Whether we have seen it or not, we have all heard of The Wire at some point. Considered by many as the best series in television history, watching it in 2024 can be a daunting task for viewers because it is a very ensemble portrayal with a hyper-realistic slow pace that makes no concessions to the person in front of the screen, but if you are curious to know the work of its creator, David Simon, there is a miniseries in Max's catalog ideal for that.

In 2008, the same year in which The Wire ended, HBO released Generation Kill, a seven-episode war miniseries set in the Iraq War and based on real events compiled by journalist Evan Wright as an embedded reporter in the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion of the United States Marine Corps during the initial phase of the invasion of Iraq.

Wright traveled as a reporter for Rolling Stones magazine to do a report and spent two months living with the Marines. After an initial hostility, he managed to earn their trust and was treated as one of them, he had total access and experienced dangerous situations more than once. The series recounts his first-hand experience accompanying the marines to Baghdad.

The report entitled 'The Killer Elite' won the Excellence Award in the year of its publication and had a great impact, even leading to the ruin of the reputation and careers of some high-ranking officials in that battalion.

Why you should watch it

Ed Burns and David Simon showed with The Wire that they are capable of recreating reality like no one else. This was their next project after that emblematic series, a story in which they once again call into question the chain of command, while following a group of marines during the 40 days it took them to reach Baghdad in the Iraq War.

With the mix of boredom and excitement before combat, plus the helplessness of discovering that the mission for which they risk their lives is devoid of any meaning, the viewer travels with an elite group at the service of inept leaders. A wartime road movie that shows us how chaotic and absurd war is, no matter what it is called.

Opting for realism

The miniseries was shot over six months, from mid to late 2007, in South Africa, Mozambique, and Namibia with a budget of 56 million dollars and an emphasis on the realism of production design.

In pursuit of that realism, for Generation Kill no original music was composed nor are songs included in its soundtrack. However, acapella songs sung by the characters are used diegetically to illustrate the pop culture of the time.

*This article has been automatically translated using artificial intelligence