DANGEROUS DAYS

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Having absolutely loved "The Wire" and "The Corner", I was really psyched to check out David Simon's most recent endevour for HBO, "Generation Kill". While it wasn't as universally great as his afformentioned productions, it's definitely worth checking out. The mini-series follows an embedded Rolling Stone reporter as he tags along with the US Marine's 1st recon battalion in the early days of the 2003 Iraqi invasion.

This is not an action series, however. It's more of a portrait that depicts the realities of war, which don't always involve shooting shit up. Most of the time the characters just banter back and forth, making fun of each other, complaining about getting shit missions, slinging insults and riling each other up for when they finally get to "smoke some hajjis" (that means kill some arabs, for the slang impaired). Most of the dialog is along those lines and most of the characters are vaguely different iterations of the same persona, which is probably more the result of depicting things the way they really were as opposed to lazy writers not crafting unique characters. It's disturbing, funny, annoying, confusing, tense and boring all at the same time, but hey - that's life. In some respects "Generation Kill" is realistic to a fault. I wouldn't have minded if they spiced up a few things here and there for the sake of the screen.

At first I was like "how come these are all white dudes...they don't have any color in the Marine corps?", but then I had a conversation with a friend of mine who is an ex-marine and he said, "it's actually pretty realistic. That's the 1st recon batallion - you've gotta be able to swim to get on it and hardly any black people pass the swimming test". So yea...that's how realistic the series is.

Give this some time if you're into: the realities of war, potty humor, cultural commentary

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Do you have stereotypes about the military? Do you think you know what it's like? Think you know what kind of people join? Well, unless you've been in the military yourself, you have no fucking idea. I'm not saying that because I don't like you or think you're stupid. On the contrary, I was once like you, dear friend. And then I watched this 10-part documentary miniseries from PBS called "Carrier". Now my eyes have been opened.

When you first consider watching what amounts to be a 10 hour documentary about life on an aircraft carrier it might not seem like it's worth the time and effort, but trust me - it is! "Carrier" is not only an interesting lesson on the inner-workings of a massive military vessel and a peek into the complex world of military procedure and hierarchy, it's more than anything a great character drama. The men and women that populate the USS Nimitz each have their own backstories, their own motivations, ideals, relationships and baggage that inform who they are and how they've come to be living and working on an aircraft carrier during wartime. The series does a great job balancing their personal lives with their military lives and depicting how they influence each other. Even if you're not remotely interested in war, the military or anything related to "the man", I still highly recommend checking this series out because despite the subject matter it's also a great documentary that will probably make you cry like a little girl.

Give this some time if you're into: war, politics, documentaries, personal stories, military procedure, Battlestar Galactica