Over There: The Complete First Season

If you were able to find this review chances are you are connected enough with your environment to know there has been a war going on in Iraq for the past few years. Some annalists have said the war will be what our current president, George W Bush, will be most remembered for. After the 9-11 attack on New York the US army entered Iraq with the goal of finding weapons of mass destruction and putting down terrorist groups.

For the first time in television history a series has emerged out of a current ongoing war. Producer Steven Bochco tells a tale of what is going on in Iraq with his newest series Over There. The interesting thing is that the show doesn’t just focus on the soldiers in Iraq, but also there families back home.

The idea of the show is to give a sense of how the war in Iraq affects everyone. The show completely ignores all politics, which I felt was a smart move, and focuses on the emotions of the characters. The main premise of the show is following a new army unit whose first tour of duty is Iraq. While seeing the unit itself deal with war the viewer also gets an idea of how their families back home are dealing with the people close to
them risking their life in Iraq.

I was very surprised with this series and how perfectly the messages were portrayed. The filming for this series was very powerful with those few second pauses at the right time to convey certain emotions. The perfect example of this comes in the Pilot Episode when the camera pauses on Pvt. Frank ‘Dim’ Dumphy (Luke MacFarlane) after he kills his first Iraqi face to face.

The show also tries to elaborate on current issues going on in the real world with episodes like It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding, which is about an American reporter getting kidnapped by terrorists. The show also brings some of soldiers’ biggest fears to the screen. These are infidelities back home, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and being crippled, but not dying as seen through Pfc. Bo Rider (Josh Henderson).

The show is about emotions and people, but the viewer never forgets that the setting is a war. There is a lot of blood and gore in this series, which might not make it the smartest choice for the squeamish. However, if you don’t mind looking past limbs being blown off and bloodied bodies this series can be quite enjoyable. Granted the show isn’t a true story and the soldiers in the series aren’t based on real soldiers directly, but the topics are still possible. All topics covered in the show are never so far fetched, so this gives the series a sense of realism, which I personally think is one of the

The choice of whether or not to get this DVD set isn’t really a hard one. If you are into the war theme, Iraq, or even seeing the emotional rollercoaster the characters go through this series will not disappoint you. Remember though this series does not sugar coat things. If you can’t handle blood, such as a leg amputation in Suicide Rain don’t pick up this DVD. The story is great, the filming is great, but the blood and gore is right
there beside it.

Special Features:

I didn’t enjoy the special features on this DVD box set. The set includes 4 DVDs, three of which contain one episode with commentary. With a series like this the commentary can be interesting depending on what is being discussed, but in this case I found it swaying more to the side of boring. The last DVD contains a “filming of documentary” special feature, which was decently interesting. It kind of makes me think why they didn’t
include more footage like that.

Let’s be honest the special features on this DVD set were the bare minimal. The series comes with the Pilot episode, which is a must and just a little more on each disc to have a section for special features. You aren’t going to buy this set for the special features it’s for the show, the people who put this DVD together know it and made sure of it.

Season Grade: B-

DVD Features Grade: C

Overall Grade: B-