A couple of weeks ago, I went to the premier at the National Press Club here in DC. (It pays to know people...). It was very interesting to hear David Simon (the producer, same guy who did The Wire) talk about the making of the show, as well as to hear from Evan Wright (the author). I've always thought the book was one of the better first person accounts of OIF 1, or of the life of a grunt in general. We actually saw episode 2 at the premier, and it was very well done - I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.
Interesting factoid: It cost about $50M for the 7 episodes.
The crowd at the premier was from the Washington intellectual set (the event was co-sponsored by Brookings), and there was much giggling and twittering among the audience whenever some of the more "earthy" aspects of living in the field came up - like the constant concern with where to take a sh!t. I've rarely felt the sharp separation between the "elite" and the military more than I did there that night.
From the "And you're a reporter?" files: Jamie McIntyre, CNN's Pentagon correspondent, was there. If you recall, the book and the show are about an embedded journalist (Evan Wright) who accompanies a Force Recon platoon during the early days of the war. Evan was there that evening, and spoke at length. The second episode featured the actor who played Evan quite prominently in almost every scene. During the Q&A at the end, Mcintyre asked "Did you consider putting someone in the show to play the role of a journalist?" There was much a-flutter in the room, as he was apparently the only one who hadn't quite put 2 and 2 together. Neither David Simon nor Evan knew exactly how to answer, other than to say "Uhhh,,, that's kind of what the story was all about...." Mcintyre laughed it off, but I thought it was pretty telling...
I went up to David Simon at the end and said "Great show, but you didn't capture the overwhelming emphasis on jerking off that comes with living with Marines in the field..." His response? "Just wait - we've got a whole episode devoted to the subject!!" :icon_tong
