This series apparently didn’t meet with much public enthusiasm when it came out, in common with many of the films about the Iraq War, despite the involvement of Steve Bochco. But after an awkward beginning (characters having sex who you don’t really want to see having sex) and some iffy acting and handling, it calms down and you start enjoying it. Maybe it would have been better had someone other than the writer directed the pilot – or maybe not, you never know. But what certainly works is focusing episodes on a specific duty – manning a roadblock, taking a house, trying to get a mine spotter, taking over a gaol, discovering a rich man’s house.
It’s definitely not a rah-rah treatment of the war – one of the leads has their leg blown off in the first episode, episode three has an intelligence operative being a real pick including lying to soldiers to get what he wants. It was also totally unexpected to follow the rehabilitation of one soldier as a major story strand (the other one follows the lives of the other halves back home).
Sometimes I felt it needed a strand involving higher level members of the army – for instance a regular officer character, to give things a bit of back ground. I get that they want to show things from the grunts point of view but occasionally it’s nice to hear a larger perspective. We do a bit, with the intelligence officer in Ep three and the Arabic soldier – but I guess I wanted a bit more.
Also sometimes the dialogue clunks. Maybe soldiers do talk at times about being afraid of death, but it just doesn’t feel real. It also proves that scenes of actors talking to the camera hardly ever works, especially when they’re talking to webcam. Also what’s with the same theme song played over at the end of every episode? (The writer wrote it – I’m all for writer power but sometimes it goes a bit overboard. It’s like having to listen to an album by your in laws. Don’t get me wrong, the song is ok, but in every episode…)
The best thing about it is the combat stuff – an insurgent being blown in half by a missile launcher, an attack with night vision glasses. This is extremely well done. It also has an exciting climax because you know the series was cancelled so you don’t know if the makers are going to bump off any of the regulars. The drama is strong, the acting pretty good. I don’t know why this didn’t take off in America – maybe it was too raw, too depressing. (A series about the Vietnam War might have done better.)
(NB Is it just me or does Doublewise remind you of Officer Hooks from the Police Academy movies.)
The DVD has an interesting making of doco – despite Steve Bochco’s participation, the big creative kahuna was Chris Gerolmo, obviously an excellent writer – although not, I was surprised to find, an ex-serviceman. His wife was on hand as a kind of co-director. I do feel the steamy lesbian shower scene was more Bochco – but who knows? The adviser admits that at times reality was put aside for the sake of drama or a cool effect – you know for a show like this I think the better thing would have been gone for reality over drama.
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