The Morning After: Gen Kill, Week Two

HBO photo: Paul Schiraldi

So how many people have stuck with Generation Kill past the first episode? A full to-do list prevents me from doing a full Watch treatment this week, but if the miniseries seems to have a following here, I'll take a crack at the later episodes.

One big media phenomenon of the Iraq War that I was intrigued to see show up in the miniseries was that of soldier's videotaping their own exploits. Not long after YouTube launched, videos started appearing, raw or edited with music, of firefights and assaults. Just so in Generation Kill, we see Marines taking their own video as they roll through a city taking fire: "CNN would definitely pay for drama like that, bra! That sh_t was extreme!" Not only are these soldiers saturated with pop culture, they're shooting their own movie as they go.