Weekly Roundup for 7 Dec 2014

Black Ops: This is a documentary series that the Warden pointed me toward on Netflix. It’s definitely in my wheelhouse, portraying specific operations of special operations forces around the globe. It’s refreshing in that it doesn’t just focus on the US and UK SOF but includes forces from India and Russia, among others. My problem with it is that many of the episodes seem to have 30 minutes of information spread over 50 minutes, meaning there’s lots of repetition. The re-enactments are also painful to watch, with very inaccurate weapons, participants, and movements. While I am by no means an expert, the tactics, techniques, and protocols of SOF are pretty well known now. Look at something like the Unit, Ultimate Force, or Act of Valor – all of those were overseen by serving or ex-SOF operators. Black Ops could have at least copied what it was seeing there. Heck, as poor as the portrayal was, Outpost: Black Sun did a better job of portraying SOF. I think they should have dropped the re-enactments and just go with documentary format, like PBS’ Ambush in Mogadishu.

Also? General Stanley A. McChrystal’s hair would never touch his collar. Never.

The Unit, Season 4: So speaking of the Unit, I got a chance to go over season 4 again on Netflix. I didn’t watch entire episodes. I jumped over the b-plots and pretty much anything “relationship” oriented. Sorry, that’s not what I want from a show like the Unit. Strike Back is horrible with its pathological need for gratuitous nudity, but at least those scenes are fleeting. The b-plots took up a third to a half of a lot of shows. I get that David Mamet was trying to look at more than the cool, SOF stuff, but I am really not interested in family drama. There are a shit-tonne of family drama shows out there, thank you. Still, most of the a-plots of Season 4 would have fit into Strike Back, and I think the Unit was a much better production with better action . . . it’s just that the Unit had so little of it.

I also found out that my Detachment story is not so original as I thought. I forgot about “Unannounced” from the Unit Season 1, but that’s pretty much the plot of the Detachment. Not that I’m going to bury my story, because they evolve in totally different ways, but it’s funny how our sub-conscious and memory can trick us.