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David Mamet Created A TV Series For Dennis Haysbert, and Herc's Seen It!! CBS Whips Out THE UNIT!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
I am – Hercules!!
This thing’s not only got David Mamet - one of the best writers on the planet - penning it, it’s got a cast and a half: Dennis Haysbert (“24”), Robert Patrick (“The X-Files”), Scott Foley (“Felicity”), pretty Audrey Marie Anderson (“Point Pleasant”) and a blonde who looks an awful lot like Ashley “Birds of Prey” Scott. But isn’t.
It’s a show that’s all schizophrenic, and that’s what makes it good. Half of it is like “24,” with super-macho military types cavorting about on dangerous secret missions to foil terrorists. Missions so secret, even other government officials in the field don’t know what they’re up to.
The other half is about their wives, who have to pretend these guys aren’t secret agents. There’s a new girl on base, not a typical military wife, and she’s not too excited about all the New Rules she has to follow and all the Big Secrets she has to keep. As I say, interesting.
The biggest fun, though, is watching Haysbert play Jack Bauer. He’s great at it!
But what matters Herc’s opinion?
Variety says:
…Although there are a few Mametian flourishes … "The Unit" stays rooted on these parallel tracks beginning with Haysbert, nicely handling his demotion from commander in chief on "24" to field commander here; and a steely Robert Patrick as his office-bound boss. …
The Hollywood Reporter says:
… The verdict, based solely on the premiere, is favorable. "The Unit" is filled with thrilling action and heart-pounding adventure. What's more, it expands the scope of the drama by including military wives, depicted here as being as courageous and steely nerved in their own way as their husbands. Mamet's best known dramas often wrestle with the nature of the human condition or the impact of contemporary culture. In the premiere, at least, such philosophical musings take a back seat to a meat-and-potatoes style of entertainment (like Mamet's less well known scripts for "The Untouchables" or "Ronin"), that is no less satisfying. …
USA Today gives it two and a half stars (out of four) and says:
… It's like two shows in one. Unfortunately, only one of them is interesting, and it's not the one you might expect. … Certainly if you're an action fan, you're probably most looking forward to the "forceful" half of the story … Yet sadly enough, that side of tonight's premiere is almost comically bad … Yet just when you're ready to give up on the show, it moves back to the base — and becomes a much better show. We've seen the action stuff before. What we haven't seen is Mamet's exploration of an insular, incredibly guarded society run by a not-to-be-trifled-with Big Sister: Jonas' wife, Molly (Regina Taylor). Rather than present a standard, gooey view of the supportive little women back home, The Unit delves into their fears and examines the not-always-friendly world they've created as a coping mechanism.
Entertainment Weekly gives it a “B” and says:
… This being Mamet, there's lots of folksy jargon … I wonder what middle America will make of a later episode, when Haysbert says he must rescue ''two Bible-thumpin' fools who haven't got a clue.''…
The New York Times says:
… On "The Unit" on CBS, the playwright turns over his distinctive dialogue to actual soldiers. But tough talk is less striking in combat — the men who belong to this elite, top-secret Special Forces unit are not all that special. "The Unit" becomes distinctive only when the action shifts back to the wives left behind on the base (and not just when the platinum blonde dons black underwear, though that is a sure sign that adultery is soon to follow). The wives are the ones who converse in Mamet-speak, exchanging taut, fraught dialogue that mystifies more than it enlightens. … Perhaps because Mr. Mamet is a writer, director and executive producer of the show (alongside Shawn Ryan, creator of "The Shield") it is hard to take these women's brave fronts at face value: something sinister seems to be going on beneath the helpful hints. Something sinister lurks behind that welcome wagon.
The Washington Post says:
… Haysbert has a commanding commander's presence, to put it mildly, and even though it's an ensemble drama a high-impact vicarious experience no matter how one may try to resist.
9 p.m. Tuesday. CBS.
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Even if it fails it ought to be interesting.
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I'm glad you 'rose' to the occasion. Hope it wasn't too 'hard' to come up with that one.
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He'll be missed in 24- I will watch his new show
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Former Angel alum and creator of the Sheild. The one two punch of him and Mamet will have me wtching until this is off air.
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Is Mamet's participation enough to outweigh Shawn Ryan's participation for you to actually give us talkbacks if this thing is good? Good job not even mentioning Ryan's name in your intro.
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and Mamet wrote only three of them, how the heck did they manage to produce another ten? You'd never now by reading this "story."
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i gotta say the whole wives-of-the-agents storyline sounds gripping. no, seriously, i do. maybe they could do a spin-off called 'desperate housewives who are desparate because their husbands are working covert ops and aren't home that much'.
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I also found it funny that Ryan wasn't mentioned, although I am a little cloudy on just how much Ryan has worked on "The Unit." Herc must know that Mamet wrote a bit for "The Shield" (one ep, at least) and that's how him and Ryan became TV buddies. BTW, Acker was cast, but let go after the pilot.
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But I'll watch this.
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They let her go - the fools!
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...and since Herc never gives us The Shield talkbacks, I am OFFICIALLY declaring this talkback property of THE SHIELD! How about that Kavanaugh asshole, ehh? Don't you just want to put a bullet in him?
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"Wanna prove it?" "The lord hates a coward." Love it. Spartan was so bad ass. I'll check this out, but I don't think I'll be able to fit it under my TV cap.
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I didn't think Herc was gonna mention this show.Mamet&Ryan wow!This could be what I've always wanted the lame 24 to be.I doubt we'll ever see one of The Unit's daughter's try to avoid a couger for three episodes.
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on this site was in a non Shield TB: "Whose dick does Aceveda have to suck to get a Shield TalkBack around here?" I don't remember who said it but it is still as true today as it was back then.
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Based on reading the previous posts you would think Herc has a "beef" with Shaun Ryan. Does he? The Shield is one of the most compelling (and best written) hours on TV. I was always surprised AICN never posted news/talkbacks on it. Is there something up?
In fact I -
perfect.
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I just don't happen to watch the show anymore. Is this my fault? Could be! But - as someone pointed out recently - you don't need stupid Herc to write about The Shield in his horny little corner of AICN. There's probably a lively discussion on the series one in AICN's The Zone right now! (If there's not, you can start one! If you're too lazy to start one, there's a Shield talkback at Television Without Pity, and probably at a million other Shield fan sites besides!) This is not to say I won't come back to the Shield one day. I did watch and love the Mamet Shield with Dutchboy, Vanquisher of Kitties.
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The look on Vic's eyes last week, i really wondered if he would murder Kavanaugh right then and there...
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Because I absolutely don't see the appeal of Mamet; The Spanish Prisoner felt like the first rehearsal of a community theater production to me
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Posting in The Zone or the TWoP forums is fine (though the discussion in The Zone is pretty meagre), but we specifically want The Shield talkbacks! Yeah, you posted a talkback at the beginning of the season, but that doesn't do us much good eight episodes into the series. Also, if you're seriously considering watching again, better start now. There's tonight's episode, which will be followed by two more to close out the first half of the Fifth Season (eleven total in the first half). After that The Shield is going off the air for a new FX original series called "Thief". Then comes a new season of "Rescue Me" (and maybe Nip/Tuck as well?). After that we might get the final ten episodes of Season Five, and the END of the Shield. Herc, if you want to be really nice to us, query any contacts you have at FX and find out when they plan on airing the second half of Season Five. Anyway, unless the writers decide they want to do a sixth season, there are only thirteen episodes of The Shield left, including tonight's.
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Watch Glengarry Glen Ross and then tell me you wouldn't have Mamet's babies if he asked you.
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I shall reserve further judgment until I have watched GGR, or, you know, this show.
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He hasn't cast his wife
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at the beginning of every episode . . . as if that is going to suck me in.
I am wise to the ways.
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because i sure don't remember seeing her
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because i sure don't remember seeing her
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i've no idea who, but you can put money on it. my guess is that latina marine chick.
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TB's are reserved for Herc's Viewing List, not what the visitors to the site might like. No TB's for you! Yeah, there's the Zone, but it's like the back room that few bother to venture into or even try to find. Strabo, I don't think the rest of the "season" is going to air until at least fall. The other shows have their runs (FYI-Susan Sarandon is guesting on Rescue Me this season), and Chiklis has to shoot the Fantastic Four sequel.
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Even if you don't watch it, PLENTY of US do. It's a brilliant show. It deserves it. So stop being so stingy...
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and all that SF lingo got my dick hard for 60 minutes....not to mention the chick who played Aceveda's callgirl on The Shield. Power to the Shield 21!
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because she guested on an episode - 'gladiatrix' to be precise.
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Wow, Corrine is really a dumb bitch. The repeat just got to the part where Kavanaugh tells her "You married the wrong man." No, Vic married the wrong dumb bitch. That shit Corrine gave Danny was WAY out of line.
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She looked great in that scene at the end. Vic really has Becca in the palm of his hand. If Becca is now working for Lem only, I think Vic might get to know Becca a little..."closer". hehe. Also, what's up with the previews saying that this is the end of the season? I thought we were supposed to get ten more episodes after a several month break. I wonder if this means an end to the Kavanaugh arc.
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Seriously, that show snuck up on me and kind of rocked. Haysbert is the friggin' man.
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"So what we need to do is..."---'What you need to DO is?'---"Yes, what we need to do is...... Sir, what i'm saying is that, what we need to do is.....get a shield talkback" Shit, where's my Shield download?
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I'm just hoping it gets better. There were glimpses of that pingpong alliteration and repeated words back and forth, enough for Mamet fans to catch it--but not enough to lure those new to Mamet. It would really rock if this becomes Spartan, the TV show. Almost waiting for T1000 to pull a Baldwin from downtown brass balls put that coffee down speech. "You call yourself a soldier you son of a bitch?" But yeah, Haysbert is perfectly enjoyable--he's much better as a unit commander than commander in chief--he needs the room to flex and kick ass. Is verry bad to drink Jobu's rum. Verry bad.
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Wow, this was indeed "CBS-ified." I can see this as being a cracking script, but somehow they've managed to neuter a 24-alum Director, David Mamet, Shawn Ryan, AND Dennis Haysbert, all in one snooze-inducing blow. Even the music sucks the life out of every scene. This seemed like such a dream team, but I won't be tuning in next week.
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That was a killer Mamet line. The episode was uneven but I think that is because of the massive reshoots needed with the recasting of the clueless wife. Amy Acker was originally cast. I see why she left. The character was stoooopid: young children are in the room, do not turn on the news lady. Funny that Acker went from being Foley's wife to Foley's ex-wife's nemesis. I'll give it a few more weeks. Not like there is anything else on Tuesdays at 9/8 central.------later-----m
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Was okay, nothing special.
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her replacement is no better. The character is weak. -----later-----m
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Mamet, Haysbert and Patrick sounded like an awesome combo. It didn't work. To "Cowellize" it, it was like watching an elementary school production of a Shakespeare play.
The plot was thin, the script absolutely horrendous, derivative and repetitive and the acting intensely wooden. Haysbert has one dimension - talk gruffly and with authority.
With so much else on TV these days, this did little to win me back for a second episode. -
I'd give it a 5 out of 10. Nothing else to watch at the time so ... I did. The new wife was like a really dumb stick, she needs to die and fast. I can see why Amy Acker left the show/threw a tantrum/got booted. Her 'character' sucks. Bit too much drama. Action scene (there was 1) was decent but really. How hard is it to shoot and miss so many times? "i gotta say the whole wives-of-the-agents storyline sounds gripping. no, seriously, i do." ROFL. This needed a betetr pilot script and that could have been a 2nd or 3rd year's lame episode.
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I was really looking forward to this (Shawn Ryan! Dennis Haysbert! Even Mamet...). But the pilot felt thrown together, the wives b-plot felt like a creepy horror movie, the unit's missions were one-dimensional at best, and none of the personalities/characters in this show smacked of anything in reality. Haysbert shows more emotions in his Allstate commercials. No substance here, just a lot of style and not very good style. I give Unit 6 weeks...
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Her performance was awkward at best, junior high drama level at worst. I cringed every time she appeared on screen. Even the great Regina Taylor looked like she was struggling to make this turd of a script shine like cubic zirconia.
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Nothing worked. Will I watch a few more eps? Who cares? Nobody.
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More viewers than NCIS before it and pwned everything except House in the timeslot.
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I got the same feeling. Felt like I was watching The Stepford Wives.
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"Get off the plane. Get off the plane. GET...OFF...THE...PLANE".
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Agreed, the show only really looked good in the last few seconds (literally). Other than that, the military scenes (as opposed to the wife scenes) just felt like a generic procedural.
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The Unit, unfortunately, combined the worst aspects of its creative team.
Shawn Ryan is very good at creating complex ethical situations and is weak on nearly everything else (there was nothing remotely complex about the ethics in The Unit).
David Mamet is known for complex dialogue and interesting plot twists and suffers when he writes macho dialogue (where he comes across like the German nihilists from The Big Lebowski). There was no complex dialogue or interesting plot twists in The Unit.
Instead, we have something that might appeal to the viewership missing JAG, assuming some romance can be injected. -
I'll take the credit for that one, thanks I'm here all week folks! And you are right, it is still as relevant now as when I posted it. As for The Unit..... meh. Expected more from the people involved. It really looked cheap as well..... I'll download again next week, but I have a feeling this may be another "The Inside".
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Terribly cast (Scott Foley!?!?) and clumsily structured. Not a single interesting or original character in the whole bunch, and Mamet's "legendary" dialogue skills seem to have deserted him here. I think I'll stick to my 24.
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Angel sucked. Drop it.
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ChorelyFM - yeah, it did well this week but next week is the real teller. I imagine many people tuned in because of the hype but will now tune out because of the tripe. I don't think it will stand up to new episodes of House (talk back?) every week.
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The last House talkback was for the second season premier and it was also for a bunch of other shows. Not _really_ a big loss....even if we were to have talkbacks, they'd probably all go something like this: poster 1: Hey, Hugh Laurie is awesome as House! poster 2: Yeah, the story was kind of generic and formulaic though... poster 3: Yeah, but Hugh Laurie is awesome as House!. Sadly, there's not much to say about the show other than to comment on Laurie's phenomenal acting.
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Let's get those MP3s from the West Wing Secret Service Boss so we do NOT use them. Let's send that new guy as a sniper so we do NOT use him. Let's raid a crowded airplane with shotguns...wheeeeee!!!!! Let's let President Palmer go into the plane alone with a gap shirt! Yeah!!!! FBI gets in the way? Tell them the new guy will kill them! It's fun, because it's real.
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I guess MP3s are better for ipods...MP5s are what super special agent secret service west wing guy gave them.
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This show was great. They did not raid the plane with shotguns, the 2 guys with shotguns blasted the guys who opend the rear hatch. Jonas took the plane with his handgun. Foley was fine, and Dennis Haysbert was simply amazing, as was the actress who played his wife. The exec producer is Eric Haney, the man who wrote , Inside delta Force, so he knows what hes talking about. Read the book before commenting about accuracy. Cheating wives, PTS, and corrupt C.I.A opperations constitutes complex characters moments. What more do you middle schoolers want. Idiots. Go rent Con Air and suck your thumbs.
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I just went through all 4 seasons of it on Netflix and read up all the Coaxial posts, and lo and behold, the first season (or was it the second?) was on Herc's Top 10 shows of that year. So cut him some slack, okay?
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Even if you don't watch it, Herc, a lot of your readers do and just need a little place to vent.
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My favorite part was when he was taught that Arabic phrase that meant "they're coming" or something...and then saying that in the radio...retardid. Remeber Team America, when the main character was trying to infiltrate the terrorist cell in the bar? The intro to The Unit, where they were talking Arabic with their uncanny American accents, was like a recreation of this scene. It's like when American or British actors start speaking Spanish...and their Latin American counterparts are supposed to believe they're locals. But hey, it's Mamet...so let's get on our knees and give him head. This ain't no Spartan.
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"I thought those were your names?" "We're brothers".
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that terminator 2 guy who is farking that other blokes wife will be the kiss of death for this show.
Let's face it, he's the equivalent of Ted McGinley, either he goes or the show dies, the two cannot exist in the same universe without it collapsing on itself. -
Finally got around to watching this and it didn't move me one way or the other, despite the credentials of the cast and writers. I suppose if you've got a hard-on for the mythical all-powerful and supremely-competent military establishment or Clancy books it might be interesting, but if you don't, it felt flat. Somebody described it as CBS-ifed, which I think is apt. Bye, JAG, hello NCIS and now this show.
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...she's in the extended ensemble on ABC's "In Justice." And she looks good. She was also in "Shopgirl," so there's two jobs not given to her by her husband, Mr. Mamet.
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