Wednesday, December 6, 2006
art <-> life?
Last night was a repeat on The Unit so I almost didn't watch but it was an episode I hadn't seen and boyoboy was it startling in light of the recent death-by-plutonium of Russian putative spy, Litvinenko. For those unfamiliar with it, The Unit is written and produced by David Mamet and is in its second season. It shows the adventures of the members of a special forces unit as well as the day-to-day lives of their wives, kids, friends, etc., which is a nifty juxtaposition dramatically. Last night's plot had it that some people in Pakistan had infected themselves with a virulent form of smallpox, becoming bacteria-carrying suicide bombers who planned to join a tourist group - shake hands, make friends, sit at meals with the people on the tour and thereby spread the disease to the infidels. How like London it seemed, where Litvinenko supposedly just woke up one day with plutonium poisoning. (How could plutonium possibly just show up in a restaurant? Along the lines of, "Oh look, honey, a gnu just sat down at our table.") I won't spoil the episode because it's well worth seeing since it raised some fascinating ethical, tactical and is-it-happening-here? issues.
Labels: tv
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