Question: Someone wrote in recently about there not being any shows on the air that have a lead character of color, even in an ensemble show, and you said you couldn't think of any, either. I can think of at least one, and it happens to be one of my very favorites: The Unit. Jonas (Dennis Haysbert) is very much the lead character of that ensemble cast, and a fantastic one at that. Please don't overlook this excellent show: It wouldn't be the same without Dennis Haysbert's Jonas Blaine. He is the star.
Answer: No argument. The Unit is less a classic ensemble drama than a military action adventure with a strong domestic component, but there's no question about Haysbert being the authority figure. Ditto for Regina Taylor as the spiritual den mother. And I missed another one in this discussion, as Jennifer reminds me: "While I won't argue that there should be more minority casting, I did want to point out that a major network has built an ensemble around a minority actor: Ugly Betty. That
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I've been traveling the last week and a half from L.A. to Dallas to Atlanta and back. Still working off little sleep, I find myself daydreaming. I used to walk and talk in my sleep when I was a child. Would wake up and find myself out of my bed, down the stairs in the living room on my rocking horse, or other places. I've done it a couple of times as an adult, had conversations with friends on the phone that I don't recall and waking up in a different room. I wake up slightly disconnected for the rest of the day. Having roamed while asleep, I then dream while I'm awake. I associate travel with dreaming. Fall into a reverie on trains and planes. When I come to, I'm in another city, another time zone, and sometimes feeling that no time or space has passed at all.I was in Atlanta last Tuesday when CBS aired The Unit's double-header evening of "Sub-Conscious" and "Johnny B Good." "Sub-Conscious," written by Daniel Voll, explores the dreams of unit wife Kim Brown (played by Audrey Marie ...
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CBS' The Unit is back from holiday hiatus with a new episode [airing this Tuesday at 9 pm/ET]. In "The Broom Cupboard," the unit is assigned to protect a Texas senator who is touring in a hostile country. And Jonas is given a secret assignment by the president, played by William H. Macy, while Molly, Kim and Tiffy plan a surprise for Crystal.I spent the holidays back in Dallas. I love taking long walks every day through my neighborhood. Rolling hills and wide open sky. I think that limitless horizon inspires a body to dream — I can’t help but to wander off on your own way. I remember as a child catching hell a few times for being a little “off the beaten track,” but I got Texas grit in my veins.... I kept stepping. Sometimes you have to make your own individual path.Audrey Marie “Hepburn” Anderson knows about that sky. She’s another fellow Texan from Fort Worth. Audrey is eclectic. An inventive cook and a great photographer, she makes her own funky...
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"Silver Star," the episode of The Unit [Tuesdays at 9 pm/ET, on CBS] that airs Dec. 12, has Jonas and Molly going home to Jonas' parents. The occasion is Jonas' father finally being awarded the Silver Star for his heroic actions in Korea. While at the family gathering, Jonas' nephew — a soldier recently returned from combat and suffering from post-traumatic-stress disorder — acts cowardly in beating his pregnant wife. Jonas steps in with some rough justice and tough love. In the process, he shares his dad's story, taking us back to the hero who did not receive a hero's welcome, as Jonas' father, a colored man in uniform, travels with his son down south in the US of A, 1952. At the TOC, Mac tries to help a mysterious passenger (Ed O'Neill) on a private jet in restricted airspace, who is trying to land the plane after the pilot dies at the control board.The JumpThis past month, Michael Irby, Robert Patrick and Scott Foley jumped with the U.S. Army parachute team, Tthe Gold...
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In The Unit episode "Bait," which airs Nov. 28, Jonas is bound and thrown into a room with a bag over his head, and his captors are about to draw his last blood. He proves himself to be Houdini, however, by persuading them that he's more valuable to them alive than dead. Houdini, master of illusion and escape — we never know who's the rabbit and who's the fox. Jonas manipulates his captors to have them videotape him with their terms of release. As he reads their demands, he secretly signals to his comrades back home. He pulls more than one rascally rabbit out of his hat in order to escape, only to be captured and returned, bound and tortured. Meanwhile, Washington suits aren't interested in negotiations, so Colonel Ryan has to perform his own sleight of hand — before our Houdini runs out of rabbits.On the home front, Colonel Ryan's wife, Charlotte, who was shot at the end of last season's finale, is now hooked on pain meds. Driving under the influence, she wrecks another w...
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In the Nov. 21 episode "Report by Exception," Jonas is assigned to go to Latin America to assassinate an oil minister with the support of a "cover wife." He is tempted by the charms of his new partner. Meanwhile, his real wife, Molly, takes a personal interest in Crystal, whose boyfriend Molly has recruited as a driver in Algeria. Crystal voices both of their insecurities when she asks how Molly copes with not knowing "Where he is, what he's doing, if he's OK. And is he even thinking of you? Maybe he's shacking up with some other woman. Or he's laying dead on the side of a desert road. How do you not think about those things?" Molly's reply: "I don't go there." Succinct.The answer is insufficient for the newly initiated Crystal. Molly can't find the words to share what she knows. There is this wall between Unit husband and wife. He can never share what goes on when he's away. Where he's been or with whom or how he spends his days — typical parts of sharing in a typical marriag...
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Question: I read with interest the comments on the way the wives in The Unit are considered Stepford Wives, because I have been a military spouse now for 21 years and I have to say The Unit pretty much hits the mark as far as being true to life. I am just speaking as a general military spouse and not one assigned to a special unit, so just from what I have experienced, I can totally imagine how much more intense it is for the wife of someone in that situation. I think the main problem is that the general public has no idea what it is like to live the military life. It certainly isn't for everyone. I applaud The Unit for showing both sides of the story, because for many years the family side was not shown, and while it isn't as dangerous as the members' side, it is just as stressful to have to live.
Answer: Thanks for sharing. The more I watch The Unit, the more I think "Stepford Wives" isn't quite fair to the characterization of these women (especially the Regina Taylor character, but
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The UnitSo I wasn't wowed by last week's premiere, I must say. A little clunky, a tad far-fetched, Dennis Haysbert shot a mule — in fact, the complete opposite of last night's episode. The new episode's pace was tight, the situations slightly more believable and not a single beast of burden was shot or otherwise maimed, which I call a good day. (Yeah, the mule thing really stuck with me.)
There was the bang-bang piece, sure — Jonas and the boys hunting down your run-of-the-mill radioactive weapon on the Serengeti and running into a wanted terrorist — but it was the home-front scenes that really made last night sizzle. You had the FBI guy all up in Bob's face trying to get him to rat out his team re: the airplane rescue — which, of course, he didn't. And don't forg
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The UnitYou know, I started out the evening fairly confident that I wouldn't see anybody shoot a mule, and along comes The Unit to prove me wrong. Note to self: When bearing a load in Afghanistan, do as Dennis Haysbert says. That's pretty much the gist of this new CBS show: Haysbert is Jonas, leader of the country's deadliest covert-ops team, rookie Bob (Scott Foley) and some other guys do as he says, and you and I sleep tight at night. Throw in some home-front scenes as the wives deal with the military lifestyle, the pen of David Mamet (god of theater) and the pull of Shawn Ryan (god of The Shield), and we should have a pretty good hour of TV on our hands, right? Well, kinda.
Last night's premiere was just OK — it deli
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Dennis Haysbert, The Unit
President David Palmer's loyal constituency need not give up all hope. Dennis Haysbert, who played 24's popular POTUS, is back in a big way as Jonas Blane, the leader of a supercovert missions team on CBS' The Unit (premiering tonight at 9 pm/ET). How does it feel to be championing democracy in a more hands-on manner than he did on 24? TVGuide.com spoke to Haysbert about that, his dissatisfaction with Palmer's death and more.
TVGuide.com: I'm very excited to take this phone call. I feel like I'm in a locker room after winning the World Series.Dennis Haysbert: [Laughs] I appreciate that.
TVGuide.com: Having been in the biz some 25 years, did you find that do
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