1. Over There
Broadcast in 2005, Over There followed a US army unit during a tour of Iraq. Despite the obvious similarities to the likes of Band of Brothers and The Pacific, it was largely a fictional series but focused on a lot of real life issues that soldiers have to deal with. Mixing this level of seriousness with good humour though, one of the most thought provoking series of the past ten years also had an episode called I Want My Toilets. As the only US TV series to be set during a war still ongoing during its broadcast (although M*A*S*H is obviously written about Vietnam, it had to be set in Korea to get past the censors) it is unsurprising the series was cancelled, but you have to give it credit for not only trying, but also the 13 episodes that were produced. Perhaps the biggest difference to similar military series is the inclusion of the families back home, and the rehabilitating Private Bo Rider after he loses his leg in an IED explosion. Although the alcoholic adulterer going to rehab storyline of Private "Dim" Dumphy's wife has the tendency to become soap opera at times, the emasculation of Sergio being the only husband in a support group full of wives and mothers is a great exploration that it is more than just those who sign up whose lives are affected by the military. Despite the obvious potential, the series never seems to take sides in the hugely political argument of whether we should have been in Iraq in the first place, but instead focuses on the predicaments faced by the soldiers caught in the middle, something particularly emphasised in Situation Normal. When ordered to protect an American construction crew working near a small Iraqi town, Dim is unable to just stand by and watch as a small child struggles to carry a simple pale of water back to his home. His efforts to help the boy and his mother, alongside the construction contractor's (Breaking Bad's Dean Norris) assertion of democracy on the townspeople, eventually results in a the mother being ostracised and the unit having to leave knowing that when they are gone she will most likely be stoned to death. Doing all it can not to fan the flames of Islamaphobia, Over There does remind people that Iraq and the middle east is a different culture to the western world, and ideals such as democracy can only work if they have been developed over time rather than thrust upon people not ready for it. It is aspects like this that give you the sense that the producers knew they were on a knife edge from the start, and so just included everything they could, idealistic journalists, going AWOL, and even friendly fire, before receiving their discharge papers.