David Mamet's "The Unit"

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the first episode was brilliant! the military is the perfect subject for Mamets obsession with manipulation / power exertion by language - i wonder why he hasnt thought of it earlier. the writing crossed the line into the absurd in places (Haysbert shouting "get off this plane!!" three times in a preacherly fashion, wtf) but on the whole this might be my new favourite tv show! enthuse plz!

― Yawn (Wintermute), Saturday, 11 March 2006 19:44 (twenty years ago)

Hunh hunh hunh, you saw David Mamet's Unit. [/Beavis]

― Raw, Uncompromising, and Noodly (noodle vague), Saturday, 11 March 2006 19:53 (twenty years ago)

ah, i was wondering why the ilm thread didnt mention the title of the show. thanks for clearing that up!

― Yawn (Wintermute), Saturday, 11 March 2006 20:00 (twenty years ago)

I don't think it's on in the UK yet. I'm psyched for it tho.

― Raw, Uncompromising, and Noodly (noodle vague), Saturday, 11 March 2006 20:21 (twenty years ago)

never heard of torrenting now

― RJG (RJG), Saturday, 11 March 2006 20:23 (twenty years ago)

I didn't know it was Mamet. I avoid 'adult' network dramas as a general rule, so I ignored it.

― Erick Dampier is better than Shaq (miloaukerman), Saturday, 11 March 2006 20:26 (twenty years ago)

Torrenting is a ball-ache compared to waiting for it to come on Sky.

― Raw, Uncompromising, and Noodly (noodle vague), Saturday, 11 March 2006 20:41 (twenty years ago)

like most telly I like, this is pretty silly

I'll watch the next few, at least

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 13 March 2006 01:28 (twenty years ago)

the whole scenario is way way weird. the first episode was a huuuuuuuuge ratings smash, and i don't think that many people were watching it for the wordplay. so, it's subversive in a sense. but on the other hand, it's a deadpan patriotism-fest and murder-the-terrorists wish-fullfillment genre piece. oh so confusing. i'm conflicted. but i will watch cuz i am a fan.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 13 March 2006 02:03 (twenty years ago)

Watched maybe half of this and was not interested at all. I was pretty shocked when I saw Mamet's name in the credits, nothing about it would have made me think it was anything other than standard network action fare, especially the set-up (secret elite force -- NO ONE MUST KNOW).

― elmo, patron saint of nausea (allocryptic), Monday, 13 March 2006 02:30 (twenty years ago)

http://cache.boston.com/images/bostondirtdogs//archives/randy.jpg

― larry lewisohn, Monday, 13 March 2006 03:23 (twenty years ago)

that picture frightens me.

mamet has always been about "heroes" in his dramas, even if they never fulfill their heroic mission.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 13 March 2006 03:32 (twenty years ago)

i don't know, the winslow boy is very different from glengarry glen ross...

― amateurist0, Monday, 13 March 2006 06:15 (twenty years ago)

i didn't mean to imply that all of mamet's scripts are the same.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 13 March 2006 14:39 (twenty years ago)

Rather than go to the trouble of having it deleted, I'd like to register my parody thread "David Mamet's G-Unit" here.

― I'm thinking six, six, six (noodle vague), Monday, 13 March 2006 14:42 (twenty years ago)

I really like this show! I watched the first two episodes over the wkend - and even though I'm sure it would be SO much better if it weren't network, I still think it has some good things going for it - esp how it's written (I have more to say on this but not right now).

I'm a sucker for the "in the field" scenes. Jumping out of airplanes! Driving in Landrovers! Shooting at stuff! That said, I find the women all very annoying - probably b/c they're underwritten yet they're part of an overarching theme going on in the show - they seem too pawnlike, to that theme, I mean. I hope that changes. (aha ha. ha. no, but I do.)

Oh, it's on tonight! I'm keen to talk about the writing after watching more.

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 00:00 (twenty years ago)

I was going to start a thread: "Is Dennis Haysbert's real-life wife bitchy and conniving?"

I liked the first show and the second show had more very typical David Mamet dialog (which appeals to me) - but the plotlines haven't hooked me yet.

― Dave AKA Dave (dave225.3), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 01:31 (twenty years ago)

http://www.simpletone.com/cdi/aharon/dammit_dave_by_david_mamet.htm

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 04:01 (twenty years ago)

I've only seen the first episode, but it seemed a little too CBS for me.

― alex in montreal (alex in montreal), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 17:54 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

teh noob had gay seks!!!1 lmao!!!!!1!!!

― fez, Saturday, 8 April 2006 13:17 (twenty years ago)

this show is getting weirder and weirder

― fez, Saturday, 8 April 2006 13:18 (twenty years ago)

i think i am waiting for it on dvd, but is it a parody of mamets obsession with tropes of masculinity, or a natural extenstion of it

― anthony easton (anthony), Saturday, 8 April 2006 18:39 (twenty years ago)

mamet is allergic to parody, i think. it's earnestness all the way with him.

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 8 April 2006 18:42 (twenty years ago)

yeah, it's really just straight-up genre stuff. i still think the first episode was the best. he needs to write more of them. i kinda wish it had stuck with the super-deadpan, invasion of the body snatchers "you are one of us now" paranoia of the first episode. i guess i didn't really want them to be human with hour-long drama human problems. "let's sell real estate!". oy.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 8 April 2006 18:50 (twenty years ago)

I kind of agree - first episode was really tense b/c of both the family/community drama and the in-the-field action, yet in other episodes the family drama comes off as silly compared to the army action. If the idea of this show is for the two to be balanced - a balance of two genres, if that's the idea - then the family (read: women's) drama has to be beefed up somehow. The last episode was my favourite one since the first - seemed to attempt to balance the two better. But still, not quite there. Is this going to be one of those shows that I continue watching b/c of what I think it COULD BE? Maybe it'll pay off. (Also, I've just started watching Rome. Which I think is maybe a bit unfair of me to The Unit.)

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Saturday, 8 April 2006 20:42 (twenty years ago)

well well well! "written & directed by David Mamet" = best episode since #1! its not that hard is it!

― fez, Thursday, 13 April 2006 19:21 (twenty years ago)

but do they really have no neckties in iran?

― fez, Thursday, 13 April 2006 19:22 (twenty years ago)

of course this is the ONE episode i miss cuz my parents were over and i thought i'd be nice and "talk" to them. how silly of me.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 13 April 2006 20:24 (twenty years ago)

i keep waiting for it to get all subversive and icky.

so when's that gonna happen.

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Thursday, 13 April 2006 21:05 (twenty years ago)

when it is not on cbs?

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Thursday, 13 April 2006 21:14 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

i keep waiting for it to get all subversive and icky.
so when's that gonna happen.

i guess last episode was about as subversive as it gets, no?

"dear audience! heres how we treat people in abu ghraib and guantanamo! but its ilsa she-wolf of the d.o.d. who makes us do it! and our boys can get out whenever they want by using l337 macgyver skillz! oh and heres the flag and we also think its great to pray to god and stuff!! xoxo the unit team"

― fez, Friday, 28 April 2006 11:47 (twenty years ago)

eight months pass...

Watching the first season on DVD, this is OK but not great.

I wish it would either earn the drama (make the ladeeez half more interesting, let them break out of suffering-for-hubby mode) or make it more bad-ass on the special forces end.

Jonas is terrible, the way he enunciates all of his orders (and one-liners), it sounds like Mamet by way of Michael Mann by way of a "how to speak black ops" manual. I'd like it a lot more if his speeches seemed at all natural.

― milo z (mlp), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 03:36 (nineteen years ago)

the 2nd season has been better than the first. i guess i see the whole show as more of a study in genre than anything, and for that i enjoy it.

yeah, the acting isn't so great but for me that's part of the, er, charm (?) of this show.

as far as entertainment value goes, to be honest, i'm mostly all about the intensity of the special ops scenes - they get even more intense in season 2.

― rrrobyn, breeze blown meadow of cheeriness (rrrobyn), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 04:27 (nineteen years ago)

Mamet by way of Michael Mann

WANT

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 09:13 (nineteen years ago)

We fucking get down if the fucking play calls for it.

― milo z (mlp), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 15:45 (nineteen years ago)

you need to set your motherfucker to "receive".

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 15:47 (nineteen years ago)

whoa, it's River Tam

― milo z (mlp), Thursday, 18 January 2007 06:07 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, she's been in like 4 or 5 episodes.

― The Yellow Kid (The Yellow Kid), Thursday, 18 January 2007 21:29 (nineteen years ago)

Is it wrong that I'm enjoying watching Jonas slap the snot out of his wife-beating nephew?

― milo z (mlp), Saturday, 20 January 2007 03:23 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

anyone know which episodes (other than S1E1) were written by Mamet?

― jackl (jackl), Saturday, 3 February 2007 21:23 (nineteen years ago)

(david, not lynn)

― jackl (jackl), Saturday, 3 February 2007 21:23 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000519/filmoseries#tt0460690

Only two show 'written by' - Ep1 and Silver Star

― milo z (mlp), Saturday, 3 February 2007 21:26 (nineteen years ago)

thanks.

― jackl (jackl), Saturday, 3 February 2007 21:29 (nineteen years ago)

according to tv.com he wrote the first two episodes, and wrote and directed the sixth (which is also the best ep. of the first season, imho)

i totally forgot about this show. how is the second season so far?

― PRKLTR (flezaffe), Saturday, 3 February 2007 21:40 (nineteen years ago)

(s02e01, s02e06 (w&d) and s02e11 were also written by mamet)

― PRKLTR (flezaffe), Saturday, 3 February 2007 21:47 (nineteen years ago)

Special Forces hos be psychic

― milo z (mlp), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 23:38 (nineteen years ago)

seven months pass...

season 3 started this week, was pretty rad, lots of intrigue and underhanded cover-ups wherein our heroes must clear themselves against powerful govt forces who want to destroy the unit for whatever reason. also jonas shaved his head and has badass facial hair.

― rrrobyn, Thursday, 27 September 2007 13:41 (eighteen years ago)

they ditched the cadence intro. :(

I have done a 180 on Jonas's dialogue - it's not quite "CODE 10 ABORT" awesome, but I like.

― milo z, Thursday, 27 September 2007 17:47 (eighteen years ago)

don't think I saw season two

― RJG, Thursday, 27 September 2007 17:48 (eighteen years ago)

one month passes...

last week's ep was kinda insane and renewed my respect for this show

― rrrobyn, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 04:24 (eighteen years ago)

repeating myself from glengarrygr thread:
i think it treads this amazing line btwn subversive and mainstream yet isn't fence-sitting - maybe it's like the psychic paper of tv shows or something - you see what you want to see

overall though, subtleties of 'genre' or not, it's some brutal stuff

― rrrobyn, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 04:33 (eighteen years ago)

I'm glad Phil Hendrie's making some money, but I can't really bear to watch this show.

― Ben Boyerrr, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 11:17 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

the episodic format makes it easier to do big twists than in films/plays i think. the payoff in the last ep was pretty great.

― s.clover, Monday, 4 May 2009 17:59 (seventeen years ago)

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