Whats happened to the Unit?
 

Its like my favorite show, but Ive noticed changes. At first, the show did great with realism, but now, it seems a comletely different style, and there more concerned with body count. Jonas even had a fight where he didnt take cover and there was even a sniper missing from about 100 yards. Bob took out like 8 guys witha handgun. The overall feel of the show is different too. Plus the spear of destiny episode which was just out of place, like how the monks didnt really exist?BTW, anyone know if its coming back for another season?

I did notice the change in some of the realism in the story, but I guess the producers of the show wished for the characters to start racking up a higher body count and be perfect shots with their handguns at long ranges.

The spear of destiny episode was a bit out of placed and I don't know when the next season is coming out

Yeah, I'm of the same mind with the spear of destiny episode. Definitely my least favorite. And I have been noticing the degrading level of realism. I love the show and hate to say it, but I think it's spiraling downhill.

Ah well, I have seasons 1,2, & 3 on DVD (still going to grab up 4 when it comes out, of course), so I can get my Unit fix whenever I need it. :D

What made it spiral though? New writers? Did the military advisor quit or something?

Could be a lot of things, more than likely there was a showrunner/producer change of some sort happening. Maybe Mamet has disconnected himself from the show to the point of not caring anymore.

I hope not. I like the show even if it's not spot on every week. It's still heads and tails above a lot of other shows.

I heard it was "on the bubble" meaning it's not been renewed or cancelled yet. This is the third season in a row it's been on the bubble though, so who knows.

Could be what happened with Ultimate Force, except this is a more noticable change than a sudden change

I just want to see the old style, without 100 yard kimber shots and 1 guy taking out like 10 bad guys, i love the older episodes where they had more of a creative way to complete the mission using good tactics and teamwork over just shooting eveyone in sight.

yeah the hitting a guy so far away and it's a kill shot was kinda stupid

It was cancelled, unfortunately. Another good show gone. I wonder If they had kept their realism if this would have happened? It may not have made a difference, apparently CBS wants "Sexy, Flashy shows"

Piss on CBS. They're too stupid to realize The Unit is the definition of a "sexy, flashy show". They're gonna regret canceling when the show's 9 million fans quit watching CBS.

But that's another great show down the hole, just like you said. It was the only one I ever looked forward to all week. I'll be glad when they release the Season 4 DVD set.

Hopefully some of the actors who had this as their first major role get on new shows.

I have to admit that I used to be into "The Unit" but didn't really watch much of this last season. It had the same problem that "Ultimate Force" had, which was that it got progressively less realistic while the writing got worse.

I'm starting to think that it's almost impossible to do mil-themed TV shows with longevity.

Yeah it did seem they cared more about a body count. And cool looking, unrealistic tactics. They would have a supressed rifle or subgun for 100 yard shots, not a kimber.

CBS is now saying they want to rack in young viewers and they thought everyone watching The Unit was old.....They want shows with attractive young people and lots of flash....whatever show replaces The Unit is an automatic boycott for me.

The actors on the Unit weren't that old, say for Robert Patrick and even Dennis Haysbert has that mature solid look to him. How's that bad? Does CBS need more soaps and teen dramas? I though networks nowadays are beyond the usual teen highschool or college bullshit shows.

But anyway, one thing I noticed the Unit being a bit more genetic is the weapons loadout of their M4. In the beginning to the 3rd season, we see their M4s with little accessories on them, but when we got to season 4, suddenly they had...i forgot the name of those boxes, AIM or AQ something. The laser aiming devices we see all the time, foregrips, and sights. It used to be just a ACOG or some other kind of sight and that's it. Now their gear had one too many attachments on them.

The epsiodes where we see just handguns and hitting a target at a distant where a rifle would have trouble and when the enemy targets are moving is very unbelievable.

It is a shame to see the Unit gone, but it's a surprise it lasted this long. The first season was only meant to be a mid season replacement with only 13 episodes.

I'm going to miss the show because it was probably the only weekly TV program that had it's characters making very hard choices, and didn't go overboard on the drama. Well, until this season anyway.

I mean that on the soldier side of the show. I just ignored, and often FF'd through the crap with the wives.

There were some great storylines where the operators had to do terrible things but managed to maintain a heroic presence.

This last season, after the unit had it's cover with the phony airplane company, and most of the nonsense with Grey's "wife" was less than great.

Still, I'll miss the show.

There is always the military channel. :)

The studio suits want MORE REALITY TV, like "Big Brother" "Survivor" etc. They want the hip young KIDS watching and don't want anyone else. That's pretty much the 'scuttlebutt' around the business.

Television shows that have a narrative and are more expensive to film (all action based shows are more expensive than a 'talky' show that takes place in one location) are ALL endangered species right now.

I know this for a fact. A lot of MY work has been impacted because of all these execs moving into senior positions who LOVE reality TV like "MTV's Real world" and "Pro Wrestling" over everything else.

TV is going to suck even more from now on. Just curious. So a question to our younger members, how many of your peers fall into this vapid category of only liking reality TV shows that deal with 'relationship drama'? (like the Bachelor, etc.?)

I don't know if 25 is your idea of "younger", but I can't stand reality TV (we get enough reality in real life). I never liked "Real World" and I watched one episode (the very first one) of "Survivor: China" but never watched again after that.

I don't really know ANYONE who watches that shit. I know I barely watch any myself (I did watch some "American Idol" this season, only because Anoop Desai, one of the contestants, went to high school with me). Even most of the girls I knew in college, who I would think are the biggest demographic for reality shows, actually liked "24" better than "The Bachelor". But then, I went to college with girls who were actually pretty smart.

I think what you said is accurate - talk shows and reality TV are being made more often simply because they're cheaper to make. Most of those shows are considered successful if they have only half a million viewers, whereas a show like "The Unit" needs to have at least 2-3 million viewers to be considered even moderately successful.

I've always thought Haysbert was a little too old to play an operator, let alone a Sergeant-Major, period. Not that I'm not a fan of his acting, but the dude's almost 55 in real life. At his age, he should be playing a General or something.

Actually, that's one of my pet peeves about Hollywood in general - pretty much all actors playing U.S. soldiers look way too old to play the ranks they're depicting. Like the "privates" who are always in their 30s...

Jonas Blane was an awesome character though. I actually liked most of the characters. The new guy didn't seem that cool but he was only in a few episodes.

Yeah, the new guy McBride coulda been a great part of the team but they didnt do much with him other than have him be a deep under cover agent. They had Hector killed in the 3rd season and Grey didn't show up for half of season 4

Well, Sam definitely had me fooled with his cover. And I was really looking forward to seeing how things played out between Ryan and Sullivan after Sam's attacking the latter, too. Damn you, CBS.

So does anybody have any favorite episodes that stand out from among the others for you?

My personal favorites are episodes 7 & 8 of season 4, "Into Hell" pts 1 & 2 (when Jonas' daughter was taken POW in Iraq and taken to Syria). Can't really say particularly why, but I enjoyed them the most out of the series. Maybe it's because I liked how their M4s were configured or something, I don't know. :D Might seem like a dumb reason, but whatever.

I forgot which episode it was, but one of my favorites was in season 2 where the team was in the middle east somewhere, they captured a local tribe leader for questioning, but unfortunately, the tribe leader's entire army comes after him, so the team held up at some army check point for a day holding the enemy off. It was the first and only episode I saw the Cheyenne Tactical M-200 Intervention. The episode had 2 of them.

"Dark of the Moon", from Season 2.

Yeah, that was a good one.

That one almost ade me go deaf there was so much gunplay.......awesome episode.