- DIRTY DOZEN: THE SERIES
- Unknown magazine, April 1988
Fox (Sat., April 30, 8 p.m., ET)
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- The premiere of Dirty Dozen: The
Series copies the by-now-standard format of the movie and
its many made-for-TV sequels: The maverick officer--Ben (Alias
Smith and Jones) Murphy, taking over the position made famous
by Lee Marvin--is assigned a suicide mission. He goes to the
brig to recruit no-good soldiers sentenced to long terms or death.
He trains them to fight the enemy instead of each other. Then
they go on their mission--to bomb a Nazi radar station--and a
few come back alive. This Dirty Dozen has the good sense
to thrust its tongue into its cheek, transforming war movie cliches
into camp kicks. "If I do come back alive," says an
actor-turned-soldier being recruited for the Dozen, "that
would make pretty good publicity, wouldn't it?...Okay, let's
call it a career move." A woman soldier worries about killing
her first human being, but a comrade comforts her: "Well,
they're in season aren't they?" I'm not sure that Fox or
the world needed another war show, but if we have to have one,
this is not a bad one to have--so long as it keeps its sense
of humor about death and destruction. Grade: B
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- Photo Caption: Dirty Dozen: The Series
- Ben Murphy, grimacing, dresses up as
a fake Nazi to kill a real Nazi and win the war once more.
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