Generation Kill: The Boys in the Bright Green Humvees

HBO TONIGHT (TMN in Canada) takes a short step down the road to redemption, after the missteps of John From Cincinatti and the inexpicably renewed Tell Me You Love Me.

Generation Kill isn't perfect. And it takes a while to get into. But if you stick with it, by Episode Three this is one drama that packs a hell of a wallop to your sense of community, empathy and history.

Based on the memoir by Rolling Stone reporter Evan Wright, Generation Kill follows the Marines of the First Reconaissance Batallion, Bravo Company, as they roll into Iraq in the early days of the current Iraq war.

The show comes from Ed Burns and David Simon, the team behind The Wire. Like that show, there is a precise, journalistic style to the exchanges of the characters. It's profane and there's jargon for miles. In the first episode, I defy you to tell any of these Marines apart in their identical helmets and gear.

But if you'll forgive the pun, when they finally get into the Humvee and start into Iraq, things really get rolling. And by Episode 3, you're locked and loaded (okay I'm stopping now) into the characters and you can really focus on the story.

And it's quite a story. From the beginning, there's much swirling around in the stew of Generation Kill. You have the young Marines, who talk like Al Swearengen but less articulately. You're shocked by the sexist, crazy, racist and homicidal things that come out of their mouths. Some of the Marines are literally chomping at the bit at the thought of finally getting to kill somebody.

But underneath that, they're boys. And you realize, oh man, right...much of the conduct on the ground in this war is by young men who you probably wouldn't let stay in your cottage for a weekend (not without a huge damage deposit, anyway.)


Once the characters start to define and align -- the decent Lieutenant who's more capable than his lazy captain, (Lt. Fick, played ably and with sympathy by Stark Sands) the weary platoon sergeant "Gunny" Wynn (Marc Menchaca) and the ever seeing eye of the Reporter, (here played by Oz's Lee Tergesen) the true target of Generation Kill emerges. Scripts hew close to real events and reported conversations, and the picture of America's on the ground adventure in Iraq, of course, is not pretty.

This is the story of a unit trained to do one thing and sent to do another, with the wrong equipment, and plans based on ego, not military soundness. There are heartbreaking depictions of events that you may have read about : a village that the Marines declare all-clear is shelled and burned by an army unit whom they can't talk to because their coms won't link up.

The grunts try to do the right thing. The incompetence or agendas of those above them won't allow it. And people die. Yup, it's the same ethos as The Wire -- no matter what you try to do, the system will get you in the end. Great and light stuff for a summer's night, huh?

You'll find yourself praying for another crazy rant from Humvee Driver Corporal Person (James Ransone) just to tamp down the madness.

This is gutsy and great TV -- if you stick with it.

For info and stuff on the people and units, organizational charts, and all sorts of bushwa like that, go to Maureen Ryan for the hookup.