Ok. First off, I've never served in the military and definitely have been in a combat zone. So - my opinion is the opinion of an educated, but largely personally ingorant viewer of a war series.
So. Then. Disclosure having been made, I have watched this series easily, start to finish, 20 times. It's a go-to in my iPad when I travel - and it's always engaging.
The depth is was gets me. I read the book, and the series is a good adaptation - giving the viewer the incredibly nuanced view of what the First Recon Marines experienced in the invasion of Iraq.
Now - I've read a review form New York Times writer Troy Patterson - who obviously disliked it - and as you would expect from the NYT the opinion comes from a place of intentional ignorance - and, largely, from complete failure to see the depth of the actors and the experience of Marines in that theater.
For example - the false bravado - and superficially racist banter that pervades the series - is an incredibly interesting contrast the reality of how every one of these men would put down their lives for their brothers, black, white, brown, whatever. They understand, implicitly, that "sticks and stone (and bullets) break bones - while people of substance understand just how trivial and inconsequential words are in a place where people are trying to kill you and you need to have faith in your right and left hand fellow soldier.
Ultimately, the series is just that - a study in contrasts - the boredom followed by frenetic fear. The need to adhere to orders, and the gross incompetence of some who give them. Ultimately, the series transcends it's own setting and gives us a slice of reality that illustrates how some things matter and some things don't.
When people are killing and being killed - there is no place for discussion of "safe spaces" or "microaggressions".
Just a great, great series. Watch it.
So. Then. Disclosure having been made, I have watched this series easily, start to finish, 20 times. It's a go-to in my iPad when I travel - and it's always engaging.
The depth is was gets me. I read the book, and the series is a good adaptation - giving the viewer the incredibly nuanced view of what the First Recon Marines experienced in the invasion of Iraq.
Now - I've read a review form New York Times writer Troy Patterson - who obviously disliked it - and as you would expect from the NYT the opinion comes from a place of intentional ignorance - and, largely, from complete failure to see the depth of the actors and the experience of Marines in that theater.
For example - the false bravado - and superficially racist banter that pervades the series - is an incredibly interesting contrast the reality of how every one of these men would put down their lives for their brothers, black, white, brown, whatever. They understand, implicitly, that "sticks and stone (and bullets) break bones - while people of substance understand just how trivial and inconsequential words are in a place where people are trying to kill you and you need to have faith in your right and left hand fellow soldier.
Ultimately, the series is just that - a study in contrasts - the boredom followed by frenetic fear. The need to adhere to orders, and the gross incompetence of some who give them. Ultimately, the series transcends it's own setting and gives us a slice of reality that illustrates how some things matter and some things don't.
When people are killing and being killed - there is no place for discussion of "safe spaces" or "microaggressions".
Just a great, great series. Watch it.