I Watch TV: SEAL Team (Season 2)

SEAL Team Season 2

SEAL team continues to ignore the larger picture, focussing on the personal problems faced by the team, and (probably necessary to actually make a TV show) ignoring the questions raised by them flying all over the world to kill and kidnap people. Since there are several scenes, especially with helicopters and planes, that I assume were made with the assistance of the US military, then this is likely part of how it got made.

Still, it takes a stance on a couple of points. Firstly, after a character’s wife is killed (in a car crash, no one expects it to work that way round, everyone thinks it’s going to be one of the SEALs who dies if anyone), he has to figure out student loans for a daughter going to college. He earns too much to qualify for support, not enough to be able to pay for it. Anyway, good on the show for taking a stance on an issue.

Of course it has another issue later in the season, and it gets right on its soap box about a veteran who was mis- or un-diagnosed. Well fair enough. It’s quite a powerful storyline, and that’s good because the show has always had the problem that compared to the scenes out in the field, either shooting, sneaking or generally being cool, everything when they’re not SEALing doesn’t match up.

Which is why it’s a pity that this seems to take away from another storyline, where their logistics and support petty officer, Davis, goes off to Officer Candidate School. I would have happily watched a spin-off mini-series about that. It was cool.

Anyway, there’s a couple of good stunts, the one where half a dozen of them get rescued off a ridge by a helicopter, tied to a rope, that’s very cool.

Watch This: The action scenes continue to be good, and also for manly men (and women) making tough choices and then paying for them 
Don’t Watch This: If you want them to examine what they’re doing in a greater context