Hawk's Babble-Log

My definition of hardass: Neil Burnside & Jack Bauer

This might require some explanation. Possibly not about the second name, but probably about the first.

Neil Burnside was the director of “MI5″ in the show “The Sandbaggers”. The Sandbaggers were, basically, special forces dudes. Mostly they handled intelligence, but also they went out on missions. Sometimes, these missions were highly dangerous. Other times they were just to go out and pick up a guy who was trying to flee.

All the Sandbaggers shows were very, very well written. Often times I had a hard time keeping up with the political stuff; I don’t seem to have a very good grasp on politics. But that’s one of the things that makes this show so darn good. The writers were amazingly adept, always wrote a good story, and it seems that the head guy (Neil Burnside) always had some hard choices to make.

And that’s the thing that makes a guy a hardass. Not only does he make the tough choices, but he follows through with action. He may not like it, but he does it anyway.

Because The Sandbaggers is old (late 70′s), you’re not going to see too much action, nor too many special effects, though they did blow up a plane near the beginning of the first season. Granted, the plane was already on the ground, but it was still a good gesture. Nevertheless, it’s an _excellent_ show, and I’d buy it.

Specifically, after the first season, you’ll know why I elect Neil Burnside as Hardass #1. No, I’m not going to give anything away. Rent the first season of The Sandbaggers and you’ll know why.

As for Jack Bauer, he’s the hardass in the much more recent show “24″. The show 24 is very, very well planned out. Such planning is necessary when you’re filming events which should appear to play out in real time. So if you need to drive 20 minutes across down to handle something, it really takes 20 minutes to get there. Well, almost. They drop some time for the commercial breaks. But all the various lines of story are intermingled so well, the show creators really deserve kudos for that.

It seems, every hour of every day, Jack Bauer makes some damn hard decisions. And he can go days without sleep, too. The guy just doesn’t stop. If you send him out to handle something, you know it’ll be handled, one way or another. The show writers/producers really need to throw some heavy barriers in his way because he’s just such a hardass.

And speaking of heavy barriers, planning to kidnap his family? Really bad idea. Planning to set off a nuke in his city? Friggin’ bad idea. Planning to release a weaponized virus into his country? Insanely bad idea. Jack Bauer will kick your ass. And there’s nothing you can do to stop him.

Bad guys: you _really don’t_ want to get on Jack’s bad side. Like… really.

It doesn’t seem to matter which season (or “day”) of 24 you watch, after one season (or “day”), you’ll know why I elect Jack Bauer Hardass #2.

So, here’s the Hardass summary:

Hardass #1: Neil Burnside
Hardass #2: Jack Bauer

Any questions?