Janis Gold


Janis Gold is a fictional character on the TV series 24, portrayed by Janeane Garofalo. Gold is an FBI analyst, and was first introduced in season 7.

Concept and creation

Garofalo initially turned down the role because of the way the show depicted torture. She later changed her mind, saying in an interview: "being unemployed and being flattered that someone wanted to work with me outweighed my stance ." As portrayed, Janis does show her anger and disapproval in incidents where human rights are presumably violated in the fight against terror threats, only to have her beliefs contradicted by the end of the season, as torture saves the day yet again in the final episode.

Characterization

Gold's offers a counterpoint to Chloe O'Brian. Gold, an FBI analyst, is suspicious of her new office mate O'Brian who is the resident tech-savvy computer analyst. The rivalry between Chloe and Janis is designed to lighten the often-grim, high-pressure thriller with a touch of humor. Garofolo decided that Janis would come from a place "where anxiety and irony collide" and said that she is "very self-aware. Whereas Mary Lynn doesn't quite understand what impact she's having on people." Since the two characters of Gold and O'Brian met in the February 16th episode, they have shared a rivalry over who is the better computer hacker. During their introduction, Chloe tells agent Moss, "Whoever set your network up that way didn't know what they were doing." To which Moss replied, "I set our network up that way."
While discussing the addition of a foil for the Chloe character, Howard Gordon, an executive producer of "24", said: "Chloe was the slightly out-of-sync person who was strangely competent but lacked certain social cues. She had a really unique charm that could be set against the deadpan urgency of the show." The rivalry is purely an on-screen, in character development, however, as Garofalo and Mary Lynn Rajskub, who plays O'Brian, are actually friends off camera.