Generation Kill TV Show - Generation Kill Television Show - Yahoo! TV

Making a TV show about a war that's still going on isn't easy. Just look at "Generation Kill," the seven-part miniseries that aired on HBO in 2008. If there's one reason this series, created by Ed Burns and David Simon - the geniuses behind the truly excellent show "The Wire" - from the book by Evan Wright, could turn people off, it's that the war is still too fresh in our minds, love it or hate it. And yes, "Generation Kill" has a litany of points to make - that the invasion was hamstrung by an incompetent bureaucracy, that no one anticipated it would last as long as it has - but to take full advantage of this show, it helps to go in viewing this as a really engaging story, one that borrows from contemporaries like "The Wire" and war stories like Michael Herr's "Dispatches," set during Vietnam.

The seven-part arc begins in Kuwait on the eve on the 2003 invasion and focuses on the men of the First Reconnaissance Battalion Marines, chief among them Sergeant Brad "Iceman" Colbert (Alexander Skarsgard) and his driver, Corporal Ray Person (James Ransone). Joining the platoon prior to the invasion is Evan Wright (Lee Tergesen), an embedded reporter from Rolling Stone who ended up writing the book that inspired this show. There is some shooting and a lot of things go boom, though with far less abundance than the cursing and military slang, all of which feels very realistic. More than anything else, the soldiers simply talk. When they're not talking about the mission ahead, they're ribbing each other while waiting for orders, or singing country and rap songs while driving. And we, like Wright, get to go along for the ride.

More than anything, this feels like a spiritual successor to "The Wire." The major gripe all of the grunts share is that their commanding officers don't seem to know how to fight a war, taking actions that oftentimes leave their lives at risk. The police in "The Wire" make similar complaints all the time.

Simon and Burns steadfastly avoid taking sides as far as the war goes, however. The invasion itself may be open to criticism, but the reasons for going in are barely addressed, and only really by Wright, who the Marines rag as a liberal - as much of a dirty word in this show as anything else.

That's not the point of the show. What the point of the show is, beyond describing the incompetence of the people in charge, is a bit of a mystery. Soldiers face doubts about what they do during the invasion, but this doesn't feel like it's about the human toll, despite a body count that rises steadily. There's talk of foreign jihadists and the war on terror making more enemies than friends, but any political statement there is quickly dropped. As things draw to a close, the Marines begin to understand what's going on, but that's where it ends.

Whatever the point is, Simon and Burns are expert storytellers, and Wright's novel gave them plenty to go on. The cast, comprised of mostly no-name actors, one or two of whom you might recognize if you watched "The Wire," is universally solid. Most are vulgar, one is concerned about a promotion, another takes his job a bit too seriously, and a couple are almost too civilized to fit in correctly, but they all work. Keeping track of them all is sometimes difficult, but some stand out on their own. The dialogue is heavy on Marine lingo, but also leaves room for plenty of (sometimes dangerous) humor. And above all, it's not heavy-handed with its messages. Again, the one potential flaw is that it comes too close to the actual war. Who wants to relive the first days when there are still car bombings today?

But if "Generation Kill" teaches us anything, it's that anything, even a war that most people now view as a mistake, can be turned into a great story.

The final episode brings home the frustration and futility that is the actual results of stumbling around a combat zone. I never questioned the bravery of the Marines in Viet Nam, but we were sure confused as to their tactics and "kill'm all let God sort it out" mentality.

This was portrayed very well in the closing episode and if ever there is a sequel the writers should build on the mindlessness of "smoking a 'ville' or 'cappin' a [profane] or hadji", because these are the things that constitute the nightmares we have as fifty year old men who called "the world" in on a hamlet or enemy embedded with civilians.

Seeing there are several Marines and Marine squads under courts martial for combat atrocities currently adds to the accuracy of "Generation Kill" . About time I'd say.

82nd Airborne/Ranger 19-67-70 (seventeen mos. Veteran's hospital)

The camradrie of the Marine unit and the way the talk the military lingo and is on target just the way when I was in the Army, is identical between soldiers. I watch all the episode. HBO has a great job in putting this show together.

This series will be the greatest of all HBO series. I was in the Navy and what impresses me the most is the Professionalism these guys show. I get chills when I'm listening to the fire missions. The real heros need our support during their elistment and after!