LeeLoni

That said, it's a shame that Simon hasn't learned to sprinkle a little sugar on his harsh critiques. The servicemen of "Kill" are not a pleasant bunch to be around. There are hard-core Marines who didn't join for tuition money but because they wanted a piece of the action. They're second-string athletes itching to get in there and lay waste, and they bide their time lobbing racial slurs at one another and lusting over the grade-school girls who mail them letters of encouragement. The most fascinating of the bunch is Cpl. Ray Person (James Ransone, a former "Wire" denizen), a fount of filthy wisdom who posits that the Iraqis' unsatisfying sex lives are the catalyst for the war.

It's a tough sell to the American audience that has already proven its uninterest in depictions of the Iraq War, from underperforming documentaries like "No End in Sight" and "Taxi to the Dark Side" to Steven Bochco's 2005 dramatic series "Over There," which couldn't even muster a million viewers for its finale. At this point, everyone has a position on the war - you think it's a disaster or you don't - and there's more than enough daily news flotsam to fill the gaps. Plunging into a seven-hour series on the topic just seems like, well, overkill.

But "Kill" has an element that previous attempts have lacked: a proxy for the audience. Lee Tergesen (from HBO's "Oz") plays Evan Ross [sic], the real-life Rolling Stone contributor who's embedded with the battalion and wrote the acclaimed book on which the series is based. The Ross character mirrors all the reactions a viewer is likely to have: he's as baffled, revolted and depressed by what he sees as we are. For him, looking away isn't as easy as flicking at the remote. As engrossing as "Kill" can be, it's grim enough that most viewers won't be able to resist that impulse.

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Okay, the author obviously got EVAN WRIGHT's name wrong. And I think he could have been a little more generous by saying that because LEE looks baffled, revolted & depressed, he's doing a damn find job! Talk about a back-handed compliment. And yeah, if Lee hadn't been in it, I wouldn't have watched it either - well, no HBO to start, but also because I already read the book. And yeah, it's grim, but hell... it's war. I hope GK ends up getting the viewership that both the show and the topic deserve.

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x-posted to lee_love