‘68 Whiskey’ Episode 1 shows how US medics' humanism clashes with Army’s directives in treating Afghan locals
Spoilers ahead for episode 1 of '68 Whiskey'
Just like 'M*A*S*H' had to reflect on being an "occupying force" in a foreign country, '68 Whiskey' is molded by its context of being set in Afghanistan. Army bases can be a surreal and fertile ground for understanding the pressures of being in a war zone and still trying to live a normal-ish life.
This is especially true of army medics, who have vowed to save lives but are also trained to be soldiers. It is this dichotomy that plays out in episode 1, especially when the protagonists of the show interact with local villagers who are caught in the war zone, with no place to hide or escape.
In a heart-warming scene, Cooper Roback (Sam Keeley) plays football with the local children who live near the army base, so that Mekhi Davis (Jeremy Tardy) can use their game as a cover to innoculate them without raising any red flags. They are technically breaking the rules since the medicine is meant for Americans at the base, but their act of kindness shows that it is difficult not to care for the people of the country, even if you are waging a war.
A little less excusable is Roback's and Davis' willingness to trade medicines for hashish with an Afghan warlord, since you know that these medicines will be used to treat the gun-toting gang members working for the warlord, who is probably the local tyrant.
Falling in the grey zone of interactions is the willingness to risk life and limb to smuggle Afghan carpets in a war zone. It gets a soldier named Buckley killed even though he is technically not part of a combat team who have gone into the field for a fight.
It is a pointless loss of life that spreads a pall of gloom over the army base as the soldiers say goodbye to their lost comrade in a moving ceremony. Roback decides to get the carpets back to the base so that he can sell it and get the money to the dead soldier's family, but is thwarted by his boss Sonia Holloway (Beth Riesgraf).
However, the incident does lead to Roback managing to save the life of the Afghan villager, who speaks several languages, who was caught in the same crossfire as Buckley. Back at the base, Holloway reminds him that he cannot go around playing the hero by bringing Afghans back to the base since the medical supplies and resources are limited and are meant for U.S. soldiers.
It is interesting to see how Roback's humanism as a medic clashes with the army's directives in Afghanistan. But the most bizarre interaction comes right at the end of the episode when Anthony Petrocelli (Nicholas Coombe), in his naivete, decides to go for a walk-about in the middle of a village that is about to be bombed by his fellow men in uniform.
He ends up caring for the goat, Boz, who (as a local explains in perfect English) has been abandoned by his owner. Again, his act of giving the goat water and standing around like a target in his military uniform, just a day after Buckley has been killed, shows Petrocelli's innocence and also his ignorance about the danger he is walking into.
Rather than a soldier, he resembles a lost kid -- something that Sasquatch (Derek Theler), the more battle-hardened and ruthless soldier points out when he and his team run into him.
Hopefully, the show will give us more of such interactions in the coming episodes that will help audiences understand how soldiers formed bonds with locals during the Afghanistan war and the nature of these relationships.
'68 Whiskey' airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Paramount Network.