Season 1, Episode 4
Date of airing: May 11, 1988 (ABC)
Nielsen ratings information: 16.0 million viewers, 14.0 rating/24 share in Households
Written by: Ann Donahue
Directed by: Rod Holcomb
”Those are cotton swaps.”
“They're on hold.”
“I need them for my pedicure.”
“This guy needs them to clean his rifle.”
This was an episode that wanted to be all about helicopter shots. Some characters lift off in one, others land in one, and women ride in one and feel the hard wind on their faces as they cruise at high speeds over the rivers and forests of Vietnam. For a show filmed in the 1980s, the helicopter shots were great to look at – besides, I still find it neat that the show decided to take as many moments as possible to show off the helicopters in action. Even if the crash of one in this episode felt rather ridiculous. It's getting shot at by a lone gunman in the bushes, and it immediately crashes. And the scene in which the chopper landed in the trees looked rather cheap for a stunt, albeit careful, considering Hollywood and helicopters don't have that much of a good relationship (you can thank John Landis for that).
The notion of a group of soldiers camping in the woods without any form of leadership or command structure was of great interest to me. Just a bunch of kids who probably went nuts after experiencing Vietnam and the deaths of their friends. I would have loved it if the show had focused a little more on them, because there is an intriguing story hiding behind the notion of some G.I.s being so broken that they don't know what is happening any longer, and they don't care that their Captain is a mythical figure whose name gets around. Not to mention that it was a story showcasing what Vietnam does to the soldiers there: It breaks their minds.
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| Fishing for a bomb inside a body – a standard China Beach procedure. |
