ConservativeINC

Obviously I was ecstatic when this show it the air a couple of years ago. The first season (The Unit - The Complete First Season) and the second season (The Unit - The Complete Second Season) were in my top five favorite shows. And, you know what, even though I think the show is going to a bad place it will remain in my top five for as long as its on because it is a well-made show with a great cast portraying the bravest men who are alive doing what they do.

What bothers me about this show is that, starting last year, it has moved leftward. One of the episodes featured the ex-president (papa bad ass on the show) from 24 aborting his mission because he didn’t want to assassinate a South American who was using the government to take control over American oil interests. It is portrayed as if this guy was doing this because he really cared about “his” people, but come on.

Jump to the season finale from last year and the Unit, the name for Delta Force, is either on the lamb, imprisoned, or working for the CIA. The government is working to take down the Unit because who knows what. Furthermore, a bit of kook-conspiracy is bandied about. Now, I might differ from you on this because I love conspiracies on television shows. One of my favorite shows was The X-Files specifically because it was one big conspiracy theory.

The specific conspiracy theory is that the same six families have controlled the United States since the beginning. Nothing really new here, I guess, there are probably more conspiracies about families controlling the world then you can count.

And I don’t think that matters. It is still a great show that has me riveted every week. What else can you ask for? I learned a long time ago that, unless the movie or show is egregious, the political leaning does not really matter to me. Now, if the end of the premiere episode leads to a very bad place, maybe like the United States being responsible for what was found, I might have something different to say. But until then, it is still definitely in my top five.

If my words don’t convince you, here’s what Jonah Goldberg, Michael Goldfarb, and a college student who ferried the lefty - Delta Force operator - creator, Eric Haney, around has to say about The Unit:

Jonah Goldberg posts two comments today in response to Tuesday’s season premiere of The Unit on CBS. I’ve been a big fan of the show for its last two seasons. It’s not great television and there is no real substance to it. But it is highly entertaining, and for two years it has been hands down the most pro-military show on prime-time television. The cast was routinely called upon to carry out assassinations of Muslim terrorists, and even staged a covert mission into Iran last season. But the season premier included what was obviously an extremely awkward moment for much of the show’s audience–myself included–when the wife of the unit’s CO remarks:

America is controlled by 6 families and always has been, sometimes they inter-marry and sometimes they hire out to especially gifted people and on rare occasion allow in someone who shows exceptional potential.

The accusation is absurd, (I assume the Clinton and Bush families would be counted among them, who are the other four?), but I didn’t take it at face value. The woman who utters this is the most loathsome character on the show, bordering on mentally unstable, and the delusional charge only reinforces her status as the show’s baddie (she made another character take the fall for her DUI last season). But one of Jonah’s readers thinks there might be more to it:

One of the speakers that we booked last year was Eric Haney, author of Inside Delta Force and the director and creator of The Unit. I spent multiple hours with Command Sergeant Major Haney (drove him from Dulles to W&L and back) and quickly found out that he has an ax to grind with conservatives and the US government. While he gave many years of honorable service to the US Army, he is unapologetically left wing, believes the Iraq War absolutely heinous, and that Islam is not the problem. You would never know his political views from the first two seasons of The Unit which is why I was painfully surprised to learn of them upon bringing him to campus. That being said, I wasn’t surprised to watch this season’s premier of The Unit. It is truly unfortunate that the only veterans Hollywood seems to embrace are those that march to their political drumbeat. The statement by Colonel Ryan’s wife, quoted in your Corner post, accurately reflects the ideology that drives Command Sergeant Major Haney, an ideology that apparently is going to be at the forefront of this season’s storylines. Command Sergeant Major Haney’s service as an American soldier is nothing short of heroic and it saddens me to see such a hero blinded by the intellectual desert that is modern liberalism.

I’m still dubious that the show would run away from its audience like that. Last season closed with the unit on the run from the U.S. government, but again, I’d always assumed this would somehow be revealed as necessary sacrifice for the greater good. But if the show really is heading in another direction, I suspect its audience will as well.

I hope Mr. Goldfarb is right. It’s a great show and needs to stay that way. BigT

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