NationStates Jolt Archive

Watch it!

"Over There," 10:00 PM EDT, the FX network. A brutally honest and brutally violent series about the Iraq conflict.

"Created by Steven Bochco ("NYPD Blue") and writer Chris Gerolmo ("Mississippi Burning"), "Over There (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/20/DDGLKDPUAQ1.DTL)" takes the battle in Iraq and makes it another kind of living-room war. FX has gone out of its way to make the series as nonpolitical as possible -- and succeeds at letting the war be a backdrop, not a statement. The real stories in "Over There" are the personal connections of the soldiers fighting it, how they change because of what they see or do, and how going to war affects their home lives."

*thankfully not under the US media umbrella*

*thankfully not under the US media umbrella*
Well, DUH! You know perfectly well this thread is directed at those who are, you twit! :D

Well, DUH! You know perfectly well this thread is directed at those who are, you twit! :D

Now that hurt my feelings. I'm not a twit. I'm a twat!

Since you are calling it honest - I'll just avoid the right-wing propaganda.

It's wierd... kinda like a poster I saw that read:

Elect Bush and still get GORE!!!!!

For US civilians war is just a TV show, but for Iraqi civilians war is real terror.

Now that hurt my feelings. I'm not a twit. I'm a twat!
ROFLMAO! Whatever you choose, my friend! :D

Since you are calling it honest - I'll just avoid the right-wing propaganda.

It's wierd... kinda like a poster I saw that read:

Elect Bush and still get GORE!!!!!

For US civilians war is just a TV show, but for Iraqi civilians war is real terror.

Would you care to back up that particular bit of racism, or are you just going to let it fester.

Since you are calling it honest - I'll just avoid the right-wing propaganda.

It's wierd... kinda like a poster I saw that read:

Elect Bush and still get GORE!!!!!

For US civilians war is just a TV show, but for Iraqi civilians war is real terror.

Although I would like to hear the opinions of everyone who has seen this show. They had a interview with the guy who created the snow on NPR but I wasn't around to hear it at the time.

Would you care to back up that particular bit of racism, or are you just going to let it fester.


what racism would you be speaking of?

For Jews, war is just a TV show.

Now do you see it?

I watched the first installment just a few minutes ago. It was rather well done, but like almost every war pisture ever made, if they showed it the way it really is, people would go to sleep for most of the movie and periodically be jolted awake screaming.

I think the really interesting aspect of this series is going to be about relationships, and how the war affects both them and the individuals involved.

Really boring, I almost fell asleep watching it so I switched over to the history channel half way through and saw the very end. Whoever greenlighted this at FX should be fired. Normally they come up with some good shows (Rescue Me, The Shield) but this one just flat out sucks.

For Jews, war is just a TV show.

Now do you see it?

US civilians are not a race.

Having gone through such fun and exciting times when a member of the 1st Marine Division, and getting ready to go again with my National Guard unit, I am not certain how I feel about this series being aired.

For Jews, war is just a TV show.

Now do you see it?


If I had said Jews maybe I could see it, but you haven't shown me how what I said was racist. Wanna try again?

From what I hear, the battle sequences are very well handled, but everything in between is cliched and tired.

If I had said Jews maybe I could see it, but you haven't shown me how what I said was racist. Wanna try again?
his first quote doesn't even make sense! what he was quoting was not racist at all. Even if it wanted to be racist, it couldn't. I too would like to see how he got that conclusion.

Fine. I'll call you a bigot instead. You are using an un-involved attribute --nationality-- to draw a conclusion that individuals with that attribute are morally inferior to you.

Let's put it another way. Over one in every 100 Americans is a member of the military. If every one of those has ten close friends/family members, and every one of those has another ten, this means that most people in America are only 1 degree of separation away from a loved one in the military.

Maybe you could claim that a different country--Canada, or Germany, or whatever it is--thinks the war is just a TV show; maybe they hope that the insurgents win so that the US is discredited and don't care about the civilians that get murdered by terrorists over there every few days.

But the US? These are our friends; our brothers; our sons; our fathers; our husbands.

*thankfully not under the US media umbrella*

You're a lucky one.

Well, DUH! You know perfectly well this thread is directed at those who are, you twit! :D

Doesn't make him any less lucky.

Now that hurt my feelings. I'm not a twit. I'm a twat!

A lucky twat.

Fine. I'll call you a bigot instead. You are using an un-involved attribute --nationality-- to draw a conclusion that individuals with that attribute are morally inferior to you.

Let's put it another way. Over one in every 100 Americans is a member of the military. If every one of those has ten close friends/family members, and every one of those has another ten, this means that most people in America are only 1 degree of separation away from a loved one in the military.

Maybe you could claim that a different country--Canada, or Germany, or whatever it is--thinks the war is just a TV show; maybe they hope that the insurgents win so that the US is discredited and don't care about the civilians that get murdered by terrorists over there every few days.

But the US? These are our friends; our brothers; our sons; our fathers; our husbands.

What a load of whiny, self-indulgent bullshit.

Fine. I'll call you a bigot instead. You are using an un-involved attribute --nationality-- to draw a conclusion that individuals with that attribute are morally inferior to you.

Let's put it another way. Over one in every 100 Americans is a member of the military. If every one of those has ten close friends/family members, and every one of those has another ten, this means that most people in America are only 1 degree of separation away from a loved one in the military.

Maybe you could claim that a different country--Canada, or Germany, or whatever it is--thinks the war is just a TV show; maybe they hope that the insurgents win so that the US is discredited and don't care about the civilians that get murdered by terrorists over there every few days.

But the US? These are our friends; our brothers; our sons; our fathers; our husbands.

BS. Utter BS.

Fine. I'll call you a bigot instead. You are using an un-involved attribute --nationality-- to draw a conclusion that individuals with that attribute are morally inferior to you.

Let's put it another way. Over one in every 100 Americans is a member of the military. If every one of those has ten close friends/family members, and every one of those has another ten, this means that most people in America are only 1 degree of separation away from a loved one in the military.

Maybe you could claim that a different country--Canada, or Germany, or whatever it is--thinks the war is just a TV show; maybe they hope that the insurgents win so that the US is discredited and don't care about the civilians that get murdered by terrorists over there every few days.

But the US? These are our friends; our brothers; our sons; our fathers; our husbands.


A bigot? I don't feel morally superior to my co-USians. I also have friends and family in the military. I don't want them over there because I never believed in this war.

Although I will concede to you that we in the states with military family do have a larger stake in the matter, that doesn't make the poster I quoted any less true. Here in the states the war is no more than a TV show because we aren't in the mist of the bombs, we don't see the death directly, we don't have another country occupying ours telling us how to run things. We Actually have electriciy, running water, police, schools, libraries, and a general feelign of safety. Our country isn't littered with DU radiation causing the highest amount of birth defects in the world.

And those that voted to send our family off to war? They have little to no family in teh military. They are mostly all rich enough where their families don't have to risk their lives so that they can afford a good college education.


Yes we may be emotionally involved in this tv show because the lives of our friends and families are in danger - I iwll agree with you there. And you forgot: Our girlfriends, sisters, daughters, mothers and wifes are also over there. Quit being sexist.

A bigot? I don't feel morally superior to my co-USians. I also have friends and family in the military. I don't want them over there because I never believed in this war.
Didn't sound like it from your post. I'll drop the subject, though.

Although I will concede to you that we in the states with military family do have a larger stake in the matter, that doesn't make the poster I quoted any less true. Here in the states the war is no more than a TV show because we aren't in the mist of the bombs, we don't see the death directly, we don't have another country occupying ours telling us how to run things. We Actually have electriciy, running water, police, schools, libraries, and a general feelign of safety. Our country isn't littered with DU radiation causing the highest amount of birth defects in the world.
[...]
Yes we may be emotionally involved in this tv show because the lives of our friends and families are in danger - I iwll agree with you there.
Perhaps you and I disagree on the meaning of TV show, rather than the nature of the American people.


And those that voted to send our family off to war? They have little to no family in teh military. They are mostly all rich enough where their families don't have to risk their lives so that they can afford a good college education.
You are incorrect there. The majority of military personnel and families of military personnel tend to vote Republican (hence why there was all that fuss over absentee ballots in the 2000 election; if the split was likely to be about 50/50 like the national average, they wouldn't have mattered that much)

And you forgot: Our girlfriends, sisters, daughters, mothers and wifes are also over there. Quit being sexist.
Conceeded.

Perhaps you and I disagree on the meaning of TV show, rather than the nature of the American people. .

What I meant is: We aren't in the war zone... we only know whats going on because of the media and that is only a partial view of it.


You are incorrect there. The majority of military personnel and families of military personnel tend to vote Republican (hence why there was all that fuss over absentee ballots in the 2000 election; if the split was likely to be about 50/50 like the national average, they wouldn't have mattered that much)


What I meant was: Those who VOTED to send our family off to war... not the Republican party itself. How many immediate relatives do you think Bush or Congress has serving on the front lines of this thing? The only casualties Bush has to worry about are ratings of his political performance.

OK, back to the show now

I thought it was pretty good, as good as most war movies made today and i guess thats an acomplishment for a tv series.

Given that it was a pilot, it was pretty good. It's an ambitious undertaking. Given the timeliness of the show, I think it'll will be more emotionally effective than it's predecessors (of which there are many), and they'll have to be a little more carefull of the landmines which could get them cancled midseason causing Fox to scrap shows that are already shot but unaired.

A contemporary episodic meditation on that particularly intense kind of fraternity is something that isn't anywhere else on TV, and is something that should have a place in the larger culture. If it gets a little better, it certainly could grow into one of the best programs on TV. They could use a little more realism, no more free Crest whitening strips and daily dentist visits for the cast.

That some of the characters gravitate to archtypes isn't particularly egregious since the show is dealing with young people who frequently asipre to encourage such perceptions anyway.