The Unit
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The Unit is a CBS action drama that focuses on a top-secret special forces team and their missions abroad, in addition to the effect their careers have on their homelives, wives and girlfriends. The show is being produced by 20th Century Fox. After an initial season one order of 13 episodes, it has been picked up for a second season.
A The Barn Productions Inc., David Mamet Entertainment, Fire Ants Films and CBS Productions production in association with 20th Century Fox.
Summary
The Unit is a US Army organization of unknown size, similar in scope to Delta Force. As with Delta Force, its members come from the United States Army Special Forces, and are tasked with such missions as counterterrorism, direct action, foreign internal defense, special reconnaissance and unconventional warfare, as well as various other tasks. It operates under the cover of being known as the 303rd Logistical Studies Group, and its operators are all under cover of being clerks and military logistics personnel. The unit has no official name (such as Delta Force), and officially does not exist. A sergeant major's wife was quoted as saying: "That is his cover. It is your cover. Other than that, the unit has no name. Other than that, it doesn't exist." Its immediate chain of command goes to the unit's commanding officer, Colonel Tom Ryan, and, apparently, straight to the President of the United States. It is unknown if this bypasses the Secretary of Defense. The wives of the unit's personnel are given minimal information. They are fully aware of the fact that "The Unit" is a false front organization, and that their husbands are, in fact, still performing highly dangerous Special Forces missions, but they are not permitted to know specifics, such as where their husbands are deploying, what their training routines consist of, how long their assignments will last, or even if their husbands are alright. As is common military practice, if a member of the Unit is killed in action, the family is told that they have been killed on a training mission. The wives themselves are encouraged to form a close, cohesive military family based on the mutal knowledge and strife this inevitably leads to.The Unit has an eclectic structure. While it appears to be the size of a single company, which ranges in size from approximately 200 personnel, it is commanded by a colonel (companies are usually commanded by captains; colonels usually command elements like brigades). They are not permitted to wear any tabs on their uniforms (airborne, special forces, etc.), and their CO (Commanding Officer), Colonel Ryan, normally wears a "sanitized" uniform (bearing absolutely no tapes, such as his name, or even US Army, or rank insignia). Whereas Special Forces A-Teams (Operational Detachment Alpha) are generally commanded by captains, the Unit sends teams and squads into the field under the command of noncommissioned officers, such as the team normally commanded by Sergeant Major Jonas Blane, the Unit's NCOIC (Non-Commissioned Officer In Charge). It is probable that their soldiers have the same Special Forces specialties as in other Special Forces organizations. An Operational Detachment Alpha ("A-Team") has weapons sergeants, communications sergeants, medical sergeants, engineering sergeants and assistant operations and intelligence sergeants. Also, the minimum rank for qualification for Special Forces is sergeant. Generally, there are 2 of each specialty in each Alpha Detachment. As is common for members of the United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM), when the Special Forces are not on actual deployment, they are training.
Though it is never spoken, it is possible the Unit may be a "Delta Detachment", or Special Forces Detachment-D, which is commonly referred to as Delta Force. Only the best of the best are recruited into the Unit, and they can and will be removed from the Unit, as easily. The wives, if suspected of speaking about the Unit's existence through such endeavours as gossip, can cause their husbands to be expelled, and returned to regular Army service (even if with another Special Forces unit). Colonel Ryan has stated, time and again, that this can ruin a soldier's career, as well as their marriage, and has also stated that he will not hesitate to destroy families, in order to preserve the Unit's security. He has also threatened the wives with closing the Unit down, and restarting it someplace else under another cover, and forcing the uprooting of all families involved.
The Unit deploys throughout the world, and both the Army and United States government have the ability to deny the existence of the Unit and any of its members in order to prevent the onset of international incidents. Their uniforms are commonly not standard Army issue, which makes it easier to deny their connection with the US Army if killed or captured. They also carry weapons that are not American (they don't always carry M-16A2 assault rifles), furthering their efforts to blend in, or even look like mercenary units. Like all Special Forces units, the Unit's personnel are well-familiarized with weapons from around the world and can make themelves look like military personnel from other organizations.
The U.S. Government allows the Posse Comitatus Act to be temporarily suspended for The Unit to act on U.S. soil. Posse Comitatus is the federal law that prevents the military from conducting law-enforcement operations in the U.S., with limited exceptions. The subject of the Posse Comitatus Act and interagency rivalry has caused friction between the Unit and the Federal Bureau of Investigation on at least one occasion. While responding to a terrorist attack in Wyndam, Idaho (the seizure of a charter aircraft), on-scene FBI officials threatened members of the Unit with arrest, hamstringing their efforts to rescue the businessmen on board the jet, which was already in the midst of having a passenger killed every hour. Sergeant Major Blane was forced to tell the FBI officials that the Unit was going to do its job regardless, and if the FBI "gave up" any of the Unit's men, Sergeant Brown (who was in the woods, hunting and killing terrorists acting as spotters for the ones on the plane) would come out and execute every member of the FBI involved. Subsequently, Sergeant Brown was questioned by an FBI agent, hoping to build a case against the Unit in order to prosecute them for their successful, life-saving actions against the terrorists. Colonel Ryan believed that this was merely a face-saving attempt on the FBI's part, since they were unable to resolve the hostage standoff, on their own. In another incident, operatives of both the United States Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency have clashed with members of the Unit. Mostly, the members of the Unit have been discriminated against due to reasons best ascribed to ego. For this reason, the Unit has a grave and deep distrust of the CIA and State Department, as they know that neither organization would hesitate to leave them to die, or be captured by enemy forces. Simultaneously, it forces the members of the Unit to realize they have virtually no one else to rely upon, except each other.
The Unit is based on Eric Haney's — also one of the show's producers — book, Inside Delta Force (ISBN 0440237335). It was created for television by David Mamet and is Executive Produced by Mamet and Shawn Ryan.
Episode list
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Dennis Haysbert | Jonas Blane |
| Regina Taylor | Molly Blane |
| Scott Foley | Bob Brown |
| Audrey Marie Anderson | Kim Brown |
| Max Martini | Mack Gerhardt |
| Abby Brammell | Tiffy Gerhardt |
| Robert Patrick | Colonel Tom Ryan |
| Michael Irby | Charles Grey |
| Demore Barnes | Hector Williams |
Trivia
- The Unit's official cover name is the 303rd Logistical Studies Unit.
- The Unit's headquarters, nicknamed "The Cave", includes a briefing room, a conference room, and a Tactical Operations Center.
- In episode 1 ("First Responders"), Bob Brown is looking at photos on the wall of Ron and Ruthie's cabin — the first photo is of Eric Haney, author of Inside Delta Force and the show's producer and military consultant.
- In episode 2 ("Stress"), the sign outside the 303rd Logistical Studies building lists that unit's command sergeant major as "E.L. Haney", Eric Haney's actual Army rank when he retired.
- In episode 13 ("The Wall"), one character asks for a cup of coffee, and another character says "coffee is for closers" - a reference to the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, written by David Mamet, who also writes The Unit.
DVD releases
On June 16 2006, tvshowsondvd.com[link] announced that Fox Home Entertainment would Release The Unit: The Complete First Season on Region 1 DVD on September 19 2006
| DVD Name | Region 1 | Region 2 |
|---|---|---|
| The Unit The Complete First Season | September 19 2006 | N/A |
External links
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