David Simon and Ed Burns’ new series starts Sunday, July 13 on HBO. Seven episodes, based on the (non-fiction) book of the same name written by Evan Wright, a reporter embedded with the First Recon battalion Marines who were the first in Baghdad. It covers the first 40 days of the campaign. It’s just about the troops – no politicos or generals, no family back home.
I recognize only two of the actors – Lee Tergeson and James Ransome (Ziggy!)
I dropped HBO a few months ago but I can’t resist this. Who else will be watching?
As soon as I saw the promo showing the Marines yelling at people to vote Republican, I lost all interest in this thing. It looks like flag waving, pro-Bush propaganda to me.
If it is at all based on the book, it is neither pro nor anti-war, neither pro nor anti-soldier. It’s very much a book about individuals, some of whom are pro-Bush and some of whom are very much not. At any rate, it’s a soldier’s account of what happened, and what happened was pretty much a complete clusterfuck.
get those Charms out of my f*cking humvee.
It’s always refreshing to see just how little you can see the forest for the trees, Dio. Yeah, that’s exactly what it is, a flag waving Republican propaganda show on HBO, the network that defined counterculture television.
Actually, I think you’re supposed to think rather than rush to judgment based on the first 30 second clip you see. Do you know anything about the book, or the HBO miniseries, other than what you’ve seen in the promo?
So I watched the first episode. Yeah, that was really worthwhile. An hour and 15 minutes of racism, homophobia and rape jokes. The liberal bashing and jingoism is always nice too. If this was an accurate portrayal of the Marines in Iraq (and it wasn’t far different from the culture I remember in the Navy), then this series isn’t doing them any favors. I don’t think there were any likeable characters in this whole episode. I don’t think I’ll feel the urge to watch any more of the series.
You’re hard to please, Dio. If they can’t bash Bush or liberals, what’s left?
I thought it was great. The stress and tension was communicated really well. Where are we going? What’s our mission? It’ll be hard to talk about the show in this forum without getting into the politics, but we should try.
Did Sgt. Major Sixton (according to IMDB) remind anyone else of Hank Hill’s shinless daddy Cotton?
And perhaps more importantly, less of Dio’s heavy-handed and humorlessly myopic partisan shtick. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that record play …
For what it is worth I spent a year over there with a scout unit and it is uncanny how realistic the show was. I felt the racism was over the top, while it did exist, it was not quite so mean spirited in the unit I was in.
I could actually match many faces of guys I knew to the characters. And I think they actually got footage of the death squads in pick-ups and the surrender scene from my unit.(Not really but I lived it scene for scene down to the interpreter stealing smokes and cash from the prisoners before we sent them on their way.)
I never really felt affected by PTSD but this show has dredged up some weird feelings…
Oh and way to miss The Point about the vote republican thing Dio…
I’ll give the show one more week. Maybe it will grow on me. It did capture a certain kind of accuracy in the raunchiness and political incorrectness that I remember from the military, but that wasn’t all the cullture was and I hope the show finds some of the better notes.
Like where the LT. turns to the reporter and spells out that he is being ordered to violate the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners and tells him to report what he has seen?
I especially liked the part where the lt lied about the stove explosion and everybody knew he was lying and the commander still told him to put some of the guys in for commendations. Many medals have been earned thusly. I saw some units where clerk/typists were decorated for running their HUMMV off the road while hundreds of miles from combat. I knew a signals guy who never got closer than KKMC was somehow awarded a bronze star…