Review: Over There 101 – 104
Steven Bochco, even though his latest attempt failed (Blind Justice, canceled on the ABC), is still a name to be reckoned with. With a history long relation with the big networks, he finally makes a move towards cable (FX) with a particularly dark and gritty drama. Taking place in Iraq, it follows a group of soldiers. The mission based episodes provide enough variety, and the drama and dilemmas are decently written. Both the missions and the personal drama, both at the war front and at home, seem to have enough breeding ground to last quite a few seasons (for now, the ratings warrants it).
August 24th, 2005 at 07:10
Steven Bochco is an idiot. His new show is doing nothing to help the soldier currently serving in Iraq. Instead, he’s portraying young men and women as the worst society has to offer, leaving them no choice but to join the Army. His characters are pot-smoking, insubordinate, racist, sexist, with spouses that cheat on them, commanders that don’t care about them, and every single Iraqi person they meet wants to kill them. Total nonsense. I just spent a full year in Iraq and it is nothing like “Over There”. Sure, there have been some battles, and soldiers and marines have died but these events are not the norm. Only a small percentage of US forces are even in the infantry. Most of us perform some kind of support role that has been helping rebuild that country. Not rebuilding cities destroyed by war, but rebuilt into a democracy.
I’ve watched all four episodes so far and can honestly say Bochco is trying to paint Operation Iraqi Freedom into the same kind of fiasco we had in Viet Nam. He’s using Viet Nam era characters, story lines, everything. Even the pot smoking! It totally rediculous. The ratings for the show are already down 37% thanks to real vets who oppose the show. This Bochco production will go the way of Cop Rock (RIP).
Spike
US Army, 24 year vet
Operation Iraqi Freedom II