scott foley

Last time we saw the men of The Unit, things were going quite wrong. Some of them were taken prisoner, others went on the run, and one was recruited by the CIA while another had to face a possible court-martial. It wasn't much better for their wives since they had to cope with their personal problems while worrying for their men and children and protecting secrets and lies. Even though we all knew The Unit couldn't be a TV show with such a title without, well, a unit, we still pondered how the group would get back together, if they would all return, and if things would ever be the same.

Over the weekend, I had the chance to watch the first two episodes of the season: "Pandemonium, Parts One and Two." The first part will air tomorrow, while the other will air on October 2.

Small spoilers ahead!

CBS has committed to an entire second season of The Unit, a military drama starring Dennis Haysbert and Scott Foley. Last spring, CBS renewed The Unit for only 13 episodes but has decided to go for an entire 22-episode season. Despite that we here at TV Squad really didn't like the show, 13.2 million viewers do like it and that was enough for CBS to keep it around.

Is anybody watching The Unit? Has it improved over last season?

Unit: (N) [ynt] -- An individual, group, structure, or other entity regarded as an elementary structural or functional constituent of a whole.

It also happens to be one of the few English nouns, that when used in the proper context, has the ability to make small children and immature adults giggle. Now I stopped covering the show a few weeks ago. I wasn't a fan. First off though, let me preface this by saying that Keith and his twisted mind came up with this as a post idea. Although, I suppose it's partly my fault since two or three of the following misused Units came from my mouth. Oh God, I did it again. I'm going to shut up now.

1. "I'll grab The Unit!"
2. "I dropped The Unit." (To which Bob replied, "I bet that hurt." Would have hurt more had I dropped something on The Unit.)
3. "I'm watching The Unit tonight!"
4. "I'll cover The Unit" is in a three way tie with, "I'm all over The Unit," and "I love The Unit."
5. "Man, The Unit sucks! It's so hard to watch."

I feel like I need to go take a shower now.

 

Now as most of you have gathered by now, I'm not a huge fan of this show. My plan was to give it three episodes, and if it didn't sway me, then I'd walk away. Last night's episode was the third installment, so that means I'm walkin'.

Now I went in to this planning on writing a less harsh review because, believe it or not, I do read all the comments people write and I realize that many folks love this show. However, I won't have to try too hard at doing so because this episode wasn't that bad. It's easily the best of the first three.

I really want to like this show, but Dennis Haysbert and Co. are making that as hard as possibly can be. I honestly can't decide which episode I liked less: last week's series premiere or this one.

I think I'm going to lean in last week's favor because I had trouble keeping my eyes open for last night's episode. I kept catching myself as I started to nod off. I'm fine with that because I'm certain that the four of five minutes that I missed due to my temporary narcolepsy had nothing of importance in them.

Actually, I'm re-evaluating that last sentence. I'm not fine with it. If I'm going to doze off for a few minutes during a show, I don't want to wake up and feel all right about it. I want to wake up and feel worried that I've just missed the best two minutes in television history. This show doesn't give me that sensation.

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.