Valor

Just finished the pilot (pun intended!). OK, no one is going to call this a great show, great pilot, or anything of the like.... HOWEVER, I found it relatively entertaining and full of action. I never served in the military, but it's obvious this show is full of inaccuracies. That is just not enough to dismiss a show. I have also never served as President of the USA, head cutter in a hospital, or chief of police in a big city.... and I still enjoyed many shows where reality is not the cornerstone. It's not supposed to be a Ken Burns documentary. TV by definition is not real (just watch FOX news!!). I watched this show after reading all the critical comments, and while it's not going to be at the top of my list, I will watch more episodes. DETAILS: The writing is not too bad, the acting is OK, camera work and cinematography are mediocre but nothing is so bad that I would turn it off. It's way better than it's current rating, and it does have some potential, and I do love a good military/spec ops show!

There are a lot of pitfalls this show could've had which were avoided. It did not go for the whole GI jayne route that it could've had, her being a woman comes up but they haven't made the whole about it. People have complained that it's not realistic for the army and I say that's definitely a good thing. Rules, routine and repetition don't make good TV and outside of combat that's what military life involves. There's some complaints about the main character being eye-candy, so what? Most of the male cast were clearly hired out as eye-candy and I see no complaints about that

...this would be it.

I'm not a stickler for depicting *every* scene with 100% military accuracy, but....

-Squad leader knowingly letting the copilot fly the helo while high on painkillers the day after almost crashing into the forest -Secretly shutting off both engines during training, just to see if she could auto-rotate without crashing -CIA operation lead making sexually suggestive, disrespectful remarks to a male solder in front of a group of others, several high ranking. -A politician, and mother of the lead intelligence officer, referring to him in a formal briefing as "my son." -covering each other's multitude of lies and breaches of regulations. -75% emotional drama during missions (90% the rest of the time) rather than at least *trying* to act like an actual military operation. -A woman sprinting 2 miles then immediately doing 100 push-ups, and pops up smiling, like if she just bent over to pick up a $100 bill. -Pilots having a tense, emotional discussion while in the cockpit prepping for take-off, flipping switches and starting engines, without ONE WORD of pre-flight checks, then continuing said discussion during the flight, again, without uttering a single technical/aviation term the whole flight. NOT ONE. (Oh, she did say "tail rotor" once.) -Unrealistic portrayal of the ethnic make-up of characters: A dozen+ minorities in lead/primary roles, 2 white people with more of a side-story and a smattering of other Caucasians who are either an arrogant jerk, a sexual predator, a stereotypical nerdy white person, corrupt/bad guy or token scene-filler who doesn't speak. (I like to see inclusion of *all ethnicities and genders,* but why would you intentionally alienate a potentially large number of viewers by pushing down that group or casting them in a negative light?)

But, if you are ok with a brain-dead, sexually charged drama that happens to be in a military/warfighter backdrop, this show is for you!

I don't care what anyone says, i could look at Matt Barr all day.

I feel this is one that you got to give a little bit of time. At first I wasn't too impressed as the storyline took off in a way that I found difficult to follow. Then there's the lack of chemistry between the actors, especially Madani & Ian. They are a love couple, yet she seems to have a lot more going for her with Gallo. I'm not talking characters per say, but the actors. Could be personal, I am not a fan of the actor who plays Ian Porter (Charlie Barnett). I kept watching it semi-reluctantly, because I had run out of better things to watch. Then I found it gets better after a few episodes. So this is really one you got to give a little bit of a chance. It's got more drama than for instance Seal Team and it's not as fast paced and good as The Brave, but the series does have its own charm. Considering the bad reviews I'm quite sure it'll get canceled nonetheless. In a way a pity. Sometimes a cast simply needs a bit of time to get into the groove. And one should ask if the actors are to blame for this or simply the story writing and/or casting. I really think Charlie Barnett is a very weak link. But that could be just me. I don't like the looks of him, grin.