NBC's upcoming family drama, 'The Village,' was slated to air on March 15, but the premiere was pushed a week further, but as trailers and teasers start pouring in, weeks before the final date premiere of March 19, fans immediately took to compare and contrast it especially with NBC's hit family series 'This Is Us.'
'The Village,' which actually deserves a second chance, was at first criticized as a copy of 'This Is Us,' and the plotline was mocked at, but of course, fans are warming towards it since the characters have in a way, established themselves with sneak peeks and teasers alike. However, one particular scene seems to remain wrong and fans, especially the Navy and the vets aren't too pleased about it.
The premise of 'The Village,' is pretty simple. 'The Village,' is the name of a Brooklyn residential apartment and many families live in the building. But each family comes together to form a bigger, loving and a powerful family who are always there for each other. Starting from Sarah, a single mother and a nurse, whose life revolves around her teenage daughter, Katie, who is a pregnant teenager, just like her mother was. In the trailer we see Katie sneak out of the building and head to a construction site, where she artistically cuts the fence to weave a crochet heart.
Then we have Patricia, the matriarch of the building and a social worker who is in a loving relationship with her husband Ron. But she has her own secrets to keep and that takes a heartbreaking turn. Among the powerful women leads is Ava, an Iranian immigrant, who gets into trouble with the ICE because her abusive ex-husband forged the documents. Fighting for her rights and especially for her U.S. born son, Ava establishes herself as a fiery woman. There's Enzo, a senior citizen who is young at heart and there's Gabe, a young law student who is Enzo's roommate.
The story sets into action with the introduction of Nick Porter, as he is welcomed to 'The Village,' to lead a normal life following a traumatic military life, where he lost his leg in an IED attack when deployed overseas. Ron, who is the superintendent of the building welcomes him to the house and salutes and thanks him for his service. With all due respect, Ron tells him that he will not take rent from him, and suggests that he could work at the bar, Smalls, which he owns.
Taking him to the bar, Nick ends up meeting Enzo and his pals from the assisted living facility and this is the scene that vets are not pleased with. The trailer that showed glimpses of heartwarming scenes featured Enzo saluting Nick after realizing that he's from the military. "Thank you for your service Seargent," Enzo salutes and Nick salutes back.
Civilians may not realize it but the people from the military immediately took notice that the salute was done wrong. An "active duty Navy guy," took to Twitter to point our that a proper "American salute is 45 degrees at the hand, but with pinky down, not up," something that Nick failed to do, and so did Enzo.
@nbc Loving “This Is Us”. Saw a commercial for “The Village”...the salutes between an older vet and the main character...can we fix those salutes? Basically a proper American salute is 45 degrees at the hand, but with the pinky down, not up. Trust me. -active duty Navy guy
— Patrick Barrantes (@docbarrantes) March 13, 2019
In the trailer video, a YouTube user lashed out; "They need to fire whoever their military adviser was for this. The Nick Porter character is supposed to be a Staff Sergeant but is wearing an air force uniform and salutes like a freshman JROTC candidate. Pretty god dammed disgraceful. Either the actor was too lazy to do some research or the shows producers failed him."
A write-up on this show also pointed out "For all my civilian readers, I'll fill you in: to my knowledge, no one in the U.S. military salutes with their palm facing outward, something vets will easily pick up on."
So the bottom line is, the show may win hearts because fans are warming up towards it, but vets are still pretty upset about yet another common mistake TV show makes on portraying vets. Hopefully, we can look past this blunder, one more time and give the show another chance it deserves.