Ode to Curtis

Damn why'd they have to go and kill Curtis on 24 last night? Why why why! And in an episode airing on Martin Luther King day too. Damn damn damn!

What can I say? Yes I know he is/was just a TV character but Curtis was so much more.

Ok some background. One good thing about 24 is that unlike some of the other TV shows out there it has given us some memorable black characters. President Palmer and his wife/ex wife Sheri and CTU agent Curtis Manning all stand out. President Palmer's sister portrayed by Regina King also seems to be blazing a new trail in season 6 as a memorable character herself. (by the way does everyone besides me think that her boyfriend on the show played by Harry J Lennix look like Barak Obama?)

But every memorable black character seems to get knocked off. Sheri got taken out in season 3, President Palmer got assassinated in Hour 1 of season 5 and now Curtis gets taken out in hour number 4 of season 6.

Its been tough to see good black folk get killed (on TV).

Don't get me wrong though, 24 hasn't been all good for the brothers and sisters. Me and bajansistren had a running joke early on in the show's life that anytime you saw a minority character (aside from the Palmers) they wouldn't last more than 2 hrs. Anyone remember the black female cop that helped Jack in season one? yep she got taken care of swiftly, same thing with Lou Diamond Phillips' character etc etc. So minorities in law enforcement positions just weren't making it in the show until Curtis. (ok Tony Almeida was an exception and he was sort of like Slater on Saved by the Bell where they kept his ethnicity totally on the low till they fired him (tony) and had him talking Spanish and watching soccer).

So when Curtis showed up as a CTU agent in season 3, my expectations were low. I figured he wouldn't last three hours but somehow he survived. Then in season 4 when they had his ex, played by Aisha Tyler, work as a traitor I figured Curtis was done for cause they would somehow find a way to blame the brother for her handiwork and fire him. Either that or he'd get himself killed. But he survived. Survived season 5 too and I got accustomed to seeing Curtis, the stoic, by the book, without any emotional range (sort of like a black Ben Affleck) black Captain America, ask not what your country can do for you type that he was on the show and thought hey maybe he is invincible like Jack.

Alas I was wrong.

Curtis died in Season 6 hour number 4 last night. Shot by Jack Bauer.

But yes for the three seasons he was around it was nice having Curtis. He was a solid bit character. They never developed him too much beyond that until it was time to kill him but he was still cool to watch. He got shot, he shot back, he obeyed orders, he played by the rules, he was a prototypical soldier, and always cool, never flustered, at points the antithesis of Keither Sutherland's Jack Bauer character.

Which is why it was so difficult watching him go out in such an uncharacteristic manner last night. Disobeying orders and getting shot by a colleague? Who writes this stuff? Curtis' actions were definitely not in line with his character. Jack might do something like that but after three seasons of watching Curtis I'm pretty sure he wouldn't go out like the punk they played him to be last night.

I mean if they needed to get rid of him couldn't they just have had him get blown up in the nuclear explosion that they set off which was probably the biggest event of last nights episode to most people, except me cause the biggest event to me was Curtis' death.

Its just wrong and I could probably go into a "well if they had to kill off a black character this person would have been better to knock off" speech but I wont cause well first off I could go on and on about this show and secondly its all just a big TV show.