I admit, I’ve never watched the show 24. Everybody tells me I should, all my friends rave about it, even one of the executive producers of my upcoming film recommended it for editing ideas. But, like The Sopranos or Desperate Housewives, it seems to be one of those shows you have to watch from the very beginning in order to truly understand its greatness.

Although the last thing I need in my life is another time commitment, I would’ve been willing to check out 24 if it’s really as good as everyone says. But now, after reading this, I’m much less inclined to do so:

The creators of “24,” Fox Television’s thriller-diller starring Keifer Sutherland as counterterror super-agent Jack Bauer, almost put together a compelling TV series rooted in the onerous reality of the war on jihad terrorism. But thanks, apparently, to a few helpful suggestions from the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR), they managed to steer clear of all political and historical relevance.

This couldn’t have been easy. After all, CAIR didn’t even come to their rescue until after the show’s season had begun with a couple of episodes that featured a typical Islamic sleeper cell embedded in a typical American sleepy suburb. After these and other obvious blunders — a terse exchange of “Allahu Akbar” between terrorists, for instance — the creative types behind the hit series managed to get their act together and save the world for political correctness. How? Two things: They laid down a suitably distracting Chinese subplot, and cast a bunch of mid-Westerners, instead of Middle Easterners, to wear the key black hats. There was the ex-Air Force pilot — obviously blond, obviously disgruntled — who shot down Air Force One; a nefarious ex-Marine; and a Patty-Hearst-like commando who just shot whatever.

Whatever is right. By this week’s season finale, Marwan, the head jihadist, had been comic-stripped of all religious identity and motivation, and cloaked in a heavy disguise of moral equivalence. As in: You think we’re evil and we think you’re evil. This is pretty much what hero-Jack actually said to Marwan, the terror kingpin, who had just that day blown up a train, kidnapped the Secretary of Defense, sent multiple nuclear plants into meltdown, and lobbed a nuclear warhead at Los Angeles. Oh well. Marwan was ultimately overshadowed by Someone Worse — the President of the United States.