OK, some final thoughts on Strike Back and then I’ll move on. Frankly, I’m a bit tired of talking about it! (so no doubt you’re probably tired of reading about it). Before I begin, I should add to yesterday’s post that the only reason I bothered to write about women in Strike Back is because in the publicity for the show, they were promoting their female characters as strong women as if to say: hey, we’ve made this male fantasy action romp but women can still watch it because we have “strong” female characters. Bollocks. A show pretending to be something it’s not annoys me more than anything else, so to point out that women actually served an entirely different purpose in the show was necessary. Otherwise I would have left it be.
Anyway! I’ve refrained from reading other blog posts on Strike Back because I wanted to share my own organic response to the series and avoid succumbing to inadvertently self censoring myself in case I had a radically different response to it… which apparently I have? Despite the fact I write a blog about a TV show, the truth is that I rarely watch TV drama, mostly because much of it is pretty average. My time is precious and I don’t want to have it wasted, so I’m not a TV drama junkie. Consequently, I can be a harsh critic. And obviously I’ve had some harsh things to say about SB. I think this is partly because I watched SB straight after spending a few weeks watching Six Feet Under, which is simply one of the best drama series ever! (Incidentally, RA fanatics, a commenter mentioned that RA enjoyed this series too – so, now will you go watch it, please?). Imagine the band Creed taking the stage after Led Zeppelin.. there’s just no contest! Or as a friend said to me after we saw the jaw droppingly amazing band Living Colour “every other band I see now is going to suck compared to that!”.
Clearly Strike Back is not a show for your more demanding viewer, of which I am one. That being said, I am prepared to suspend disbelief and go along for the ride if there aren’t too many gaps and false notes in the story. Seriously, I am. You have to be to enjoy Robin Hood! The difference between SB and Robin Hood, however, is that one is set in reality and one is a historical fantasy. It’s easier to go along for the ride in fantasy than in a reality based series. While going on the Strike Back ride, I kept falling off (sometimes, in fits of laughter).
I think I would have enjoyed SB a whole lot more if the stories had of been stretched out over a longer period (perhaps 8 eps). This would have given some of the more interesting elements of the show a decent opportunity to be fleshed out. The lead up to some of the more poignant moments (such as Porter’s wife saying they’d be better off without him) was inadequate so the moments did not resonate with the depth they could have. As many viewers have already observed, they simply tried to cram too much in. Or alternatively, they could have made Porter a completely enigmatic figure, ditched all the family stuff and just focused on the missions.
In the lead up to Strike Back, much was made in the press interviews of RA attempting to make John Porter a more well rounded character so the show was not just a gratuitous action romp. But the reality is that this was when the show was at its best, in romp mode. I thought the action sequences were the show’s strength, even though they occasionally strayed into video game territory (but hey, sometimes combat is video game like and the bodies really do stack up) and the escapes were often implausible, but I was willing to go along with this because that is what the show is about. I think RA was able to illuminate complexity to Porter’s character in the course of the missions/action, so while it was a romp it was not an entirely one dimensional affair. I really enjoyed seeing RA play an action hero, he completely convinced me of his combat stealth. Who’da thought that a cello player and music theater performer (CATS) would end up portraying a neck snapping SAS man? Nice work there, RArmitage!
It was also good to see Shaun Parkes play a key role in 3+4. He played David Tennant’s side kick Rocco in Russel T. Davies’ Casanova, which I adore (he has also appeared in Doctor Who). And Spooks fans pre-season 7 may have recognised Alexander Siddig who played Zahar Sharq in 5+6, he had a lead role in Spooks 2.2.
There’s heaps of potential with SB, there but it wasn’t an entirely satisfactory experience for me. Perhaps they’ll do a better job of it next time? Moving away from SB somewhat and speaking more generally, I’d like to see a series that deals with the kind of issues that SB attempted to address, in terms of soldiers dealing with matters of ethics and morality in the theater of war and in the field. We live in a civil society yet we ask our soldiers to do a barbaric job. The reality of combat does not sit well with how we envisage ourselves as a people. Our soldiers have to find a way to exist in this hypocrisy. To live in two worlds where the value systems of each are sometimes contradictory. For example, John Porter was expected to kill a suicide bomber, yet the bomber was a child, and normally we don’t harm children. Compounding the situation is the the way Porter is callously dealt with by the army, as if it were a black and white issue. These kinds of things interest me. I have a long standing interest in the welfare of service men and I think the public would benefit from having a better understanding of what kind of impact combat has on the men who fight wars in our name. With good writing I think these kinds of issues can be dealt with intelligently in the course of an action romp.
Perhaps the real problem with Strike Back is … Chris Ryan’s Strike Back. It’s based on a poorly written book. Maybe another series will have greater freedom to make it work better. At the very least, there will be more Porter jeans and dirty t-shirts to look forward to! If I can’t be satisfied by their “strong” female characters, I’ll go the shallow route and take satisfaction in the eye candy instead (which, incidentally, is what the show intends for its female audience, I think). SEE, I can be superficial and stereotypical too!
Strike Back images from RichardArmitageNet.
