Finally got around to watching this. Didn’t see a thread.
All ranks and company names and quotes are approximate.
I’m definitely digging this show. Hilarious dialogue again. . .
“hey reporter, lay down with your cock in the dirt when the tanks roll by.”
I loved his spiel about why all the different guys joined the marines, “that commercial with the guy in dress blues and a sword hooked so many of these guys. So and so here joined because he wanted to kill people. I joined for the thai pussy.”
It definitely has that “Wire” feel to me. Like someone just dropped in on these guys and started recorded what’s going on. . .they’re not good, or bad, or noble or ignoble. They’re just the cogs of the system they’re in.
Nice subtle touches. . .for instance, bravo platoon (I think) recommends against crossing the bridge, but the higher-ups send them anyway. Later on when it is clear that it was wrong, the higher-ups get on the radio and say, “bravo platoon took a wrong turn at the bridge” and the lieutenant (I think) just closes his radio without saying anything.
I thought the battle scenes were excellent. They weren’t made to look like battle scenes from movies. There was so much tension built up from people waiting around doing nothing.
The story doesn’t really have a “hook” yet – say, a mission that they’re either making progress on, or failing to make progress on. I don’t know if this will be to its detriment, but, again, I get the feeling that not having a clearly designed mission – ever shifting plans – is what they went through.
The stuff we’re seeing is so foreign to anything in my experience, it’s hard to talk about it – I don’t know what to say. The only thing I can relate to is the incompetent management.
Why doesn’t somebody tell that guy to shut up? The one on the radio saying “This is a suicide mission! We’re all gonna die!” Didn’t he get the same training as everyone else?
I could hardly stand to watch them going through that town, yet some things went by too quickly. What was up with the body with no legs? I think I might have to get the book.
I went and got the book myself after watching the first episode. I’ve finished it, and it’s very good. Judging from the first two episodes, the show is following the book pretty closely – and thus, if the book is accurate, is close to what really happened.
The “suicide mission” guy is nicknamed “Captain America.” When I saw him in the show, I thought they surely must be exaggerating – how could a guy like this end up in an elite unit like Force Recon? But, the book backs up this portrayal. In fact, he goes on to do even more mind-boggling things.
I like how the reporter is a silent observer – he’s only spoken about 3 lines of dialog so far, yet he’s one of the major characters. Almost everything you need to know about him you get from his facial expressions or mannerisms.
I’m definitely enjoying this show, although there’s a weird way in which one of its great strengths (its authenticity) is also a weakness (things just happen, there’s not the kind of dramatic arcs that fictionalized storytelling, even when it’s as good as The Wire, has).
My favorite character (is “character” the right word for someone based on a real person who was alive as of 6 years ago?) is Ray, the one with the long spiels about Iraq’s pussy infrastructure, the recruiting ad with the dragon, etc. I really hope that (a) the real guy survived the war, and (b) we’ll get to see interviews with him, perhaps on the DVD set, to see what the real guy is like.
In the afterword to the book, Wright recounts that Ray was hired as a technical advisor for the HBO series. The cast members were all excited to meet him, for the same reasons you cite, and were a little disappointed when Ray turned out to be a low-key midwestern guy. Apparently the personality you see on the show was the result of a lack of sleep, and a surplus of adrenaline and the “rip fuel” he drank.
I didn’t care for Ray much in the first episode, found him to be quite annoying. During this second episode he really grew on me and I was laughing my arse off at his lengthy diatribes. I also loved how in the one shot from the outside of the humvee while driving, the LT (forgot his name) is looking down his rifle and gets this funny little grin that clearly conveyed that he’d not let Ray know it but he thought that was damn funny.
I also didn’t realize that two of the actors are portraying themselves. One is the Marine who gets teased for being really good looking. Not sure who the other one is yet.