Generation Kill

"Those guys waving at us are probably the same ones who tried to kill us yesterday."



Generation Kill is one of the most realistic, genuine shows on television. It's gutwrenching, not for the weak at heart production is second to none. I've been singing the show's praises for three weeks now, but I finally have some complaints about it. With only a few weeks left the writers and producers don't seem to be building up to any payoff or climatic ending. It looks like we are going to get conversations about male droppings every single week. Some of the dialogue is inappropriate mainly the comment about a picture of a girl having a masturbation stain on her face. The action also seems to be one of the weaker parts of the show, when in any other program it is the complete opposite.



Generation Kill is a fine offering from HBO, but it appears that things are going downhill and fast.

Technically the show looks good on the screen. Never having been in Iraq or serving with the US of A armed forces, the South African location and sets, props and documentary style camera work really help to sell the drama. The negative would be the cliche troops, who seem to be written as the same stereotypes as seen in almost every military film before. Also, these guys are supposed to be an elite Marine Recon combat unit yet they come across as poorly disciplined conscripts. The original source material is available in parts on the web so a viewer can read how the embedded reporter grew closer to the troops as he rode along. A reporter is seen in the episode but he has very little dialogue and seems to have no real reason to be there. The nuances of military rank and respect seem to be missing and so the officers are depicted as weak and ineffectual. Even the Sergeant-Major gets slagged, a little unusual for a troops' pov film. So my take is good visuals offset by poor, central casting writing.

In my opinion, this episode felt alot longer and dragged on to me, either I'm getting tired of this show or this episode was slowing down the story.



If it was slowing down, it shouldnt be, its a mini-series and I expect that the episodes should fly-by because of the amount of stuff they need to pack into the whole series.



The episode wasnt bad, but wasnt absolutely amazing either. The scene towards the end when Godfather was explaing his options was good, because we dont get to see him as much as I would like.



A bit more action in this episode also, but to me it wasnt as exciting as scenes from other eps.

8/10