Parker was referring to a statement from Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson on October 16, where he called the series, about a closeted gay teenager who enlists in the Marines, “woke garbage.” (“We will not compromise our standards to satisfy an ideological agenda, unlike Netflix whose leadership consistently produces and feeds woke garbage to their audience and children,” Wilson said. He also used the phrase “warrior ethos,” because nothing makes you want to take a military seriously like hearing its higher-ups talk like they’re about to attack their rival knaves at a fantasy LARP.) To which Parker, after giving his wry tip of the hat for the promotional boost, noted, “I would be very surprised if the Pentagon actually watched the show.”
But plenty of other folks have: Boots has been a decent-sized success for Netflix over the last month, coming in at number 2 on its most recent week of streaming numbers. Parker points out that he’s actually gotten hit from multiple sides for the series, which stars Miles Heizer, and is loosely based on Greg Cope White’s book The Pink Marine. Noting that some have accused him of creating the comedy as propaganda for the military, Parker stated that, “I certainly never set out to make anything that was propaganda. and I really reject the idea that it is. The fact that we seem to be situated between these two different sides is evidence of how the show wants to approach these really thorny, interesting questions. [Boots] is trying to navigate this in a nuanced way that isn’t so overtly strident in its attacks or in its politics. I think it’s after something more subtle.”
As for the Pentagon—or anyone else judging the series without having watched it—he invites him to boost those viewing numbers even more with a more thoughtful watch of the series. “The premise itself instigates or incites some kind of reaction or assumptions. What I would invite people to do is to watch the show, and see how they feel about the questions the show is trying to provoke.”
