E-Ring: Escape and Evade

It's a sin for any screenwriter to bring in a deus ex machina, but to bring one in no less than thirty-eight times in a single episode is incredibly brave. Last night's episode of E-Ring placed JT (Benjamin Bratt) near the Iran/Iraq border to investigate a Special Forces team who were allegedly, and illegally, crossing the border into Iran.

JT is soon captured by Iranians, but manages to escape by grabbing a knife from a man's pocket, cutting the ropes around his own wrists, knocking the man over, stabbing the man, grabbing the man's machine gun, and shooting down three more men, all in about ten seconds. I've never been a marine, but apparently studying magician David Copperfield is a major part of the training. I expected JT to then stand up, throw a gauntlet onto the ground and disappear in a cloud of smoke, or maybe scale down a cliff wall using an ever-extending wad of handkerchiefs from his lapel pocket.

JT miraculously runs into a young Iranian goat herder who speaks fluent English. They hide from Iranians by laying behind a water trough, which is a good lesson if you ever find yourself lost in that region and you want to avoid capture. Simply hide behind something, because apparently Iranians won't actually leave their vehicles to look behind things. In the end JT is rescued, which we all know he would be because he's the main character.

The promotions for E-Ring seemed to imply that it would be a realistic look at how the Pentagon operates, but it's really an hour-long melodrama where complex issues are all resolved by the show's end. I don't think that makes for the best television, but if that's the way the creators want the show to run, then that's their prerogavtive. The question is whether or not setting this military fantasy in the present day while conflict still rages on overseas is simply a form of escapist entertainment, or an insult to the profound complexities our troops find themselves mired in day after day.