Leading TV producer Steven Bochco insists that his new drama about one of America’s most bitterly partisan subjects — the war in Iraq — is no more political than his landmark cop shows “Hill Street Blues” and “NYPD Blue.”
In fact, Bochco said, he agreed to make the upcoming series “Over There” — a first-of-its-kind contemporary war drama about U.S. troops in combat and their families back home — only after convincing himself that the show could be done “in a completely apolitical way.”
Audiences may read into the program messages shaped by their own opinions, but Bochco, 61, denies that his own political views about the war show through.
“I don’t think you have to deal at all with the politics of it,” Bochco told Reuters in an interview. “Ultimately, a young man being shot at in a firefight has absolutely no interest in politics.”
The new series, filmed near Los Angeles and around the high-desert town of Lancaster, California, makes its debut on July 27 on FX, the News Corporation-owned cable network.
War dramas are not new to American television, but “Over There” is the first built around a U.S. military conflict still in progress.
“Combat” and “Rat Patrol,” both set during World War II, were made in the 1960s. The Korean War satire “M*A*S*H” started during the Vietnam War, and “China Beach,” about life on a Vietnam-era military base, was broadcast more than 10 years after that war came to an end.
“Over There” focuses on a U.S. Army sergeant, nicknamed Sergeant Scream by his troops and played by Eric Palladino who appeared on television shows “ER” and “Homicide: Life on the Street,” and a small band of soldiers he leads on their first tour of duty in Iraq.
The opening episode deals mostly with their initial taste of combat, a bloody battle with insurgents outside a sand-swept mosque. But subsequent episodes are divided about 60-40 between Iraq and the home front, Bochco said.
‘Simple premise’“Our simple premise was that for every young man or woman in harm’s way in Iraq, there are husbands, wives, children ... back home worried sick for their welfare and safety,” Bochco said. “And in the inevitable backwash of those separations and anxieties, you’re going to locate strong, human drama.”
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Celebrity Sightings
Series co-creator Chris Gerolmo, whose previous writing credits include the film “Mississippi Burning,” said one guiding principle behind the show has been “to treat the characters with as much respect as we possibly can.”
That, however, should not be interpreted as support for the war itself. “We’re not writing about anybody above the rank of captain. We’re not writing about policy makers. We’re writing about the grunts,” Gerolmo said.
Still, the program contains references to real-life events that have stirred debate.
In the first episode, a frightened soldier mentions the controversial roll call of U.S. war dead broadcast on ABC’s “Nightline” last year. And a defiant Arab prisoner of war goads his U.S. captors by alluding to the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal.
Courage and carnageThe series premiere, as a whole, offers a sober portrait of warfare, depicting both heart-pounding action but also considerable carnage (one enemy soldier is shown being blown literally in half). However, the only corpses seen on the battlefield once the fighting ends are those of the enemy.
Bochco set a new standard for TV dramas as co-creator of NBC’s long-running hit “Hill Street Blues,” which popularized the format of an episodic, ensemble-driven series intertwining the personal and professional lives of its characters.
With “NYPD Blue,” Bochco further elevated the gritty realism of police dramas, while pushing the boundaries of nudity and profanity on prime time television.
Launching any new television show is a big gamble. But for Bochco, the stakes are especially high for “Over There”, his first series on basic cable following a string of misfires, including the ABC crime and legal dramas “Blind Justice,” “Philly” and “Total Security.”