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DVD Over There - The Battle Begins (Pilot Episode)
The pilot episode of Steven Bochco's Over There is as riveting, unexpected, and shocking as the series premieres of the legendary producer's Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue. The first television drama set in an existing war being waged by the United States, Over There concerns the first tour of duty for a young, U.S. Army unit sent to Iraq. Unlike any number of movies and TV shows starring middle-age actors portraying American fighting forces in past wars, Over There's combat soldiers look and act like the barely-out-of-high-school young adults (many of whom, in Over There, joined the military out of economic necessity) most of our real-life troops actually are.
Whatever one's feelings about the Iraq war, Bochco and co-writer and director Chris Gerolmo (Citizen X) cut through the politics to get to the individuals whose lives are on the line, who left behind families to find themselves in a most alien environment, fired upon for reasons they may not fully understand. Gerolmo does a superb job of showing us combat conditions in desert sandstorms, with rookie soldiers hanging tough under intense heat while insurgents fire from a distance at anything that moves. This is a new kind of war show, yet in many ways Over There embraces a few sentimental conventions, notably scenes in which the unit's members explain the origins of their nicknames ("Angel," "Dim," "Doublewide," "Mrs. B," and more). In the Bochco tradition, when violence comes, it comes as a grievous surprise. --Tom Keogh
Review(s): DVD Over There - The Battle Begins (Pilot Episode)
Iraq-fo-tainment!
War coverage has certainly taken a turn for the surreal.
Except for those with access to Al-Jazeera or some European media, actual on-the-ground coverage of the Iraq war has mostly been replaced in the US by press conferences or panels of experts. Unlike the Vietnam war, actual war footage is scarce, since the American press is either too scared or too "embedded" (read, "co-opted") to get out of the camps and hotels and film the war. After a while, to the media, the aftermaths of IED's all sort of look like, especially if it is "just" Iraqis who are killed. What we are left with is a shadow of a war, like the early days of television baseball where we watched cardbord cutouts move around a black-and-white diamond.
So since we can't see a real war, a fictional war will have to do, and Steve Bochco is happy to oblige. "Over There" combines combat scenes of a carefully-multiracial, co-ed squad with appropriately racy Hollywood Hill Street Blues touches of unfaithful wives and AWOL adventures.
While this comment is more directed to the continuing series, these same ten or so soldiers appear to be fighting this war all by themselves, a trait shared in other made-for-TV war dramas ('Tour of Duty"). Unlike some reviewers, I have no experience in Iraq, so I would not presume to critique the combat scenes except to observe (a) they spend a lot of time bunched up and out of cover (didn't they take a MOUT course?), and (b) it doesn't look nearly hot enough. I leave it to others for more detailed affirmations or denials.
The real problem with "Over There" is that because of the virtual media blackout on actual combat, this dramatic exercise is a simulacrum, a paper-mache substitute, but unfortuantely shaping opinion on an ongoing war, not simply as to combat but broader issues of troop conditions and Iraqi relations. Except for the hideous "Green Berets", Hollywood had the good sense to mostly stay away from the Vietnam War until it was over. Not so here. By studiously trying to avoid the big picture issues (why are we there, etc.) the program distorts by pretending to not take sides.
Instead, "Over There" is simply a more sexy "Combat!" for the 21st century, bread and circuses for the red-state mob, and a vehicle to exploit a war gone wrong without dealing with its wrongness.
And the theme song is truly insipid.
Tons of Potential
This is sort of a weird series in terms of what works and what doesn't. For this review I'm going to bullet-point some things.
What Works:
1. Erik Palladino- The ER alum deserves special recognition. He's STEALING the series. He's really that good here.
2. The production value is terrific. I don't know where they're filming at, but they did an outstanding job designing the sets and props. EVERYTHING looks totally authentic.
3. The story-lines in Iraq do a great job of holding my interest. Granted, I have absolutely no idea how "real" any of it is or how much is "Hollywood", but they've never lost my attention and I've never been inclined to fast-forward anything.
4. The interplay between and characters in the unit seems completely natural and flows wonderfully. I totally believe it as I'm watching the fire-team get to know one another and develop relationships with each other.
What Doesn't:
1. Almost everything on the home front. With the lone exception of Dumphy's alcoholic wife, I just can't seem to generate even the smallest amount of interest in ANYTHING going on at home.
2. The role of the First Lieutenant. First it was "Mad Cow" then "Underpants"; the role of the "Idiot First Lieutenant" is becoming the "red-shirt ensign" of the series. The production team would be doing themselves a favor by filling the role for more then a four or five episode story arc.
3. The closing 'Over There' anthem. Simply put, I hate that song. I also can't stand that I'm forced to listen to it because it's running over the last five minutes of the episode. Unfortunately for me though, Chris Gerolmo wrote and performs it. It's something he's clearly proud of and he's not going to cut his own song out. I'll just have to learn to deal with it.
A lot of the problems I feel like the series has, I chalk up to this being a first year show still trying to figure out what works and what doesn't. It simply needs a little more time to find it's way a bit and gain some polish. There's definitly more good here then bad and I'm looking forward to a big Season Two.
Note: On November 1st, FX cancelled this series.
I love Over There
I am the wife of a Major in the Army Reserves who is currently in Iraq with a Special Ops unit. My husband will have been in for 22 years this December. I know this show is dramatized (duh) because if it showed what my husband does the majority of the time, it would be paperwork and meetings. But I do think that the show reflects aspects of Iraqi culture that many Americans have no idea about. Each event depicted in the show is in itself realistic. Sure, all that wouldn't happen to one detachment, but I don't want to be that bored. It is one of the few military programs I have seen that addresses the problems of the families that deployed soldiers leave behind. I am very conservative, but don't see the show as that liberal leaning. If it discriminates in any way, it makes officers look terrible, but my husband would agree with the fact that there are a lot of bad officers. I am addicted and can't wait for season 2!
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