The Unit Season 1 – DVD Review
Creators:
David Mamet
Shawn Ryan (The Shield)
Eric L. Haney (Inside Delta Force)
Cast:
Dennis Haysbert ………. Jonas Blaine
Scott Foley ………. Bob Brown
Robert Patrick ………. Colonel Tom Ryan
Max Martini ………. Mack Gerhardt
Demore Barnes ………. Hector Williams
Michael Irby ………. Charles Grey
Regina Taylor ………. Molly Blaine
Audrey Marie Anderson ………. Kim “Nosy Bitch” Brown
Abby Brammell ………. Tiffy Gerhardt
Michael O’Neill ………. Ron Cheals
Gale Harold ………. Rory
Kavita Patil ………. Kayla
The Show:
David Mamet has done a few things in his life. Won a Pulitzer Prize for Glengarry Glen Ross, won an Oscar for The Verdict, and has published a few novels, poems and children’s stories. So there was really only a couple more mediums for him to conquer. Television was one of them, and along with his friend Shawn Ryan and former soldier Eric L. Haney, he set out to do so with The Unit.
The Unit is a group of special operators that has no official name and does not officially exist. They are technically known as the 303rd Logistical Studies Group, with the operators ostensibly being clerks and military logistics personnel. Their job? Basically, to perform whatever missions are asked of them, knowing that if they fail, the government will disavow any knowledge of them.
But this is only one half of the show. The other half shows the homefront, and how the wives and children of The Unit deal with life when their husbands are away on “training missions”. Mostly, this involves Kim Brown sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong and making a situation worse or stumbling onto a solution. It’s not as tedious as the “Veronica” segments of Prison Break, but to be honest, it’s something I could do with less of.
Episodes:
Disc One:
1-1, “First Responders”
Bob Brown joins The Unit, and he’s quickly dispatched to help a situation where terrorists have hijacked a plane. Meanwhile, Kim acts bitchy. Trust me, this is a trend.
1-2, “Stress”
Bob finds out that the team has left on a mission without him, and the FBI comes a callin’ to talk about what went down in “First Responders”. The team is having some issues with their mission – retrieving a downed Chinese military satellite in Africa, and not shooting the white guy. Kim? She tries to console a newly widowed neighbour, with predictable results.
1-3, “200th Hour”
Jonas gets sent to a solo mission to Indonesia. Ryan and the wives try to woo a senator who could help The Unit receive additional funding. And Bob shoots Mack during a training exercise.
1-4, “True Believers”
The Unit is assigned to protect the Mexican drug minister during his trip to Los Angeles. Unfortunately noone assigned them to take care of his family. A former Unit wife tries recruiting the team into the private sector. And Mack goes… hunting.
Disc Two:
1-5, “Non-Permissive Environment”
The team completes an assassination job in Spain. The only problem is, the job was cancelled and the message wasn’t relayed to them in time. Oops. So they have to go into “Evade and Escape” mode, which is a bit difficult since the authorities have their names and pictures on file. On the home front, Jonas’ daughter decides to drop out of school.
1-6, “Security”
The Unit is assigned to insert a listening device near the Iranian ambassador, but things go awry when Brown isn’t let into the facility. Colm “O’Brien” Meaney’s got a role in this one, if it makes any difference for you. Meanwhile, Ryan gives a lecture to the wives of The Unit. And Kim stumbles onto Tiffy doing something suspicious.
1-7, “Dedication”
Bravo Team gets caught behind enemy lines, and Jonas makes a decision to rescue them over completing the team’s mission. At Fort Griffith, Jonas’ former team leader, Cheals, has returned, but he’s got some anger issues stemming from being paralyzed. And Kim applies for a job, but her tryout requires her to get a check from a strip club.
1-8, “SERE”
The team goes on a training mission (for real this time) when they head to SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) for training on how to resist torture. Kim finds her daughter praying, and all hell breaks loose in Fort Griffith. Okay, not really. If there’s one episode of this show that you watch, I suggest that you make it this one. Although if you FF the Fort Griffith stuff, no biggie.
Disc Three:
1-9, “Eating the Young”
The team heads to Brazil, where a drug lord is selling SAMs and using children as guards. Hector faces a different challenge – meeting his girlfriend’s parents, and resisting the urge to tell them what he actually does for a living. Kim, of course, sticks her nose into other people’s business and ends up leading a coup of the Family Readiness Group. Seriously.
1-10, “Unannounced”
Bob experiences some trouble protecting the Secretary of State in Africa. Kim has some problems with car payments and Jonas helps her out in TOC (nice touch with the “303rd” mug). Molly makes a deal but finds out that she’s the victim of a scam. And Kim answers the phone at the radio station (when she probably shouldn’t) and ends up almost being raped because of it. You can call me cold if you want, but this was the only time this season I felt sympathetic towards her.
1-11, “Exposure”
It’s the Unit’s annual “Day of the Dead” celebration, and a young man arrives wanting to know the truth about what happened to his father. So we end up with what amounts to a flashback story featuring Blane, Ryan and Cheals. But is it really the truth? Bob has an issue with a Unit widow who propositions him (apparently, it’s within the rules during the Day of the Dead). Meanwhile, Molly sets out on her own to find the woman who conned her (in the previous episode).
1-12, “Morale, Welfare and Recreation”
Bob and Kim go on vacation, and Kim is pissed when she finds out that it’s actually a cover for a mission. But surprisingly, being a nosy bitch actually helps this time around. Meanwhile, the rest of Alpha squad get to defuse a bomb in Atlanta, to the chagrin of the FBI.
Disc Four:
1-13, “The Wall”
Jonas discovers that he and Molly are broke thanks to the house scam, as Molly tries to convince him to go into private industry (as seen in “True Believers”). The Unit is assigned to assist the French in the arrest of a former Yugoslav general (considering there’s no more Yugoslavia, isn’t calling him “former” redundant?), but feel betrayed when the French general goes contrary to the plan. Kim also feels betrayed when she finds out the truth about Tiffy, but I’m beyond caring about her at this point. And Colonel Ryan gets married, which leads to an explosive finish to the season.
The DVD:
Video:
(1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen enhanced)
The colours look really good. Blacks blend in with the bars. I thank whatever people decided to start airing television shows in widescreen. Personally, I think they should have given the field missions more of a “washed out”
Audio:
(English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround)
The explosions sound pretty good, but I think you can find better things to test your speakers with.
Special Features:
Audio Commentary – Shawn Ryan, Eric L. Haney and Demore Barnes (hey, how’d a Canadian get into The Unit?) on “SERE”.
Inside Delta Force – It’s like an EPK, but with swearing.
Summary: Perhaps it’s because of the many, many procedurals that CBS has, but I found this show to be refreshing in that everything has to have believability, and doesn’t exactly rely on flashy technology and FX to keep you interested. If you’re trying to figure out what happened in the season premiere last week, this is a good place to start figuring things out.
