Scott Tobias: Before getting into our discussion of the new spring shows, let me start by saying that I believe we're currently experiencing a golden age for television. (The classic Golden Age Of Television be damned!) Several things have happened to make it all possible: A diverse selection of specialized cable networks have produced such a quantity of original productions that the next great show can come from anywhere: FX, Bravo, SCI FI, Sundance Channel, Game Show Network, BBC-TV, or someplace else on the dial. As a result, the pay networks have had to raise their game in order to lure subscribers, leading to a bounty of riches from HBO (The Sopranos, The Wire, etc.) that's completely unprecedented. Meanwhile, network offshoots like the WB (and to a much lesser extent, UPN) can nurture quirky little shows like Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars for season after season without needing a significant spike in the ratings. And even the major networks are inching away from tried-and-true, three-cameras-and-a-soundstage genres in order to back shows that are more ambitious and cinematic. Add to that the rise of DVRs and TV on DVD, and we're living in a paradise for couch potatoes. Ten years ago, I thought NBC's Homicide: Life On The Streets was as compelling as any TV drama I'd ever seen; now, I can think of at least a dozen series that are every bit as good or better.
All of which is to say that my TiVo is jammed with entertainment every week, so the bar has been raised on what new shows can squeeze their way into the box. Five or six years ago, there's no doubt I would have returned to The Unit (CBS) week after week for a diverting shot of escapist machismo. Now I'm not so sure. Granted, my expectations were unreasonably high: The last time creators David Mamet and Shawn Ryan got together, Mamet directed a memorable episode of Ryan's outstanding series The Shield that introduced a serial rapist who targets elderly women, and ended with the show's mild-mannered Detective Wagonbach strangling a stray cat with his bare hands. (That matter-of-fact medium shot of the cat dropping lifelessly from his hands to the ground is one I won't soon forget.) It would be unreasonable to anticipate such cat-choking antics on a major network like CBS, but it nonetheless feels like Mamet and Ryan have been de-clawed a bit. (Okay, enough with the feline metaphors.)
At this point, any credit or discredit for the show should probably go to Mamet, who wrote episodes one and two (and next week's episode, too), and who has conceived The Unit as a natural extension of his underrated Spartan, a crisp, economical thriller that few people saw. Though its military heroes allowed Mamet to indulge in the themes of masculinity and honor that run through much of his work, Spartan also questioned the motives of the truly powerful. I read the whole abduction plot as an allegory about the Jessica Lynch debacle; the film is about what happens when a rescue mission gets tangled up in the spin machine and turns into a public-relations stunt.
In The Unit, there are no questions asked. The show centers on a group of elite special-ops soldiers who are sent on dangerous worldwide assignments that are kept off the books. They take remarkable risks for their country and they can't take credit for their victories, because officially, these operations never happened. What's more, they're in no position to question the purpose of their missions; they're government servants, and their loyalties are entirely to the job at hand and the men who accompany them. Meanwhile, their desperate housewives are forced to mind their ranch-style homes and 2.5 children while anxiously waiting for their men to return, or for two grim-faced officials to pull up with the horrible news.
The dynamic between the men out risking their necks and the women they leave behind reminds me at times of The Right Stuff, which had a lot of terrific scenes of women who bear all the dangers of their husbands' work without enjoying any of the glory. Regina Taylor is particularly strong as unit chief Dennis Haysbert's rock of a wife: Her overriding sense of duty continues to yield powerful and sometimes touching results. In my favorite (and most Mametian) bit of the series so far, she tells a whiny, fretful new soldier's wife, "Here you are… pretty little girl, a fine daughter, child on the way. A man in combat. You're frightened and you want him home. This is not your own special circumstance. You know what this is? It is the history of the world!"
Great stuff, but too much of The Unit feels like rote militaristic action material, not that out of character from the network that brought you JAG. So far, the gang has stopped a airplane hijacking on the tarmac, retrieved a fallen Chinese satellite (and terrorist) in Africa, rescued American missionaries in the Philippines, offered protection for a Mexican drug minister, and carried out an assassination on Spanish soil. And yet the question in every episode is always how they are going to do it, never why. We're left to admire their craftiness in getting out of tough situations, but have yet to see them faced with the sorts of moral dilemmas that might define them more distinctly as human beings. (And even the craftiness is getting a bit far-fetched: Somehow, in a split second, Scott Foley spots a pretty woman in Spain that he knows to be American, recognizes instantly that she uses drugs, and figures he can seduce her into leading him to her dealer, who can then lead him to another dealer, who will then put him on the boat he needs to get out of the country. Now that's one resourceful motherfucker.) I'm gratified the show is a ratings bonanza, but it's the same way I feel when a favorite actor or director wins an Oscar for the wrong movie. It's more of a lifetime-achievement award.
So how about you, Noel? What are your thoughts on Mamet TV and the other new dramas this season?
Noel Murray: I'll confess that I've only seen the first episode of The Unit, because my Tuesday-night TV schedule is too crowded, even with the TiVo working at top speed. But I liked that first episode, both for the brittle Mamet dialogue—my favorite line was "Fine institution, marriage. I believe it's mentioned in the Bible."—and for the shocker ending, which beautifully undercut the whole "efficient, professional" routine that Mamet was working. I don't know if there'll be enough varied stories to tell to keep this show on the road, but the homefront angle is pretty novel, both for this kind of series and for Mamet.
At the least, The Unit has it all over The Evidence (ABC) and Heist (NBC), two other new dramas that I only watched once—and not because of TiVo conflicts. The Evidence is supposed to be a twist on the police procedural, because each episode begins with a narrator reciting a list of the evidence that will be used to solve the crime. And then we're supposed to… what, exactly? Solve the crime ourselves? It can't be done, because we don't know what "bouquet of blue flowers" and "severed human finger" mean until they pop up in the story, at which point all we can say is, "Hey, there's that severed human finger." Everything else about the show is standard-issue: the bickering black and white partners (played by Orlando Jones and Rob Estes), the freaky-but-brilliant coroner (Martin Landau), the bustling American city (San Francisco), and the character-building backstory (a dead wife for Estes).
- Comments