The Unit: First Responders (Pilot)
Well no sense in sugar-coating it. I'm gonna have a
hard time recommending this show, but I'm still willing to give it a few more episodes before I completely give up on
it. The Unit just wasn't that good. On paper it reminded me a lot of E-Ring: spectacular cast with
some great minds behind it (in this case David Mamet and Shawn Ryan).
But it turns out that, thus far, The Unit is going to suffer the same fate as E-Ring because last night's pilot episode had an unbelievably boring storyline.
I'd like to be clear that I hate the fact that I need to write this next sentence:
The Unit centers around an elite Army special ops team called... The Unit. Got that? Led by team leader Jonas Blane (Dennis Haysbert) and commanding officer Col. Tom Ryan (Robert Patrick... I prefer "T-1000" and would have paid money to hear him say "Have you seen this boy?"), the Unit travels the world stopping terrorist activity and still makes it home in time for dinner.
Bob Brown (Scott Foley, who I just didn't buy as an elite killer) is the latest addition to the team which we found out has had dozens of men die in its name... well, sort of. See, The Unit doesn't actually exist. Jonas' wife Molly put it best: "You're not in the Army. You're in the Unit." Come to think of it, next week I'm going to have a few friends over with a bottle of cheap whiskey and every time someone on the show says "unit," take a drink.
Jonas took Bob to visit with an old friend (I think he used to be in The Unit... that'd be a drink right there) out in Idaho. Fortunately, some terrorists hijacked a plane 10 minutes away. Who hijacks planes in Idaho? Plus the entire time Dennis Haysbert's authoritative stance, mannerisms, and his voice kept taking away from his character if you ask me. This guy can't just play "one of the men." He needs to be behind a desk somewhere barking orders and slamming down telephones.
On top of all this, we need to deal with the delegation of concerned Unit wives. They were like a cult. They all live on the same street and go out to lunch with each other and play bridge... and on and on. But they never say anything to anyone about where their husbands are. Makes sense but being so secretive makes them whiny and unlikable. Plus we found out Bob's wife is pregnant and one of the other wives is sleeping with the Colonel while her husband kills people in another time-zone.
So yeah, I wasn't impressed but I will stick with it to see if it gets better because you never know. David Mamet has written some great plays and films in the past so hopefully he can get his act together and give us some good television.

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