NEW! Download Generation Kill Season 1
Latonya Huffman
I did not like the first episode. I loved the Wire, but I don't think the same technique that was used in a 5 season television show should be used in a 7 part mini-series.
We should at least be able to figure out who the main characters are after the first episode without having to consult PDF files. I'll still watch the rest of the series and I'm sure I'll love it by the end, but ultimately, I think this show is only going to appeal to the same people who watched the Wire. And that isn't a big audience.
If HBO had the budget to make a full television series based on the book, I'd be saying something different. But I really think the best way to go about telling a story should change when you go from television series to movie to mini-series. Burns and Simon didn't change their approach, and I don't think many people will watch as a result.
Maybe this is just because I read the book last week, but I really didn't have much trouble at all keeping track of the characters. With one episode down, I can readily identify Colbert, Person, Ferrando, Captain America, Trombley, Espara, Fick, Gunny Wynn. However, I am slightly surprised that I'm having trouble with telling Encino Man and Patterson apart, since Michael Kelly, who plays Patterson, is one of the few actors on the show I actually recognize (he was an FBI agent on the final season of The Sopranos). Thankfully, their voices are different enough that it only requires a line reading for me to figure which is which.
I did not like the first episode. I loved the Wire, but I don't think the same technique that was used in a 5 season television show should be used in a 7 part mini-series.
I don't get your logic here. Simon & Burns had no idea that they'd be on the air for five years when The Wire got started. At the time, it was just a matter of telling single 13-part story. I don't see why technique should be changed when doing a 7-part story instead of a 13-part one.
I loved the Wire, and I'm impressed by GK for the same reasons. It feels more like a documentary then fictional television. I did eight years as a Marine Combat Correspondent. I spent time with 1st Recon as well as Force Recon. This is real. There's a Marine right now sitting in the suck somewhere spouting the same grunt philosophy...They keep the Marines angry for a reason. They kill.
I did not like the first episode. I loved the Wire, but I don't think the same technique that was used in a 5 season television show should be used in a 7 part mini-series.
I have to agree with this; on the other hand, it will be easier to re-watch the whole miniseries a second time after it ends.
Anyway, I really liked 'Get some'. The absence of music alone sets it apart from pretty much everything else shot about the war, and is really powerful.
g. winckler--I read the Nancy Franklin review today. I haven't read the book or the Rolling Stone article, as she has, but I've seen every episode of "The Wire" and most of the many seasons of "Homicide", so I feel like I know the TV/David Simon side of the equation (which is what she's supposed to be critiquing, yes?) I'm not sure how relevant it is to the whole experience for her to compare the three versions of the story told in three mediums. I'm watching the mini-series, and because I know and trust David Simon's work I assume that I'm going to be able to pick up the story lines and tell the characters apart and that my effort will be worth it. Did anyone hear his fantastic interview on XMPR recently? I think it was with Bob Edwards. He had such great things to say about the kind of art he makes, and why it's important to require something from your audience. Back to Nancy Franklin, I knew we were off to a bad start when she referred to "The Wire" as being in "Tony's timeslot". If she's going to take it personally that any other show isn't "The Sopranos", she's going to have to find a new line of work. I mean, I liked "The Sopranos" fine, but it's no "Wire".
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