"Over There"

A reminder that the premier of this fx network show is tonight... 10:00PM et/pt... (and I note at www.fxnetwork.com that it will also be shown at 11:00PM and a few more times this week...

When I first read about this show, I had no intention of watching it -- a little too close to home for me... But my son saw the promos for it while he was home on leave and when I asked whether he wanted me to record the shows for him he said, "Hell yeah!" He said the guys are interested in seeing them... to see how accurate the info is and to laugh at the stuff that isn't... And of course they want to know why the guy training the actors to be Army soldiers -- is a Marine? (That's what they'd heard...)

So I'll be watching... I'll be interested in some of the takes on this in the next few days...

UPDATE:

My friend Melinda (an Army wife) said: " My husband & I watched it. At twenty minutes past the hour, I looked at him and said, "well, now that they have run through every possible stereotype, what will they do for the next 40 minutes?" My husband spent most of his time pointing out inaccuracies or things that were too 'Hollywood'". And another Army wife said, "My husband watched this, thought it was cheesy, and unrealistic. He thought that was ok, because anything "too real" might not be great to watch."

So, Mel, they filled the other 40 minutes with gore and horror...

and yup... appeared to have covered all the bases:

white Columbia grad (but called "Dim" 'cause he's stupid enough to be in the Army anyway?),

poor white southern kid that needs money for college (but he loves the Army),

ghetto kid,

over the edge (Sgt. Screamer) NCO,

by the book (idiot) NCO,

paternal captain,

tough girl,

young mother,

doper...

covered everyone? what?? the Army is apparently composed of just 18-22 yr olds? no career, dedicated soldier from middle class America that actually felt a duty to serve? ok, maybe in episode 2... that's when I guess we'll also get to meet that psycho "nothing happens in my town unless I say it happens" Sgt. in #2 as shown in the previews? I can't wait (sigh). But I'm certainly glad they dumped on al-Jazeera...

I want to note here that the racial/age stereotype is a little skewed in the show... In my son's original platoon, the newest Sgt. was a white 23 year old, the Staff Sgt. and 1st Sgt. are 20 yr.+ veterans who are both African Americans, while most of the guys in his platoon are white 18-22 year olds (none are from the same state), 3 others are white 25-30 year olds, 1 is Hispanic (about 24) and 1 is black (late 20's). In his current platoon, his Sgt. is Hispanic and has 16 years of service... I'm not certain whether it reflects the entire Army, but it appeared to be an accurate reflection of his battalion...

I can't say whether the battlefield depictions are accurate, I'll leave that for the vets to say... I'll give it another episode or two. I'm really more interested in the character development and how they portray our soldiers and the situations of which we are already aware -- I picked up the references to Abu Ghraib... and the shooting from the mosque... and the needing permission to return fire which may have been less than accurate, but also the references to incident reports and the paperwork when gunfire is exchanged...

My only other comment is that the theme song SUCKED. terrible. mothers are crying? fathers are sighing? what the hell is that? the ABCs of rhymin' simon? they should sh*tcan it and find something better. I think they were going for the "Suicide is Painless" (M.A.S.H.) feel but missed entirely. the words are imbecilic and the music unmemorable. awful.

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