Accelerating Your Life

I have recently become mildly addicted to a new reality show.

Now, before I go any further I should probably point out that as a rule, I don't generally watch much television, and when I do, it is rarely reality based. That isn't to say there aren't some quality programs out there, but they are few and far between. Typically, if I have spare time it goes into the endless black hole of books I still haven’t read, or endless pages I still haven’t written. So when I do sacrifice my time on the pyre of television, I usually need it to count for something; which leaves reality television and I odd bedfellows.

I must submit that the obsession in the United States with reality television generally isn't a good thing (in my humble opinion). I agree with comedian-politico Bill Maher when he asserted that it was a really bad idea for us to see ourselves without the veneer we tend to hide behind. Such programming shows us for the narcissistic, peevish, petty, stupid and inhumane creatures into which we can so often degenerate. So rarely does reality television provide us with examples of our better natures—just as the headlines rarely report on the man who donates blood or the woman who volunteers at the soup kitchen.

Sure, there are examples. But for every needy family helped by Ty Pennington’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition, there are millions who vicariously participate in a gladiatorial-like Colosseum match on American Idol, turning thumbs up or down as though some significant act would ultimately be set into motion by such bread and circuses. And when more people have voted in recent television king-making programs than have voted in national presidential elections, the empire may indeed be coming to an end.

But there must be exceptions to every rule, and PBS’s Carrier falls neatly into this narrow but deserving category. This ten hour series recently premiered on local PBS stations across the US, and I’ve become an addict. This is in part because had I ever joined the military, it would have been the Navy. But mostly it is good television, and good television is, in my thinking, always about human drama. It just happens that in this case the drama is real, and the characters are people who are risking their lives for us (regardless of what circumstances have placed them in harm’s way).

And Carrier does what you might not expect. It talks about all the military’s dirty secrets and humanizes them in a way I wasn’t sure possible; not only because the Navy had some say in what was aired, but also because it would have been very easy to tip the scales on many current issues in a partisan direction. Carrier avoids these pitfalls, while still talking about all the things that challenge the lives of a crew 5,000 strong.

You see them homesick and missing family. You see what happens when they don’t have a home to come back to. You see them dealing with fraternization amongst the crew. You see their endless hours of work in dangerous circumstances, where one wrong move can get them and their brothers and sisters killed in a heartbeat. You see the dealing with their personal views of the war on terror (in both extremes). You see them struggling with women’s position in the military, and Clinton’s ill-advised policy on don’t ask, don’t tell. And ultimately, you see what ordinary citizens do to become extraordinary, transforming themselves in the crucible of patriotism to become something noble--in spite of their own personal weaknesses and doubts--and in so doing they find the strength to risk everything for uber-liberals who will never thank them or support them, and for uber-conservatives who use them as a human shield for ideological advancement. And I hope that somewhere in the middle, they are given the peace, purpose, and praise they so richly deserve.

I highly recommend tuning in to your local PBS station or watching all 10 episodes online. For me, it was an education in patriotism. It is quite moving, and for reality television, uniquely uplifting. And in the event that this is read by anyone in the military in general, or by anyone from the crew of the USS Nimitz in specific, I hope I speak for everyone in Triskelos in saying thank you.

Thank you not only for sharing a difficult part of your life with America, but also for what you did while you were there.

As a side note, several of the people the series followed most closely have YouTube, MySpace, and/or Facebook things going on where people have been in contact with them after the show, primarily to thank them for what they did. I guess I had two favorite crewmembers, Chris Altice and Randy Brock. They had a hard go of it, and for me they went a long way toward making the show very human.

Below is the first installment in Chris Altice's video blog on YouTube. After watching the show I find it funny--he has Cuthbert's fauxhawk.