Letters to the Editor
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Count me in
I'm not sure how many episodes they showed; I watched the end of one episode and all of the next one. I liked the way the filmmakers spent much of their time with individual human stories.
I didn't really like the way they played up the "we're cruising into the dangerous Muslim world" meme when they entered the Straits of Malacca. It would be hard to think of countries anywhere in the world friendlier to the US than Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. I don't believe there is even a "significant" terror risk to an American carrier in Malaysia. Adding to my annoyance, I also thought the filmmakers were way over the top in showing lots and lots of Malay women with Muslim head coverings in Kuala Lampur. Although there are plenty of Malay women who do, there are almost as many Chinese and Indian women in KL and elsewhere in Malaysia who are not Muslim and who do not dress that way. It was a way the filmmakers echoed and magnified the dangerous Islamic world thing. When I see things like that that don't comport with reality as I know it, it makes me suspicious of other information. But overall I really enjoyed watching the thing, and will probably try to catch more episodes.
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Carrier
Two words - "Condilingus Rice". I nearly choked to death on that one. Maybe I'm just easily amused. Other than that, the series seems to be a warts and all portrayal of life on a carrier with a broad range of characters and their perspectives represented. The thing I've come away with so far is amazement and respect for the amount of responsibility that some of these very young people have taken on. Definitely worth a watch.
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Carrier
There is a line in the film" "a floating high school" That just about sums up what we see. Almost ten minutes of repetitious talk about how one sexual indiscretion has occured, minutes and minutes amounting to too much about picturesque travels, eons about petty little problems, dirty laundry both real and figurative, few if any serious talk about why the carrier is there and what it does, no indication that the officers are doing anything except trying to keep control over a bunch of adolescents, and: over everything that adolescent rock music blaring too loudly, too loudly in the background to the point where dialogue is almost covered. This is a fiasco as big as a carrier. I turned it off and went to watch House which is less saccharine and foolish. Sorry about it. A good idea, but a wasted one.
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@neelysan
I believe you got (and missed) the point. This is an aircraft carrier filled with "warriors" and they are extremely young, some very immature, etc.
Their behavior is sorta like kids isn't it?
These post adolescent 'kids' are fighting wars for us. Something to keep in mind.
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So-So
Too much time spent on how oppressed everyone feels. Everyone in the military is oppressed. That's how they feel and, most times, that's how it really is. I suppose that's why it works.
Otherwise it was a reminder of what a phenomenon a carrier is. What a shame that we need them at all.
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Being Aboard
This show reflects a great deal of what my nephew, recently out of the navy after serving aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln (a sister to the Nimitz), has related about life aboard carriers. Overall, he was dedicated to the work he'd signed on for, but was not terribly thrilled with the lifestyle. He seems to be quite happy to be a civilian now, and considers his time in the Navy as a valuable experience he has no inclination to repeat.
He went into the Navy for much the same reason I went into the Army a quarter century earlier: to escape what seemed like a dead end existence in the midwest. I credit him for applying himself and making much more of his decision than I did. For all the crap the military throws at you, in any branch of service, it does stand as a realm of opportunity open to just about anyone. Making something of those opportunities, however, requires summoning resources of both mind, body and spirit that civilians who have never served cannot hope to comprehend.
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Boredom and Unused Nukes
Shortly at the end of World War 2 I was returning on a ferry from San Diego to the USN airbase in North Island. Looking at the destroyers anchored there I concluded navies were obsolete with the possible exception of the submarine fleet believing they could never be used against a continental power such as the USSR if they acquired a nuclear arsenal. I was wrong because today Washington's enemies are small oil-soaked nations located in the Middle East who lacked a nuclear retaliatory capability. If a pilot is distressed because he haas not used his bomb loads this is not unusual. I once heard a crew member stationed on a nuclear-armed B52 complain about the endless alerts he experienced in The Strategic Air Command . "I wish we would start dropping this stuff so we can get it over with!!" The 'Dr. Strangelove' scenario was not that far out and we can be thankful, so far, that these weapons have not been used since Hiroshima and Nagasaki.