Simply the best

How good was that? The last of the seven episodes of Generation Kill was screened on Sunday night and for the past weeks it has been the highlight of the post La Liga viewing evening. Quite simply the series has been stunning. Reflecting the boredom of war, the ineptitude of senior officers and the sometimes scary randomness of modern warfare.

The series as based on the book of the same name by Evan Wright, a Rolling Stone journalist, who was embedded with the U.S Marine Corps' 1st Reconnaissance Battalion during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The book was adapted for television by David Simons and Ed Burn (the men behind the hugely successful The Wire) and Wright himself.

In many ways it reminds me of Band of Brothers, in the sense that what we have here is essentially an ensemble piece, this series features almost thirty actors in starring roles. There is no intrusive music, the dialogue can be a little baffling to begin with but the one thing this show has in spades is intensity. There is the sense that those in ultimate charge don't have a clue what is going on and that the men on the ground have to obey orders just to prevent possible court marshall's.

It's clever writing, adaptation and directing that takes the wide-eyed, up and at 'em soldiers who we meet in the first episode and shows over the course of seven weeks how war can turn even the most nobel of idealists into a cynical, war hating soldier. By the end of the journey up to Baghdad and then turning south again the men of Bravo Company have realised that they really won't make a difference in a country where the basics are not available and some of the most needy residents have been told by their religious leaders not to accept the help. The scene in the closing episode where Bravo Company arrive with a water lorry and nobody comes forward to accept help is particularly baffling for the soldiers.


One of the most telling scenes, and you have to remember that this is based on actual events, occurs in Episode 7 when the Second Platoon of First Recon Battalion are given orders to head to the north west of Baghdad. Sergeant Brad 'Iceman' Colbert is sceptical of the reason behind the mission to take a Shia stronghold as is First Lieutenant Nathaniel Flick - neither man convey this to their platoon, matters come to a rather ironic head when the driver of the lead vehicle tunes into the BBC World Service and we,a nd they, discover the reality of the situation facing the platoon. Colbert demands that the radio is switched off, lest his troops discover that they've been sent on a fools errand to make the Battalion commander look good for his superiors.

There are some terrific performances: Lee Tergesen plays embedded reporter Evan Wright (older viewers may recognise Tergesen as one of the cameramen in Waynes World). Wright is assigned to the lead vehicle of Bravo Company, which he shares with Sergeant Brad 'Iceman' Colbert, played by Alexander Skarsgård, Corporal Josh Ray Person, played by James Ransone, and Lance Corporal Harold James Trombley, played by Billy Lush. The real star for me though is Stark Sands who plays First Lieutenant Nathaniel (Nate) Fick. Whilst he is surrounded by a mixture of personalities, the gung-ho, the frightened, the career soldier, Nate has to keep things in perspective the whole time, he realises that, whilst everything may not be panning out as it said in the brochure, orders are orders.

There is as much comedy as there is high drama. In one of the first episodes one of the soldiers in the patrol loses his helmet when the platoon come under fire from a group of U.S Reservists, he's not allowed to go back to look for his helmet once the team have moved onto the next mission. In Episode Six, when Bravo Company find a group of Iraqi Reservists stripped naked at the roadside, the soldier who is "sans chapeau" finds a helmet on a dead Iraqi soldier and decides to wear it, later in that episode Bravo Company once again come under fire from their own Reservists, the reason? One of the part-time soldiers spots an Iraqi helmet in the scrub at the side of the road - it's a group of soldiers from Bravo Company on a recon mission.

In the final episode even the normally, outwardly at least, placid Nate finds that the continuous stream of baffling orders is too much and he ignores an order to send his men on a night mission into Baghdad - the point made throughout the series is that the Recon soldiers are often required to go into combat zones in unarmoured vehicles. He is given a bollocking my his immediate superior who himself then refuses an order on the grounds that it would be suicide to undertake mine clearing at night. 'Iceman' finally loses his temper, when he learns that a tank battalion has killed a group of Iraqi children because they understood under the rules of engagement that children jumping on a tank constituted 'hostile action', and shouts "Don't they (the always hidden senior officers) understand that the whole fucking world hates us already?" The final ten minutes are a moving depiction of how the whole 'gung-ho' attitude of war can disappear in such a short time, as one soldier comments, "it's only taken 21 days to take a whole fucking country, where do we go next?" One of the company has been making a video diary of the trip, at first everybody is excited and can't wait to watch, but one by one they realise how futile it has all been and drift away from the screening.

The voiceovers at the end of the final part are by 'real' serving soldiers and they convey a real sense of anger at the way they are asked to perform their duties and the lack of respect they receive when they get back to the States.

This has been one of those rare moments in television, a series where you watch in total silence for almost an hour and a half each week, completely immersed in the deserts, towns and cities of Iraq. I for one will miss that time spent with 2nd Platoon Bravo Company.