The Fighting Season: Boots on the Ground during the 2014 Election

The 2014 Presidential election represented a major security challenge for the Coalition forces and the Kabul City Police Center (KCPC). A successful election would be an important step in the nation’s healing process, embarrassing the Taliban determined to undermine it. Top brass and the White House also would also be happy facilitate Karzai’s exit from public life. Viewers will watch U.S. Army units across the war-torn country risk their lives to protect Afghanistan’s fragile democratic institutions in The Fighting Season (promo here), which premieres tomorrow night on DirecTV’s Audience network.

Inconveniently, the election largely coincides with the so-called “Fighting Season,” a rather unfortunate tradition wherein Taliban terrorists take advantage of the spring thaw to come down from the mountains to cause death and destruction. The men of Bravo Company stationed near Forward Operating Base (FOB) Shank will try to stop such Jihadis before they reach Kabul. For those that slip thorough, special teams working for Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson will try to coach and reinforce the KCPC officers maintaining the three concentric rings of check-points known as Kabul’s “Ring of Steel.”

Based on the initial installment, the six part Fighting Season might be one of the best embedded, boots-on-the-ground documents of the Afghanistan Theater that has yet been produced for television. There will be real firefights, but the most compelling part of episode one is the messy uncertainty of intelligence-gathering and reconnaissance. A considerable difference in perspective emerges between Col. John Graham, who believes in face-to-face contact for winning over the Kabul citizenry, and his more battle-hardened task force colleagues, who are concerned about the security risks involved in his spontaneous approach. The problem is, viewers watching Season will be quickly convinced they are both right.

There is some amazing camera work in Season, including some night vision sequences that are so clear and easy to follow, one might think they were lifted from an action film. Executive producer Ricky Schroder’s voice-overs also perfectly suit the program. Instead of a silky smooth narrator, he sounds like enlisted man. It is also clear Schroder and the rest of the Season team respect the troops and believe in the War on Terror considerably more than Jeb Bush.

There is plenty of uncensored warfighting in Season, as well as the sort of salty language military personnel will use from time to time. It is real in a way that is really real, but it also gives a detailed look at the infrastructure and levels of command involved in each mission. Based on the first compelling episode, The Fighting Season is very highly recommended when it debuts tomorrow (5/19) on DirecTV’s Audience Network.

Goodnight for Justice: A Femme Fatale Rides Into Town

The Hon. John Goodnight is not exactly the Judge Dredd of the old west, but his skill with a sidearm can often cut down on the paperwork.  Nonetheless, he tries to dispense justice in accordance with the law, even if it is of a frontier variety.  This is both frustrating and endearing to a lady confidence artist on the run from a former mark in Goodnight for Justice: Queen of Hearts (promo here), which airs on the Hallmark Movie Channel this Saturday.

Goodnight has established a sterling reputation as a western circuit court judge, but it is a solitary life on the road.  Occupational hazards come with the job, but Goodnight can take care of himself.  He also starts taking care of Ms. Lucy Truffaut when her stage coach is attacked by Col. Cyril Knox (ret.) and his henchmen.  Actually, the stage was hired by the Pinkerton taking Ms. Truffaut to justice, but he will not live long enough to tell Goodnight that.  Instead, she will convince him she is an heiress pursued by would be kidnappers.  Her smooth talking charm and low cut dress are quite convincing, but it is only a matter of time before her story craters.  Knox is not giving up either, even if Goodnight is a judge.

It is always nice to see a new western produced for a major media outlet.  That said, Queen’s first two acts are sort of pokey and it features some of the dullest card games you will ever see on TV.  On the plus side, Luke Perry is clearly comfortable with his western franchise hero and he develops some nicely suggestive chemistry with Katharine Isabelle’s Truffaut.  Of course, this being Hallmark, it takes him a good long time to get any sugar out the deal.

Ricky Schroder (evidently he stopped fighting the “y”) wears the black hat quite well as Col. Knox, brooding and glowering with NYPD Blue intensity.  He has a good western look, which ought to serve him well in Wild Hearts, an upcoming contemporary western family drama he also directed and co-wrote for Hallmark (but sounds far too wholesome for any of us miscreants).

The annual GFJ tele-films are based on a solid premise, but Queen is a bit too jokey at times.  Director Martin Wood also could have cranked up the shootouts a tad.  At least there’s cleavage.  Recommended for western fans in need of a fix (and there are a lot of them out there) as well as fans of Isabelle (who is indeed a dynamic presence), Goodnight for Justice: Queen of Hearts premieres on the Hallmark Movie Channel this Saturday (1/26).