The Unit

[Gold Trumpet]

This is my show. This is the show I know all the ins and outs of and follow to a T. I care about all the storylines and anticipate the DVD releases.

The show is about a group of Special Ops, a "Unit". It's a network television show, but based on the autobiography of one of the founders of modern day Special Ops, Eric Haney. He's also an Executive Producer and makes sure every episode is as realistic as can be. I think he does a good job because the depthd this show goes to is incredible. It deals with secret soldiers in the War of Terror, but mixes commentary about the Iraqi War with the modern role of a soldier. It also has a back stories that are about the politics in Washington and how fighting the war isn't fighting for your country, but for your higher ups, whoever they may be.

The best part is that these stories don't come to total fruition over the course of an episode, but over a season or a few seasons. The show is in its third season currently, but allowed subjects and topics to take a few seasons to truly reveal themselves and show their nature. Each episode is about a different mission and since missions don't mirror each other like cop investigations, each episode is also truly different from the other. None of the missions get too ridiculous and I've read that this show has become a favorite among military men because it's excellent representation of their work.

Another interesting element is that Eric Haney has left political beliefs and does think the Iraq War is a sham, but he has created a show that counterbalances the pride and respect of the United States Army with the corruption and chauvinism is that is capable in the government and even the soldiers. It mixes both elements very well.

The show is the best choice against Fox's 24. I've watched a few episodes of that show and I can't take all the dramatic license that goes on. No show is truly realistic, but 24 is so far fetched I don't recognize any true ideas of what the stories are suppose to be about. It's all fiction to me. I described the Unit to a friend of mine and tried to sell her on it. She was reluctant because she also hated 24 and my description reminded her of that show, but she watched a few episodes and is almost as addicted to it as I am. 

I think I like it because I've always been fascinated with the military. If I didn't get sick when I was 17, I would have likely joined the army or marines and happily have gone overseas. The military environment is much more prevalent in my world than larger cities.

If anyone watches it, the first season starts out a little slow but things pick up halfway through the first season and the second season is excellent. A couple of plot lines are pretty unrealistic, but the show doesn't dedicate itself to those plots. Most of the show is a pretty good representation, especially for a CBS primetime show.

[pete]

uhh watch the wire.

[Gold Trumpet]

uhh watch the wire.

i want to, a lot. but...make relevant comments!

[pete]

the funnest part of the show, the reason why I've kept watching, is the mechanics of its action scenes.  it details all sorts of training and methods and approaches to what special ops would do in such and such situations.  I don't really care about the the family or even the main characters because they all seem quite cardboard.  the politics of it is kind of unbearable, and I guess I'm only halfway through season 1 so I haven't seen the so-called overarching plot yet.  I don't know if you've seen The Wire yet, but that show handles drama in bureacracy beautifully and three-dimensionally, something I have yet to see on this show.  Even the basic interaction between the characters, their superiors, and other departments, seem barely a cut above Die Hard.
Also, I'm only watching this while waiting for the second season of Burn Notice.  Burn Notice is a lot of clownish and not half as slick, but it offers a lot more knowledge into not just what special ops do, but how their enemies behave as well - for example, there is an episode involving kidnapping, much like episode 4 of The Unit, but offers a lot more details on how the kidnapping operation is run.  You should check it out.
I really enjoy action movies or series with writers that genuinely know more than the viewers - not as storytellers but as people, and shows like this, or movies like Bourne Ultimatum, provide the simple cerebral pleasure of surprising the viewers with intelligent behaviors that aren't done purely for machismo.  thus far, The Unit still has too much machismo (ie. dumb patriotic moments) that get in the way of its knowledge. 

[Pas]

Pre-review after 4 episodes watched...

This show is too far-fatched to be enjoyable and not enough to be comic-book-enjoyable.

It seems to think it's realistic which is kind of pathetic. Half the episodes are wasted on the stupid wives storylines that I guess are there to please the women who are supposed to watch the show with their guy. Just manages to piss off that said guy.

The characters are so bland that I can't even remember their names. I guess Jonas aka President Palmer is pretty cool and also Liquid-Metal-Terminator is allright but that's it.

I'll finish the season, to see if it just starts slow... but so far  ...... like Pete said: watch the Wire.

[Gold Trumpet]

Also, I'm only watching this while waiting for the second season of Burn Notice.  Burn Notice is a lot of clownish and not half as slick, but it offers a lot more knowledge into not just what special ops do, but how their enemies behave as well - for example, there is an episode involving kidnapping, much like episode 4 of The Unit, but offers a lot more details on how the kidnapping operation is run.  You should check it out.

Thanks, I'll give it a shot. I understand said criticisms of the first season. It's more limited in how the scope of the missions are laid out. The second season is a much better development of that. Each episode has greater development of the missions. There are even a few episodes that are just about missions (no wives plots). Plus the characters have greater dimension. If you want to just target one episode specifically, watch Natural Selection. You don't need to know the continuing storyline to enjoy it. I understand Burn Notice may be more in depth but I'm not sure if its more accurate. I know The Unit is painstaking about the accuracies of the missions because the creator and day to day advisor is a former special ops member himself. He's even gone to length to defend questionable things about the show in written form.

I realize when I wrote my original I was coming off the quality of the second season. I enjoy the first season (and it does get better after the first four episodes), but it has its limitations.