Tour of Duty (1987)

When I first watched Tour of Duty as a young teen in the early 90s, I was far too preoccupied with Danny Percell's baby blues to take in much else that was going on onscreen. Now, a little older (though I have my doubts about wiser), and able to function a little more normally even when faced with such sights (seriously though... those eyes!), I would just like to take a moment to comment on what a fantastic character Sgt Zeke Anderson is. He doesn't only hold the platoon together on the show, but does much the same for the show itself too. I have my doubts as to whether the show would be even a tenth as good without his character, or without Terence Knox's excellent performance. As it is, it's a show well worth watching, and worth listening to too, as the soundtrack is fantastic!

This is a wonderful show that in today's view I wish would have gotten a few more seasons. However, sometimes you just got to enjoy what is given to us. The first season was filmed in Hawaii and gave a more realistic representation of Vietnam, sequential seasons were filmed in California to cut costs and make it easier for production. While the first season has more "in the bush" footage because of location, the second and third season focus more with "On Base" and "Real World" issues that the war brought on. Each character is lovingly detailed and their back story explained. Sometimes you wish you had a little more time with one character or the other in an episode but the following picks up with that character to get a feel for who they are. Mid season 2 a few new characters are brought in which generally don't mix well with the season 1 vibe. It started to turn to a drama and love story between a few main characters and less on war. Then the next episode was back to war and the tragedies of it. Thankfully a lot of that is flushed out in season 3 to end on a good note.