Generation Kill

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I'm surprised there wasn't a topic about this series already.  But I guess I'm the most appropriate to start it.

I guess I thought that I would enjoy watching this series. I don't really know why I thought that.  I guess I figured it would be something different.  But to be honest.  All this series did was make me depressed and want to drink.  I couldn't even finish the series last night because I was so disturbed.  I just went to bed really depressed and had fucked up dreams.  But I finished it tonight.

They did an Ok job with the series.  I have come to the realization that no actor can actually portrait military personalities accurately.  The over use of jargon and the completely over blown marine personalities got pretty annoying.  But once I got past that.  It was pretty good.  I just want to say that seriously.  They WAY over exaggerated how marines act and talk.  I have no seen a single piece of media that accurately portraits how the military is.  But they did have some high points.

I think they did a pretty good job portraiting how fucked up things are for your average marine forward deployed. Some how, higher is always fucked up.  The officers and senior staff SNOs are always fucked up.  They just become so disconnected with what is really going on.  Somehow, they are always just as fucked up as they showed in this series.  Also, no matter how much you try to do a good job.  It always gets fucked up somehow.  You try to do something that is only supposed to help the local populace, and it ends up hurting someone.  It sucks. But you learn that as long as you dont hurt everyone, you are doing ok.  If you pay attention to all the little messages they try to send in this series.  About the men fighting the war, compared to the war itself, you will come out more educated in the way the world works than you did going in.

In the end.  Watching this series made me miss a lot about being deployed.  It made me appreciate the common genius of the Master Sergeant that was in charge of me.  Made me appreciate that I was embedded with the afghans, therefore I didn't have to deal with half the American political bull shit that these guys did.  But it also made me realize how much I totally and completely fucking hate war.  You are a sadist if you enjoyed watching this series. 

[bright lights, big city]

I watched it. I did because the guy who did it also created my favorite show ever (The Wire).
But yeah some of it was pretty f-ed up. and I won't exactly say I enjoyed it, I just watched it every week.

and I'm not in the armed forces or anything. i couldn't imagine what it was like for you. by the way, are there really people like the Godfather character?

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Don't get me wrong.  I did like it.  I would recommend it to anyone.  It might have just been a bit too real at times for me. 

Like I said, they didn't get it exactly right.  But they did do a pretty dam job as far as movies and TV shows go.  The best I have seen anyways.  It is a pretty good view into not only what is going on over there.  But more into how the men fighting the fight, aren't exactly robots or monsters.  More into how these people are effected and changed by the events.  How they deal with every day life and keep their sanity while still doing some pretty ridiculous things.  I liked that aspect.  I also didn't realize until I watched the special features that a couple of the guys played themselves. 

And I don't think I know exactly what you mean about the godfather question?  Are you talking about his voice?  Or just the larger than life leader figure?  I mean, he was a LT. Colonel.  Thats pretty high up there when it comes to a infantry Battalion. Marine corps officers are supposed to be larger than life.  I was in a bit of unique situation where I, as a low ranking enlisted person, was way closer to my LT. Col than I should have been.  I got to see how fucking goofy, stupid, and disconnected they all are.  But there are for sure some very intelligent and strong leaders in the Marines.  I was deployed with a couple guys that are still larger than life to me.  They were the whole time I was with them, and probably will be forever.  Having someone like that leading you really gives you a sense of security.  Makes you question your own hesitance more than their orders.  Its a good thing all in all.

Oh, and the wire is also my Fav TV show ever.  David Simon is pretty awesome.

[bright lights, big city]

yeah i meant as in that leadership figure. he was fuckin cool haha.

and overall I think I would say it was good. But no mini-series/docu-drama/whatever-you-want-to-call-it can't match what Band of Brothers did. I can watch that series almost every year

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I probably wouldn't be in the military if it wasn't for Band of Brothers.  The 6th episode in particular.  But I think these are two different kinds of series.  I don't think they intended generation kill to be a war series.  I think it was more intended to shed some light on some of the most misunderstood people in at the very least, our lifetimes.  Band of Brothers paid tribute.  Generation Kill presents the argument that maybe tribute should be paid.  If that makes sense. 

But yes.  There are some very, very dynamic leaders in the Marine Corps.  Intelligent as can be.  Genetically superior in terms of physique.  And just fucking elegantly ruthless as can be.  Its why people get drawn into the military.  The actor that played "godfather" did a great job.  I got so pumped when he gave his little "tempo" speech in one of the early episodes.  All I could do to contain myself was put in a dip of Copenhagen and grunt a little but I seriously thought that maybe the guy who played him was the actual guy in real life. 

I was deployed with a Master Sergeant that was extremely experienced.  He entered the special forces community after two years in the Marines.  And I came across his path at year 19.  It was just the two of us embedded with a company of Afghans.  When I had just got out of boot camp and I started to go through my combat medic training.  I would sit around and wonder how I would react in certain situations.  But it was an easy decision.  When I found out I was going to be on a team with him, I told myself that I would do anything he asked me to.  So, that being said, he told me to do some shit that was against my better judgement.  But in those couple seconds of hesitation I would just think about who it was that was giving me the order.  Then I would do it, and honestly, usually do it without much fear.  Its good shit.  Also just the one on one mentorship I got from him totally shot my career forward when I got back and we parted ways.  Its pretty cool when you run across those kind of marines.  Compared to the numerous "Captain Americas" that also run around the corps.