Double-check the TiVo machine, tie a string around your finger, and send an email to yourself. Generation Kill, the new show by The Wire masterminds David Simon and Ed Burns debuts on HBO tonight. Don’t subscribe to HBO? Just head on over to a friend’s place that does…making sure to pick up some Long John Silver’s take-out as your battered bartering tool. Don’t have any friends? Drown your sorrows in some Long John Silver’s take-out anyway.
The mini-series, which is based on Evan Wright’s book of the same name, is about a reporter that is embedded with a group of Marines at the start of the Iraq invasion. The show focuses on the relationships between the under-equipped soldiers and is, supposedly, a-political. Hard to believe that last bit considering Simon’s involvement. Anything that Simon or Burns touch becomes appointment television, and the early reviews (here, here, and also here) for the show bring good news. Herc over at AICN has seen every episode and loved.
The show, which features a ton of unknown faces, stars Lee Tergesen (who you may remember from HBO’s prison yarn Oz or as Chett in the TV version of Weird Science) as author Wright. Wire actor James Ransone (he played the weasely Ziggy Sobotka on the show’s second season) is picking up good notices as an elegantly jaded corporal. The pricey show is set to run for seven episodes. Simon is currently working on another show for HBO, set in New Orleans. It’s nice to see HBO being smarties and staying in business with the guy.