Generation Kill Episode 2 review
July 29, 2008 · Print This Article
The creators of the best show of the 00’s, THE WIRE, have a new HBO series, GENERATION KILL. I have now watched the first two episodes of GENERATION KILL and I can definitely say that this second episode had a definite WIRE vibe to it (the first ep was a bit slow, but had to establish a lot). That sense of true urban grit, of urban tension, of realness, it was flowing all over this David Simon and Ed Burns penned ep (along with Even Wright). I am totally on board with GENERATION KILL and it feels great to finally have a high quality drama on my weekly viewing schedule again.
GENERATION KILL is the story of the U.S. led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 from the viewpoint of the Bravo Company, an elite group of marines who also happen to have an embedded journalist from Rolling Stone magazine with them.
Also like THE WIRE, within Bravo Company you have a diverse mix of people, from extremely sharp and intelligent leaders down to some of the dumbest of the dumb marines. And not all the commanding officers are the sharpest knives in the drawer. And if one of them happens to be your CO and gives an obviously wrong order, you still have to follow it because you are a marine, after all.
You realize while watching GENERATION KILL just how amazing it is that the U.S. military can accomplish anything at all, at least in Iraq. From having the wrong color camouflage to not enough batteries to power night vision goggles, it was just ludicrous how under-equipped the Bravo Company marines were. And you feel for them. It’s already the toughest job in the world, made infinitely tougher by lack of adequate equipment and ROE (rules of engagement) that literally change in the heat of battle.
I am once again fascinated by a TV show. I will enjoy my weekly hours back in the very capable hands of David Simon and Ed Burns.
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(1 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
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It sounds like a good show. I will probably wait until the series comes out on DVD and rent them while my wife and kids are visiting Japan though.
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Jason Collin Reply:
July 30th, 2008 at 1:54 am
Thanks for commenting. I’ll no doubt be posting more reviews as I watch future eps. It will probably be one of those series where you can’t wait to see the next ep, and the one week wait will be hard. So maybe watching it later on DVD would be better in that way.
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I like it- though Ziggy annoys me- every time we break to him in the car I know he’s gonna spout some BS political viewpoint along with a lot of dumb swearing and solider-slur jargon. Both him and the semi-Mexican dude- every time they talk I feel like the writers are stepping up to the podium, shuffling their notes, giving a neat little ahem, then saying- ‘racism is a problem’ or ‘the government is a problem’ or ‘obesity is a problem’ or ‘this war is a problem’.
It’s just a little too soap-boxy, like the politics have been injected into it only through the medium of Ziggy and the Mexican guy- which I feel is unnatural. Like having Michael Moore along for the ride, crass and obvious.
The action, and the logistics of shooting all that action- are still impressive. Though I do find it annoying that sometimes they seem to be super-imposing our guys over action images via blue-screen, and other times we only shoot from below, so we see them ‘reacting’ to some kind of explosions with only blue sky behind them. I get that, they can’t afford to always have the stuff happening behind the actors- or maybe those were pick-up shots. Still, annoying.
On the flip-side, when they HALO-sniped the RPG guys- that was cool.
[Reply]
Jason Collin Reply:
August 27th, 2008 at 2:10 am
I actually thought they went pretty light with the political statements, or as light as one could when covering such subject matter. I watched the show under the impression the political commentary was really what the reporter heard from the soldiers.
I didn’t notice any of the blue screen effects. Maybe they get better in later eps?
Ziggy is in The Wire, here he is Ray. And I think Ray definitely grows on you as the show progresses, I didn’t like him at first, but by the end, I liked him enough.
My favorite character though is Lt. Fick. I’d follow any order he gave, he’s the only character, well along with Sgt. Brad Colbert, whose judgement I trusted.
The Mexican-American character (forget his name) I found to be the heart of the show, in contrast to the seeming amorality of a lot of the other soldiers, though maybe calling him the heart isn’t right, maybe that’s Sgt. Colbert.
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[...] gotten me back to anything they’ve come up with since, except for the brilliant, but short Generation Kill. So now I’m almost fully on-board with their latest hour-long drama, TRUE BLOOD, from the [...]