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| Fifth Column |
| It's All Over for "Over There" |
| 2005-08-16 |
| August 16, 2005: When television meets reality, strange things happen. A recent example of that is a new television show, âOver There.â The show tries to portray the experiences of American troops in contemporary Iraq. But the show also tries to deal with the demands of television dramas. This means, well, that accurate "reality" is apparently out of reach. âOver Thereâ is not just unique in that it is dealing with ongoing events, but the people actually involved in those events are able to see the show. Illegal copies of the show have made their way to the troops (either via video captures sent via CD, or those same files snagged online via Bittorrent). The troops are not impressed. Some are appalled, although rather saltier language is used to express their reactions. What bothered the troops the most was how poorly the actors dealt with very important things like combat and security. There are several hundred thousand Americans who have been to Iraq, gotten the combat training needed to survive there, and could have advised the shows creators on how things are actually done. Many troops winced as they watched the actors make one fatal mistake after another. It would be funny, it it werenât for the memories of friends who made those same mistakes and got killed or injured because of it. Maybe its for dramatic effect that the show depicts a single hummer out in the middle of nowhere, with no one paying much attention to local security. SOP in Iraq is two vehicles, minimum, when you go outside the wire (leave a base camp), and careful security measures whenever you stop. You can get away with the âlone riderâ motif in most parts of the world, but not in Iraq. Another hilarious bit, to troops who have been (or are still) there, is the depiction of senior officers (like colonels) wandering around without a security detail. Canât understand how they would miss this. TV and movies loves to show security details. And the ones in Iraq are well trained and all business. Oh, and colonels shooting hummers to prevent troops from doing something? Doesnât happen. The military has their own colorful ways to deal with disputes and disagreements, but blasting a hummer says that the trigger-happy officer has problems with his âcommand presence.â If the writers had spent some time talking to troops who have been to Iraq, they could have gotten some entertaining, and much more realistic ways to handle that. And then there was the episode where the bad guys had some Stinger missiles. Where were the âreality consultantsâ for the show when this got written? The bad guys in Iraq have access to thousands of Russian made portable anti-aircraft missiles. Getting their hands on Stingers would involve a major victory over American troops, something not likely to happen, or go unnoticed. Stinger missiles are very well looked after, and their probably arenât many in Iraq anyway. Scenes involving the interrogation of prisoners come off, to the troops who have been involved with actual interrogations, as some kind of parody of a parody. What are the shows writers using for source material? Again, the great tragedy here is that the reality of these interrogations is lot more entertaining than the parody portrayed in "Over There." Along those lines, the troops get really upset at the way G.I.s are portrayed in combat. American troops are taught, again and again (until the get it right), the proper moves to use in a firefight, or when threatened with attack. The showâs writers could have just referred to video taken by embeds during the 2003 invasion. Those vids showed how it is done, but bear no resemblance to the tactical travesties portrayed in âOver There.â Hollywood makes a big deal of sending their actors to a brief âboot campâ before they shoot a war movie. Perhaps, for shows like âOver There,â they should have sent the writers and directors. Bu whatâs really annoying to a lot of the troops is that many family and friends will believe âOver Thereâ is an accurate portrayal of operations in Iraq. The troops will have to spend lots of time and effort repairing that damage. Oh, and the show hardly bothers to portray the troops using email (which is a major morale item for those serving over there), or playing video games (a major recreational activity when off duty.) Itâs uncertain what the target audience for âOver Thereâ was, but ratings have been plummeting since it first premiered last month. They defiantly lost the military audience, and many civilians as well. Perhaps it will soon be over for âOver There.â |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #13 The show is IRAQ = VIETNAM as protrayed or defined by the ant-US DemoLeft, where treason = patriotism and laissez faire = gulag/death camp, etc. The COCA-COLA CO. is even showing its GIVE THE WORLD A COKE commercial again. WHEN WILL US LEFTIES LEARN THAT IF AND WHEN COMMUNISM TAKES OVER AMERICA, AND LIKE IFF UNDER ISLAMISM, DEM DAR ALTERNATISTS, BOHEMIANS, HEDONISTS, and ............HIPPIES/YIPPIES, etc are all going back into the closet andor RE-EDUC CAMP as your PC usefulness as patsies for the Commies is OVER - WHY? HOW? 'CUZ THE HISTORY OF COMMUNISM SAYS SO, THATS WHY, THATS HOW!? THE MAD MULLAHS = COMMIES > WILL KILL ALL OF YOU. NOW OR LATER! |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2005-08-16 23:54 |
| #12 Watched the first episode and thought it a pretentious crock of shit, what a coke-addled lefty thinks a war movie should be. The show crammed every cliche from every WWII and vietnam movie you have ever seen into a plot that could have been written in the bar of the Palestine Hotel. No resemblance to reality. |
| Posted by: RWV 2005-08-16 22:52 |
| #11 I haven't seen the show but this sounds like the military version of pissed off cops, doctors, lawyers, etc. at how they are portrayed on TV. There is an added factor of these guys putting their lives on the line during a time where their home country is politically in a war of words with each other. I personally wouldn't have given the go ahead for a show like this in the current climate, but I'm not a TV producer. |
| Posted by: Chris W. 2005-08-16 20:28 |
| #10 Sorry folks the left and MSM are winning the propaganda war. Look at the poll numbers. Look for the cut and run passed off as a suscess in Iraq and fascist attacks on the west to get worse not better. The people running the war on terror are not winning the propaganda war the fascists and their mirror twins the TRANZIs are. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0â Doom 2005-08-16 16:24 |
| #9 Mel Gibson's Production Company is Icon... Looks like there's no public stock offering, unfortunately... |
| Posted by: .com 2005-08-16 16:16 |
| #8 LOTP: The problem is that most of the mistakes built into the scripts make our soldiers look unprofessional, undisciplined, profane and / or of poor morale. Civilians don't know from Adam. How would they tell the difference? Ask their technical advisor. The intention of the media is to "make our soldiers look unprofessional, undisciplined, profane and / or of poor morale." We will soon see a half a dozen big screen movies making exactly this point. They will flop. Then Mel Gibson will make the movie that will make him king of the new Hollywood. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-08-16 16:06 |
| #7 LOTP: The problem is that most of the mistakes built into the scripts make our soldiers look unprofessional, undisciplined, profane and / or of poor morale. Civilians don't know from Adam. How would they tell the difference? Some Brit reporter covering Afghanistan reported the mad dash for cover during an ambush as panic-stricken retreat. His idea of combat may resemble Rambo the movie, where the bandoleered hero advances slowly forward while untouched by enemy bullets whizzing by. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-08-16 15:57 |
| #6 Why not show actual brave men and woment instead of some homogenized, hollyweird version? At a minimum, our courageous returning service people should have been on-the-set consultants (bringing in a few high price coins for their families to boot). If they really gave a shit, they would have started and ended with the soldiers' perspective. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-08-16 15:45 |
| #5 Hopefully Over There will be over. That show is a pathetic excuse for a TV slot to begin with, then not even close to showing the reality of military life. Hopefully it goes bust and FX looses lots and lots of money. |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2005-08-16 12:39 |
| #4 Get yer Homeboy Night Sights here. Regards the show - I watched it once. It was just silly - no flank security, people wandering around alone in a firefight, yadda³. That the Hollyweird folks didn't consult with real Iraq troopers is par for fools, no? Chris Gerolmo, who wrote Mississippi Burning BTW, is prolly just too busy to deal with such things - and didn't think it mattered. Heh, dramatic license works great - when there aren't a phreakin' half million people who know better, lol. I'd rather read Michael Yon, myownself. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-08-16 12:25 |
| #3 Just like in "Stripes"! |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-08-16 12:11 |
| #2 The problem is that most of the mistakes built into the scripts make our soldiers look unprofessional, undisciplined, profane and / or of poor morale. |
| Posted by: leader of the pack 2005-08-16 12:09 |
| #1 I'm not so sure it makes sense to broadcast an accurate depiction of how our troops move in firefights, etc. It may not be 'secret' but why give the enemy 'training tapes' on what to expect. (Closer to home, cops like it when tv shows have bad guys looking 'cool' holding their pistols horizontally while shooting.) |
| Posted by: glenmore 2005-08-16 12:05 |
