Thursday, July 28, 2005
"Over There"
The new tv show by Steven Bochco finally premiered last night. I had been really psyched to see it from the previews over the past few months. Then, in the last week I started to read reviews and became much more hesitant. Anything that the lamestream media is going to praise about a military show means that it is going to pretty much suck. I have to agree with my brothers in the USArmy- this show sucked. The dialogue was stilted, dumb, and seemingly had no relation to the reality that is our military. I particularly enjoyed the two black soldiers: riffing on how the white man is keeping them down in society. Uh, wasn't this pretty much done to death in all of our "Vietnam Hellhole" movies back in the 1980's? Not sure which military these writers have ever been in (the imaginary one that lives in Hollywood), but Sergeants don't sit there and bitch and moan about protecting themselves when other soldiers are sitting out in the open taking fire- at least not a Sergeant I would want in my unit. The final scenes about our hero getting blown up by an IED- (nicely marked so the viewers could see it!) were meant to debilitate the war effort. So, we see the horrors of war, but of course very few of the young idiots portrayed actually seem to know why they are over there in the first place. "Our only mission is to stay alive!" one said. Really? I thought the mission was to accomplish a transition to a democratic and peaceful government. Then again, I am weird in that way that I didn't think the mission of my military was to protect myself. Maybe I can use that one on my Colonel when they call for volunteers next to deploy to the sandbox. "Hey, I would really like to help out Sir. But to be honest, my only mission is to get out alive. So, have to pass. Thanks" Oh, did I mention this show sucks from a military perspective? I know in the USAF we don't do alot of close in battle drill, but it would take a 4 year old to figure out we don't all hide within 15 feet of each other, and then walk SLOWLY toward the enemy in a STRAIGHT LINE. Uh, didn't we pretty much give that up about 1864? I can see why the government is not supporting this dreck- it is simply a downer about military life. It will only serve to further depress the public's willingness to support the war, much less to volunteer for it. Thank goodness we have patriots who don't buy into Bochco's fantasy land. If this was made in 1942 we would be speaking Japanese and German today.
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3 comments:
Thanks for posting your thoughts. I found my way here, following a paper trail of links that began at Hugh Hewitt's.
Something you said kind of illuminated for me what this show made me feel: a kind of depression. The anti-war cloud that hangs over it is the kind that wants to suck the morale right from out of you by focusing so much on the angst and tragedy of war. I'll continue to watch, for the same reason I follow the leftstream media: it's kind of a culture watch, for me. If the pilot sets the overall tone of the entire series, then I'll probably be tuning out after the next few eps.
I linked to your post on my blog, commenting on the series. I'm not a milblogger; but I'm a military brat, through and through (my dad retired Lt. Col. from 32 or 34 years in the Air Force). I blogged on his service record in my Father's Day post.
Thanks for the visit.
Someone posted your link on Blackfive so I came over to see what you had to say about this show. Thanks for talking about the how they were walking slowly toward the enemy in a straight line. I am a civilian and therefore do not have a lot of knowledge about combat techniques but had real strong suspicions about that being unrealistic (it just didn't look right at all to me). Even though I am a civilian, I figured out most of the other stuff that was inaccurately portrayed. It would have been so easy for the writer of this show to do a little research. If I could figure it out then he should have been able to also. He either did very sloppy work or intentionally set out to show our military in bad light (or both). Either way it is pretty disgusting.
I think to be fair, to Hollywood (why does that leave a bad taste in my mouth to say?), what we also have to understand is that they need to take certain liberties, sacrificing realism for dramatic effect and telling a story. I don't know who their military consultants are, but I'm sure they have them. They take things under advisement, then go with portraying things the way they deem fit, weighing in realism against dramatic storytelling.
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