I was never in the military but my father, my oldest son, my best friend and several other family members were. I’ve also absorbed a lot of military reading for almost 50 years now. I know enough that most TV shows with a military theme will elicit at least a couple of “eye rolls” during an average episode, some more than a couple (ahem… “The Last Ship”).

Anyway, I say all that to say this: “Seal Team” on CBS has been thus far (early in season 2) the most authentic, non eye roll inducing military themed TV show I can recall watching. It's not perfect but it is, IMO, really good.

Anyone else watch it and if so what is your opinion? Especially those of you with military service backgrounds.

Zero background, but I am impressed with the show. I like the interaction, and they are not superheroes.

I just looked at the cast list and the only actor I recognized is the guy from "Bones".

I actually thought the Last Ship on board operation scenes seemed very realistic to me as an Army Brat knowing nothing of the Navy.
I enjoy Seal Team and agree that they seem to really be trying to get things right.

My question is to those who have watched Strike Back on Cinemax (and now Amazon), I really enjoy the scenes between the two leads.
Do you think they are doing a good job of not going overboard on the action scenes and are they getting it right?

David, I loved Strikeback! The coolest thing is that the Lead actors had to suffer SAS Training, because SAS were consulting. And it shows. They way they reload, bound and cover, handle weapons...

With The Last Ship the thing that got me was the computer displays on the bridge and in CIC showing Ham Radio Deluxe, software for controlling ham radios, I know because I use it myself to control my Yaseu FT895 radio.

As for Strikeback we are getting a re-run of the first season of it again here in Belgium just now, I missed Richard Armitage in the later seasons. Robson Green in Strike back always struck me as funny as he played Fusilier Dave Tucker in Soldier Soldier which was another quite good military "soap" which ran for 7 seasons, he must have done well to get promoted up to light colonel looks like Strike Back is getting filmed for a 7th series just now and due for a 2019 release.

The other series that was on UK TV was Ultimate Force, another Chris Ryan series.

Chris Ryan of SAS Bravo Two Zero fame also had a small acting part in some episodes as Sgt. Johnny Bell of Blue troop

TLS started off pretty good, but as they stretched it out and kept looking for another story to tell and to up the ante on battles etc. it got ridiculous. A captain doesn't leave his ship and lead tactical raids on shore targets, nor does an admiral yet Chandler did so constantly. The communications on the bridge etc. did sound good but their weapons employment was fantasy at times. Firing the 5" gun that is frozen in elevation/traverse and aiming manually, not going to happen. Never explaining how some south american nation got possession of an Iowa class battleship? That same battleship scoring first round hits on Nathan James from beyond visual range? The ridiculous last scene, ramming and explosion etc.

I am watching on Amazon here in the US and not knowing who the heck Richard Armitage was playing in the series went to check Wiki and what I am seeing as season 1 on Amazon is actually season 2!

I guess I need to track down Chris Ryan's Strike Back

I had no clue who Armitage was until I saw the Hobbit films!

Thanks guys following this thread I got interested in this show..Outside of fixing my computer I kind of stay at a low tech level no wireless or streaming but broke down and figured out the on demand thing and watching an episode from last month and like I ame Of Throwns grabbed me right away Usually I just watch history,,The military Channel American Heroes or TCM..I'd rather be simming or war gaming..OK on the second show ,,good recomendation,,going to tear the guts out of flying..I don't do cell phones or wire less and usually have the TV on classic rock when I'm flying,,good Show..for meI especially like to check out the modern gear,,I remember when a radio was a big brick on my back

I'm still waiting for my royalty checks!

I actually started to watch "SEAL Team," but didn't get past the first episode's opening minutes with that guy in counseling--because I had seen shows like "Six" and similar shows and they were so annoying to me (eye rolls) that I couldn't have the faith to stick it out for the rest of "SEAL Team."

Now that I see this thread, I am very intrigued. I may have to go back and check it out. What I really enjoyed was "The Unit" before it got canned due to the unpopularity of its subject matter in the court of public opinion--and that was more authentic than most. So I hope this picks up on that.

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I assure you, that didn't last long.

Great show, highly recommend it to anyone who is into the genre

"SEAL Team" is probably my favorite show on network television right now. Definitely recommend if you haven't seen it yet!

Also, one of the recurring supporting actors and technical advisers on the show, Tyler Grey is actually a former Delta Force operator:

Cool, did not know that!

I happen to see this thread posted on the right, so I felt obligated to mention two other modern military dramas / action shows.

They only made one season last year, but they are quality shows, I promise

VALOR https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6503244/

and

THE BRAVE. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6461736/

I thought the Brave was better than the Seal Team tv show, Anyway I watched all these and loved them. (The Seal Team as said is a continued show).


EDIT:
What was the name of the movie a few years ago that starred actual Military Personnel? (The name is escaping me, it was a good movie too)

https://www.military.com/undertheradar/2017/09/former-army-ranger-tyler-grey-working-seal-team


"I have worked on a ton of military film and TV projects. On every other show or movie project that I've ever been involved with, it's always started with a studio or a big producer. It starts with somebody in Hollywood going, “Hey, I want to make this show about the military,” regardless of unit, service, whatever. And then it kind of trickles down from the top. Usually, the script is written before they even get someone with military experience involved.

I've been working on SEAL Team since the pilot. At the very beginning, it started with someone from the military with prior service who wanted to make something about Special Operations. The start was with a veteran and not the other way around. That’s very rare.

SEAL Team also has four full-time advisors. I worked on a 200 million dollar movie that had just three, to give you an example. They’ve really allowed more veteran involvement than I've ever seen or heard of. I don’t know 100 percent that’s it’s the most, but I know people who worked on a million things and talked to people about a million projects and I've never heard of more veteran involvement on any military project.

At the end of the day it's a TV show, but the goal to capture the authenticity of what the military, what these continuous deployments are like and what it's like to be deployed and come back home."

Act Of Valor is the film.

Thats it! Thank You RossUK.

WEll I finally saw the pilot since it was still on my DVR. Not too bad. ALthough the bad boy SEAL was kinda cliche. But I would keep watching, except that all of season 1 you have to buy! So probably not going to happen for a while until it shows up on some streaming site.

I saw mention of Strike Back. I really enjoyed that show, from the "prequel" with Andrew Lincoln of "Walking Dead" fame to the multiple seasons of Damien and Stonebridge. I liked the fresh air of seeing SpecOps from the British point of view. I also found it interesting that an American actor plays the Brit and a British actor plays the American. I saw the latest season where they have a whole new team and some female members (the blonde Captain is quite the looker, and the Aussie's fight scene in the hallway was very sexy)...but it's not quite the same. I'll probably continue watching the next season though.

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