The first rule of television is to garner ratings. This often, except for exceptional programming on PBS, usually means putting in enough action scenes and sexual tension to keep the folks coming back each week. It often leads to mediocrity. I'd rather see producers try to elevate the viewing public rather than pander to them.
I had high hopes for this show, mostly because of David Mamet's name being attached (Glengarry Glen Ross is unalloyed brilliance in drama), and the acting chops of Dennis Haysbert. But I'm disappointed because it seems to be taking the same road worn with ruts by other military shows.
The characters are pretty cardboard cut-outs. We have the hero, Jonas Blane, leader of the pack, and Regina Taylor as his wife, Molly. Molly is so self-contained, so Hoo-Rah, so blank as to be chilling. It's easy to sense an ax murderess under all that smooth composure. There's the tyro - the Young Turk, Scott Foley as Bob Brown, and his brash, independent wife who needs to be inculcated into the Way of the Unit.
Then there's the burn-out, whose wife is sleeping with her husband's commanding officer.
How much more cookie-cutter Hollywood can we get? Special Forces Operators do the dirtiest work we ask of our soldiers. Regardless if they're Rangers, SEALs, Force Recon or PsyOps, these are highly-trained and motivated people, and I had wished this show would reflect their diversity and complexity.
It sure as heck doesn't. Early days yet, but they have to work much harder at giving us the reality of always living in the shadows, unnoticed by the population-at-large, and going largely unheralded for their accomplishments.
We inhabit a world that needs these folks to take care of bad situations and hopeless causes. We should, if determined to applaud them, give them a much better program than this.
I had high hopes for this show, mostly because of David Mamet's name being attached (Glengarry Glen Ross is unalloyed brilliance in drama), and the acting chops of Dennis Haysbert. But I'm disappointed because it seems to be taking the same road worn with ruts by other military shows.
The characters are pretty cardboard cut-outs. We have the hero, Jonas Blane, leader of the pack, and Regina Taylor as his wife, Molly. Molly is so self-contained, so Hoo-Rah, so blank as to be chilling. It's easy to sense an ax murderess under all that smooth composure. There's the tyro - the Young Turk, Scott Foley as Bob Brown, and his brash, independent wife who needs to be inculcated into the Way of the Unit.
Then there's the burn-out, whose wife is sleeping with her husband's commanding officer.
How much more cookie-cutter Hollywood can we get? Special Forces Operators do the dirtiest work we ask of our soldiers. Regardless if they're Rangers, SEALs, Force Recon or PsyOps, these are highly-trained and motivated people, and I had wished this show would reflect their diversity and complexity.
It sure as heck doesn't. Early days yet, but they have to work much harder at giving us the reality of always living in the shadows, unnoticed by the population-at-large, and going largely unheralded for their accomplishments.
We inhabit a world that needs these folks to take care of bad situations and hopeless causes. We should, if determined to applaud them, give them a much better program than this.