, '24' changed our perceptions of what a dramatic series could do."

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No wonder we turn to our televisions for novelty, to see if the lovely downhill skier weeps tears of joy or disappointment, to find out if the patient's heart surgery saves his life or kills him, to discover if the castaways live happily ever after, or spend another week wandering through the jungle, searching for more clues.

If your life is stable, it's hard not to experience its details as predictable, if not a little mundane. If your life is unstable, it's hard not to experience its twists and turns as dismaying instead of entertaining or suspenseful. You're too close to enjoy yourself.

So you mumble distractedly to your co-workers and your family all day long, then weep openly for the fictional heart patient on your TV screen at night.

Jacking around

What's interesting to me these days is that I still find myself addicted to shows that I have no emotional stake in whatsoever.

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Now you can focus on what's really important in life.

Which is … Um.

Huh. I sort of want to go online and do a Google search on "important things in life." Maybe someone has tweeted about this lately…

It's my Jack in a box!

Thankfully, Jack Bauer has just discovered what's really important in life, and he's here to show us about it. The first time we see Bauer in the eighth season premiere of "24" (four-hour, two-night premiere airs 9 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 17, and 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 18, on Fox) he's smiling and chatting happily with his young granddaughter. Of course we're meant to be gratified by this kinder, gentler image of Bauer, finally having lost his edge, finally at peace with himself, finally open to making real, intimate connections with others, just like a real human being with blood in his veins.

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In this cruel modern world, just as the stress of your work life finally subsides, just as you start to feel happy and numb like an overfed donkey, it's time to get back to work. I need four weeks of vacation time, minimum! I want to wander aimlessly, nibbling on clover, in a daze. Instead, just as I get the laundry done and sit down to read a book, my holiday break is over.

And it takes about two weeks to adjust to being back at work. I tried to explain this to my husband yesterday: The mind doesn't want to do a job. The mind wants to go to the mall and gaze at the intricate, almost balletic movements of the hot-dog-rolling machine at Orange Julius. The mind wants to take a nap. The mind wants a doughnut.

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Yes, after an 18-month wait, Jack Bauer is finally back -- for two hours, at least. But at the start of the upcoming special "24: Redemption" (9 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23, on Fox), Jack's looking even more resigned and beaten down than he usually does at the beginning of each season of "24."

Of course, once the international high-wire act begins, replete with dangerous militias, high-level conspiracies, corrupt politicians, mysterious murders, illegal weaponry and imperiled children, our old friend is transformed before our eyes into the grenade-hurling renegade we've come to know and love over the years, with his resolute glare and his telltale urgent whisper. Try to tie him up and torture him, and he'll kill you using only a knee to the temple! Mess with his old Army pal, and he'll throw himself in front of a moving bus packed with nuclear weapons! Threaten his homeland and he'll fake his own death, destroy his relationship with his daughter, and doom his chances at true love forever and ever, just to keep the free world safe from harm! How would we ever survive without this man's never-ending compulsion for self-sacrifice?

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At least Dennis Haysbert seems to think so. Months ago, he declared that his portrayal of a black president on Fox's "24" series had paved the way for the real-life senator from Illinois. "If anything, my portrayal of David Palmer, I think, may have helped open the eyes of the American people. And I mean the American people from across the board -- from the poorest to the richest, every color and creed, every religious base -- to prove the possibility there could be an African-American president, a female president, any type of president that puts the people first."

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In Bush and Cheney's "war on terror," the evildoers are external and are clearly discernible. In "Heroes," each person agonizes over the evil within, a point of view more common on the political left than on the right. Each of the flawed characters is capable of both nobility and iniquity. In Bush's vision, the main threat remains rival states (Saddam's Iraq, Ahmadinejad's Iran). States are absent from "Heroes," as though irrelevant. "Heroes" makes terrorism a universal and psychological issue rather than one attached to a clash of civilizations or to a particular race.

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For most of the first hour of the two-hour finale, Counter Terrorism Unit agent Mike Doyle and Jack's nephew, Josh Bauer, sit at a picnic table by the beach, waiting for Grandpa Bauer to pick up Josh and drop off the sought-after circuit board, which Russian President Suvarov is ready to start a war over. Jack tells anyone who'll listen that the exchange is a crappy idea because his dad is a total dick who'll figure out some way to get the kid and the component. Sadly, everyone thinks that Jack just needs to work through his feelings for his father in therapy.

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Or at least, that was the old Jack Bauer. On Monday night's episode of "24" (9 p.m. on Fox), that man was replaced by a stunningly lifelike replica who was willing to sell national security up the river by stealing bomb components and giving them to the Chinese, just to ensure the safety of Audrey.

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My own happy tadpole, who just arrived on this overheated blue sphere four months ago, gazes at the branches of trees and feels the cold noses of dogs and pronounces them exciting and delightful. "No," I say to her, "these things are mundane and worthless. Pay more attention to the major hassles and irritations and setbacks you're faced with. You have the mobility of a throw pillow, for God's sake. You crap in your pants every few hours. You eat the same thing every day, and what's worse, you're forced to suck it out of a big, filthy breast. How monotonous! How alarmingly inconvenient! Don't you see how utterly impoverished your existence is? And aren't you wondering whether or not I've started saving for your college education yet?"

My little friend, who doesn't seem to mind that she's chubby and illiterate and spends a great deal of time sitting in her own feces, just coos and smiles at me, apparently unconcerned about the burgeoning cost of higher education -- or global warming or North Korea, for that matter.

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We've never seen it ourselves, mind you. But the military is apparently having a tough time convincing soldiers that the scenes in the show aren't some kind of lesson plan for how to treat detainees. According to a report from the New Yorker's Jane Mayer, the dean of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and several top military and FBI investigators met with some of the creative minds behind "24" in November to complain that the show's central premise -- "that the letter of American law must be sacrificed for the country's security" -- was hurting America's image in the world and encouraging real-life U.S. soldiers to think that torture is acceptable.

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Although Mrs. Stemkowski was the sort of teacher who seemed to despise about half of the kids in the class for their lazy, unruly ways, I was almost as tightly wound as she was, so she was always nice to me. Still, I found one of those cards above the chalkboard extremely unnerving. It said something like:

Time, that's it! When it's gone, it's gone!

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