I was *this* close to writing about the failings of "Over There," the new FX series based on the ongoing Iraq war, created by Steven Bochco. Now, I loved Bochco's "Hill Street Blues" and "NYPD Blue;" they were great, well-acted, well-written, gritty cop dramas. Of course, he's also the guy who created "Doogie Howser, M.D." So his "guy-who-created-some-great-shows" factor is decreased exponentially. If you don't know about "Over There" yet, it's supposed to be a gritty, real-life exposition on the war in Iraq. Like I said, I was going to pontificate on the failings I've seen thus far in the show, but then I ran across the article written on the same subject by Michael Fumento, who was actually embedded with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq this year. He basically says everything I was about to say, but with more credibility:
Particularly appalling to me was a slam against Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD). It simply fails to show up to disarm a vehicle packed with enough explosives to blow up Rhode Island. I was embedded with the EOD unit of the 8th Engineer Support Battalion at Camp Fallujah. They react to calls with the speed of firefighters (or Domino's pizza) and coolly and professionally carry out some of the most dangerous jobs of the war.
Read the whole thing.
For a great round-up of stories from Iraq by people who are actually there, here's Mudville Gazette's latest Dawn Patrol; one of my personal favorites is Michael Yon, who is currently embedded near Mosul.
you kind of know a war series is going to suck when the guy behind it says he'd give up the series if they could just come home (which is like hollywood code these days for the war is for oil). another tip is when you stick all the "how can you fight an enemy that's not afraid to die" lines in the mouth of the soldier with glasses--that's how you know he's smart!
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