Naval Gazing: Carrier's a See-worthy Documentary
As sprawling as the 24-story-high vessel it follows for a six-month Persian Gulf deployment in 2005, the 10-hour, five-night docu-miniseries
Carrier immerses the armchair traveler in the daily life and routines of the
USS Nimitz. "This boat is drama," says one of the scores of participants interviewed along the way.
Drama in this case means bursts of high-flying adrenaline leavened by long periods of grinding boredom and endless drudgery, as well as the wrenching ongoing soap opera of relationships tested by distance while forbidden liaisons erupt below decks or on shore leave.
With its scenic photography, slick editing and relentless pop-rock soundtrack, Carrier has the feel of a movie, or maybe the world's longest recruitment video. It's also an engrossing, rewarding and addictive study of personal endurance and sacrifice.
The war is something of an off-camera abstraction to much of the crew. For some, who enlisted to escape dead-end lives of poverty or drugs, this tour of duty is just a job aboard what one calls a "floating dictatorship defending a democracy."
In frank confessionals, some question why they're there and whether a carrier is even an efficient weapon in this unconventional conflict. (In the thousands of sorties flown, no bombs were dropped during this deployment.) For others, it's a mission not to be debated. "We are the ultimate diplomatic tool for the president," says a Navy flyer.
While there are nerve-racking sequences of midair refueling and treacherous landings atop a pitching deck, there isn't a lot of action in Carrier. What keeps you watching is the human element and the anticipation of lives picking up when they all finally make it back home.
Carrier airs Sunday, April 27, through Thursday, May 1, at 9 pm/ET on PBS.
Farmer Wants a Wife
A rose by any other name is a cow pie. And so it goes as the CW mixes The Simple Life with The Bachelor for one of reality TV's sillier contests.
Farmer Wants a Wife — note how the title doesn't mention "need" — spends a lot of time ogling Matt, an often-shirtless Missouri hunk who reveals, "I haven't found a big use for underwear." (Picture Christopher Titus as an Abercrombie & Fitch model.) His task: picking among 10 pampered and prissy city girls to find a soul mate, or at least a costar.
In the first round, the girls wrangle chickens and risk stepping in poo while the farmer clucks and chuckles. The elimination ceremony invokes the command, "Stand behind your chicken," as girls reach for eggs. (A future elimination involves a game of bingo.) If you ask me, Green Acres is still the place to be. See you over at TV Land.
Farmer Wants a Wife premieres Wednesday, April 30, at 9 pm/ET on the CW (also online via video.tvguide.com).
