"The Prisoner", Episode #103.



Cast: Josh Henderson, Erik Palladino, Keith Robinson, Kirk Jones.

Original Airdate: August 10, 2005.

Over There

The episode last week hooked me in, so I'm anticipating tonight's.

Woohoo! Can't wait to hear the worst theme song in the history of TV again!

I can't believe the creator of the show has the balls to not only sing his theme song, but to actually play it during the show. And to make it even worse, it's played over the end of the episode which is usually the most emotional part of a show.

I really liked last week's episode and plan to be on board once again tonight.

This one's got whatshisface from BoB

god that black chick's voice is annoying as hell

Oh god the guy with the glasses is a fucking idiot.

This show has already exhausted every military movie cliche there is. And this has to be the worst theme song for a show, ever! Doesn't help that it was written and performed by one of the co-creators.

Pretty bad, but not as bad as Enterprise's theme song.

Tonight's ep was alright, but not as good as last week's.

I still like it enough to keep watching the rest of FX's nice and short season.

That squad of soldiers suck at shooting. That was lame to me because I think the U.S. Army can produce better marksmen than that.

What was up with the one dude refusing pain medicine? What an idiot.

Quoted for great justice.

Also, what a little jackass that Texan kid was. If I were that doctor I would have threatened to court martial him.

He was addicted to it and just wanted to break the habit cold-turkey. Just kind of a macho thing, "I can beat this, you know!"

The scenes with the soldiers are pretty good but when they switch to the hospital or back home I find myself wanting to the grab the remote and change the channel.

I think the homefront scenes are alright. And that Sergio guy is going to land up banging one of the hot wives. Or he should, anyway.

Never saw this show before, and only saw half this episode. It seemed like it could be good.

Man, this show could be really really good if it weren't for a few, easily fixable things. One, as stated before - change the damn theme. I like the premise... you smash cut into the title after a teaser and then you get right into the episode. At the end of the ep you have a montage of sorts wrapping up the story with the theme song overtop - very cool. Except that the theme song is godawful tripe. Guillermo should have had a professional musician write and record the song, because this song is pretentious, amatuerish and grating, not to mention it leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth after what was a pretty solid episode.

Two - WideLoad or whatever the nickname is for the black mechanic - ditch her. Her and the annoyingly -and pointlessly- bitchy "Mrs. B." I know they don't want to alienate 50% of the viewing audience but come on. It would be a little damned convenient for this squad to constantly be running into the same two female truck drivers. Only men are allowed on the front line - whether that's fair or not - it's reality. Either give us a fake military where women do serve up front (and give us some tolerable actresses) or a supposedly realistic one in which they don't. Don't try and trick us into stupidity just so you can have a few female military leads on the show. It took me a while to realize why I enjoyed the second episode, "Roadblock" so much more than I did the pilot. I think a good chunk of the reason is no whiney-voice and no Mrs. B.

Dim - I think this can be a good character, but stop making him such a damned fool. I liked him the whole episode up until the "God, Sir!" incredulity at the Colonol's rape line. He didn't say anything that bad. He said they would rape the man's sister and kill her, which is what I was expecting him to say. Now Dim already knows that this Colonol is bluffing. The Col told him as much. The worst thing he's allowed to do is put the prisoner in that uncomfortable position with his knees bent and arms out. He wasn't even planning on giving them - EITHER OF THEM - to the Pakistanis, who's depravity and visciousness by the way, I'm sure he overexagerated. Dim knows all this. Why is he so disgusted by the Colonol's threat? I find it hard to believe that I am more hardened and jaded than a frontline GI.

The Texan - I forget his name, but ol' hop-along - he has also gotta go. Terrible TERRIBLE plotline. First of all, he examplifies everything I hate about texans, from the blind patriotism to the holier-and-stronger-than-thou attitude to the retarded sense of self-worth. The problem is (and I feel that this is the reason I will be irreversibly turned off to the show) that it will probably work. He will somehow be fitted with a Luke Skywalker foot and be returned to his unit. This will stretch my willing suspension of disbelief to its breaking point. You lose a limb, they send you to a military hospital to get stable and then they send you home. Under no circumstances would they, have they, or will they ever return an amputee to active duty. The simple fact that no one's snapped this dickweed across the face and said "your military career is over, stop bitching and stop pulling out your IVs or we'll restrain you" has made me hate everyting about his plotline.

THE GOOD:

Seargent Scream rocks. I didn't much care for the actor's character on ER and thought I would out-and-out hate him on this show, but he's tremendous. From his disgust at still being in Iraq to his incredulous disbelief of how dumb the newbies are, all the way to his pragmatic way of looking at everything, he's the best character so far.

Angel - I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest a truism: SNIPERS ARE ALWAYS AWESOME. From Barry Pepper's character in Saving Private Ryan to Shifty Powers in Band of Brothers, you ALWAYS cheer for the squad sniper. From him backing the unit over race in the pilot to his BANG - "there are four now, Seargent" in tonight's ep, Angel is cool and so far, underused.

Smokey - I hated him at first - a LOT - but the more he opens his mouth, the more I realize he just IS the dumbass of the group. Plus, with how stupid and ignorant he is now, it actually gives him an arc for the future.

Tariq - what a great addition to the cast. I was afraid this guy was going to be either too gung-ho army and pro america, or too much of a sympathiser. But he's neither. He's a regular guy from Detroit, as someone like him would be, the only difference being his ancestory and his ability to speak Arabic. They're not playing him as "the arab guy on the squad", they're playing him as the "squad member who can translate", and I'm digging it.

All that being said, I am enjoying the show, the second two eps much more than the first, and I'll be tuning in next week as well. It's just ashame that by fixing just these few problems, they could have a truly great show. I'll be fixing one of them myself - When the ending montage starts, I'll be hitting the mute button.



cheers,
Doc

SPOILERS

A few things didn’t make sense to me:

a. Why this interrogator is hanging out in this ghost town pretty much by himself. Why not go through the Lieutenant?

b. Dim’s reaction to the interrogation, in front of the prisoner.

c. The long street battle in literally a one street town. Why didn’t anybody on either side think to just flank the other side?

d. Using a precision bomb to take out a shed that may or may not contain stingers. Wouldn’t the military want to verify that the stingers were actually in the shed, as well as how many were there?

I too am cringing at the thought of something happening that lets him actually go back to the front. His name is Bo, remember in the first episode where he wanted a nickname but everybody had thought that Bo was his nickname (when it was his real name)?

Angel, didn’t he pull his head back before taking the shot?

And are we being too critical? I don’t see myself analyzing Battlestar Galatica or Rescue Me to this extent.

As for the theme song, I actually like it. Then again, I like folk music to an extent. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to be downloading the song on iTunes and listening to it over and over, but it works for this show in my opinion.

As for things I really liked, the Sergeant as well as the interrogator (another sergeant?). I hope that the interrogator is a recurring guest role. Kind of like Mrs. B. and Widetrack, I wish they would pop up only once every four or five episodes.

Count me in the minority who actually likes the theme song (both the words and performance). I also very much like the show. I don't have any idea how realistic it is, really, except for the fact that women shouldn't be on the frontline. It's very entertaining even if the stuff they show back at home is a bit dull so far. I don't know where they're going with Bo, but I hope they don't try to work him back into active duty.

--
fab

His dad is a total drunk (and maybe addicted to drugs also after serving? and that started him down the drunk path and possibly abusive to his family?) and I assume that is why they hadn't spoken in several years. He does not want to end up like his dad so he wants off it now.

There's worst theme songs, but this automatically gets the title of worst theme song ever because they play it during the episode. Gilmore Girls is one of my all-time favorite shows, but I always either fast forward or change the channel when the theme song starts. My only option with Over There is to mute and I don't feel like watching the end of the show in silence. Imagine if the Enterprise theme song played over the end of every episode.

The theme song is especially annoying because I think so far each episode has been much better than the last. I liked pretty much everything about this week's episode.

how many episodes are there in season 1?

My boyfriend convinced me to watch this show with him, and I just rolled my eyes at the premise and thought I was going to hate it (I am very anti Bush and don't think that America has any business in Iraq). To my surprise I actually enjoyed it alot. The first episode was so-so, but the second one had me glued to my seat! When it was over I was so pissed about having to wait for a whole week til next one. This episode was a bit of a disappointment however...

First of all: I hate Mrs. B and the black girl. I'm a girl, so I guess I should identify with them or something, but I just can't. They're too annoying.
Secondly, I'm not sure about the way they seem to portray the people in Iraq... Just a nitpick (this is just entertainment after all, not a documentary). But I'm looking forward seeing the next episode, hope it will be better than this one.

ETA: I like the team song, and I think it fits well with the show and the ending montage.

i missed the pilot but saw the last 2 episodes. so far i'm liking it. the husband in the support group is gonna be one lucky man, that's for sure.

That bothered me as well. They wouldn't fly helicopters in that area because they were worried that someone might use the stingers, but they fail to verify that they destroyed them? Unless there's some sure-fire way to confirm their presence after dropping the bomb, that was a stupid move.