The Opinionated Bastard

I watched the second episode of Over There last night.

First off, much better then the first. Last episode was the pilot though, and pilots are what they are.

Since last time I had to defend the episode from its military critics, this time I'm going to start with the things I didn't like in their honor.

The episode starts with this dream sequence of a soldier being screamed at and tortured by a terrorists.

This whole bit offended me. It was gratuitous, and violent. I ended up fast forwarding through the whole thing so if it had any redeeming virtues, I didn't see them. I do the same thing on Alias, so its not unique to this show. I don't mind violence in shows in general, but sometimes...

The soldier wakes up, and he's in Germany, he's lost part of his leg. (Hence the nightmare.) From that point on the episode was OK though later on there's a comparison between jihad and Woodstock I found fumbly and offensive.

Now the main criticism of the pilot from the soldiers over at Blackfive besides the tactics was the stereotypical characters. That didn't actually bother me at the time, because its standard for the soldier genre, plus its a pilot; you have 40 minutes to introduce 8 characters. Plus sometimes I think pilots are written for the purpose of convincing studio executives, and they have very small brains.

Not so bad in this episode. Instead of forcefeeding the characters to the audience, the characters are allowed to develop more naturally. This makes them seem much less cartoonish.

One character still grates though: The Red-Headed Divorced Slut. I've decided her whole reason for existence is to provide a counter point to my favorite character, Tough Army Wife so I guess its ok if she lives.

Ok, things I liked:

The injured soldier's wife is tough as nails, and she's obviously been an Army wife for awhile. In this first episode, you get the sense that when it comes to her man, if its between her and the entire US Army, bet on her.

She reminded me of my wife, so she's probably going to be my favorite character. Plus she's HOT!

Most of the episode though centers around the soldiers maintaining a roadblock/checkpoint out in the middle of nowhere. There were some key things the writers were trying to communicate here:

1. Guard duty is so boring that its worth starting a fist fight just to have something to do.
2. You have no idea what is going on in a car when its coming towards you. and you have seconds to make a decision.
3. The terrorists are quite willing to sacrifice two young men, 4 old women, a little girl, and two old men; when caught, they will prattle on about the Geneva Convention.
4. Having soldiers who speak the language would be invaluable.

At least, that's what I got from the episode.

I suspect the military folks will have lots of critiques of their tactics, and I welcome them in the comments below. For my part, as a civilian supporting their efforts, for half and hour, I was able to feel some of what they're going through.

That of course, is the ultimate purpose of the show.

Update: Someone else Agrees

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