Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Short TV Blog
Over There continues to get better, as I hoped, even though the show's producers/directors are finding it difficult to let go of even the tritest of cliches (like the hard drinking, bad father; the sex-obsessed, unfaithful wife; and, the indomitable spirit of those who will not take morphine). Let's talk about last Wednesday's show where our squad (this time somehow without the women drivers) set up the World's deadliest checkpoint. Our guys shot up 3 out of the 4 civilian cars that approached the checkpoint and killed 6 including two old men, a wife and a little girl. Oh, and they captured the one guy we were all looking for.
I got a kick out of the squad scholar from Cornell, "Dim," beating up the hard black guy from Compton without breaking a sweat. I thought the introduction of an Arab-American soldier, Tariq Nassiri (played by Omid Abtahi), was a brilliant idea. This guy will become worth his weight in gold.
One thing I couldn't figure out was the lack of entry wound on the little girl. All the shots are coming from the front. How can she have a huge exit wound at the back of her cranium and an intact face? (I guess the bullet could have gone in her mouth while she was screaming). How long can you be alive with such a wound? She was definitely alive before Dim disobeyed orders, again, and opened the car door.
Tonight's episode was like Abu Graib lite. They needed to get information from the guy captured in episode 2 and they got it. I didn't see a breech of the code of conduct but maybe I wasn't looking hard enough. Tough to tell the political angle on the episode's long arc of the story. Was it effective, necessary, but harsh interrogation or was it more evidence of how ruthless and this far from criminal our soldiers have become. And who were those guys? Soldiers or CIA? And somehow the two women came back.
The interrogator (who played the character Bull in Band of Brothers) had the best equipment, including a suppressor (often called a silencer) on his M-16. I guess he had sensitive ears and wanted as little sound near him as possible. The bullets from an M-16 go between 3000 and 3700 feet per second (about 3 times the speed of sound) so they make a lot of noise as they go by with miniature sonic booms. Not quite the stealth weapon the producer/director had in mind. (It only makes sense to suppress a sub-sonic pistol round; suppressed guns using those can be pretty darn quiet).
The interrogator also had a flack vest that matched his three color desert camo. Our regular guys have three color desert pants, shirts and helmet covers, but flack vests in woodland camo (which kinda destroys the tiny effect the desert camo has).
I also liked the detail that when the tough sergeant who cares (another cliche) finished shooting up a car, he removed his half shot out clip and replaced it with a fresh full clip and stored away his half used one. Neither Dim nor the competent black soldier (who learned to shoot at Bible camp) replaced their clips.
Like I say, getting better.
I got a kick out of the squad scholar from Cornell, "Dim," beating up the hard black guy from Compton without breaking a sweat. I thought the introduction of an Arab-American soldier, Tariq Nassiri (played by Omid Abtahi), was a brilliant idea. This guy will become worth his weight in gold.
One thing I couldn't figure out was the lack of entry wound on the little girl. All the shots are coming from the front. How can she have a huge exit wound at the back of her cranium and an intact face? (I guess the bullet could have gone in her mouth while she was screaming). How long can you be alive with such a wound? She was definitely alive before Dim disobeyed orders, again, and opened the car door.
Tonight's episode was like Abu Graib lite. They needed to get information from the guy captured in episode 2 and they got it. I didn't see a breech of the code of conduct but maybe I wasn't looking hard enough. Tough to tell the political angle on the episode's long arc of the story. Was it effective, necessary, but harsh interrogation or was it more evidence of how ruthless and this far from criminal our soldiers have become. And who were those guys? Soldiers or CIA? And somehow the two women came back.
The interrogator (who played the character Bull in Band of Brothers) had the best equipment, including a suppressor (often called a silencer) on his M-16. I guess he had sensitive ears and wanted as little sound near him as possible. The bullets from an M-16 go between 3000 and 3700 feet per second (about 3 times the speed of sound) so they make a lot of noise as they go by with miniature sonic booms. Not quite the stealth weapon the producer/director had in mind. (It only makes sense to suppress a sub-sonic pistol round; suppressed guns using those can be pretty darn quiet).
The interrogator also had a flack vest that matched his three color desert camo. Our regular guys have three color desert pants, shirts and helmet covers, but flack vests in woodland camo (which kinda destroys the tiny effect the desert camo has).
I also liked the detail that when the tough sergeant who cares (another cliche) finished shooting up a car, he removed his half shot out clip and replaced it with a fresh full clip and stored away his half used one. Neither Dim nor the competent black soldier (who learned to shoot at Bible camp) replaced their clips.
Like I say, getting better.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 9:16 PM 
