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Generation Kill
MINISERIES: HBO, begins Sunday 7/13 at 9:00p


8.7

based on 27 reviews
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based on 37 votes
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Get more information on this show at TV.com.

Official Show Site

Starring Alexander Skarsgard, Billy Lush, Brian Patrick Wade, Chance Kelly, David Barrera, Eric Ladin, Eric Nenninger, J. Salome Martinez Jr., James Ransone, and Jon Huertas

The Wire's David Simon produces this seven-part miniseries about the 2003 war on Iraq through the eyes of one Marine unit.

GENRE(S):	Drama, War
CREATED BY:	Evan Wright (book)
FIRST AIR DATE:	July 13, 2008

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker

Generation Kill stands in the tradition of classic war movies. Vivid storytelling, superb acting and a frank approach make this a TV landmark.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman

Generation Kill is rewarding in its complexity. It feels real - and that realness is bracing, sad and funny in equal measures.

100

Washington Post Tom Shales

Wright says. "After the Vietnam War ended, the onus of shame largely fell on the veterans. This time around, if shame is to be had when the Iraq conflict ends--and all indications are there will be plenty of it--the veterans are the last people in America to deserve it." Generation Kill makes that point so powerfully as to stand among the truest and most trenchant war movies of all time.

100

USA Today Robert Bianco

What Kill has to offer is clarity and clear-eyed empathy. TV's the better for it.

Entertainment Weekly Ken Tucker

Kill pays both you and its subjects two solid compliments: It doesn't scream ''Take heed: This is a work of art!'' And it lets you form your own opinions about what its social commentary is.

TV Guide Matt Roush

Critical without being overtly political, with stretches of boredom punctuated by the sudden chaos of firefights where it’s impossible to distinguish innocent bystanders from insurgents, Generation Kill is both timely and timeless.

Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan

It’s as addictive and absorbing, in its own way, as “The Wire.”

Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert

HBO's Generation Kill is remarkable.

Hollywood Reporter Ray Richmond

Bolstered by superb acting and first-rate direction and cinematography, Kill delivers the goods in ways both unexpected and rewarding.

Kansas City Star Aaron Barnhart

Once again Simon and his producing partner, Ed Burns, plunge us deeply into the culture of foul-mouthed men, many of them barely out of their teens, who have ready access to firearms and agendas that have little to do with the American dream that you and I understood growing up. And, as before, you can’t stop watching it.

Time James Poniewozik

Colbert is the series' rock, and a straightman contrast to the constantly yammering Person, his driver. As the stoic enigma and the hopped-up smart-ass speed through the desert landscape, you could almost take Kill for a surreal road comedy.

Wall Street Journal Dorothy Rabinowitz

It's best to get quickly past the confused and shapeless first episode and on to the rest, where the characters become individualized.

Miami Herald Glenn Garvin

A raucous, raunchy and utterly loving account of life at the bottom of the military food chain.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen

An engrossing, detailed military character drama, Generation Kill is a modern-day "Band of Brothers," a warts-and-all account that hits closer to home because it depicts such recent events.

PopMatters Cynthia Fuchs

Like Wright’s book, the series is disjointed and disturbing, a story of youthful workers who are underprepared, underequipped, and underinformed.

Baltimore Sun David Zurawik

There is a near-perfect symmetry between the sensibility of Wright's book and the work of Simon and Burns.

New York Daily News David Hinckley

Wright is a diligent reporter, and his material has been whipped into a smooth script under producers David Simon and Ed Burns.

The New York Times Alessandra Stanley

Generation Kill, which has a superb cast and script, provides a searingly intense, clear-eyed look at the first stage of the war, and it is often gripping. But like a beautiful woman who swathes herself in concealing clothes and distracting hats, the series fights its own intrinsic allure.

LA Weekly Robert Abele

There’s a formal integrity to the Simon-and-Burns storytelling style--predicated on the theory that details matter, complexity rules and you can’t force momentum--that meshes well with the close-up vividness of Wright’s dispatches from an often chaotic front.

Variety Brian Lowry

This technically superior project intriguingly mirrors territory the producers explored in tackling Baltimore's mean streets, and while Baghdad's avenues are even meaner, the producers' impeccable craftsmanship is roughly the same.

New York Magazine John Leonard

Meanwhile, some remarkable television has been made. To report on a new generation of young warriors raised on hip-hop, heavy metal, and video games, Wright went to Iraq as Michael Herr before him had gone to Vietnam, like Dante to hell with a cassette recording of Jimi Hendrix.

Los Angeles Times Robert Lloyd

Generation Kill tends to play as a series of discrete events. I suppose an argument might be made that this mirrors the way that the constant threat of extinction, and subject always to a sudden change in (rarely explained) orders, makes one live in the moment. I don't think that was what the producers intended, but it works well enough for watching it.

Newark Star-Ledger Alan Sepinwall

If the world that Simon, Burns, Wright and company drop us into can be confusing at first (mirroring, as they intended, the confusion that Wright felt at the time), it's a fully-realized one that's both thousands of miles away (literally and figuratively) from the Baltimore of "The Wire" and one that will feel very familiar to anyone who spent a lot of time watching McNulty and Bunk drink at the train tracks.

Newsday Verne Gay

You get the sense that the filmmakers' vision and Wright's are never quite in sync--or perhaps are in sync too perfectly.

Slate Troy Patterson

It plays like it's been built for antisocial boys--mchair heroes in love with guns and in search of demented adventure.

The New Yorker Nancy Franklin

If we got to know any of the characters in Generation Kill, the show might be more interesting, or, at least, more memorable.

New York Post Adam Buckman

The end result of all that effort, however, is a miniseries that's as dull and throbbing as a severe headache.

The average user rating for this tv show is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 37 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Diana D. gave it a10:
Being a huge fan of "The Wire", I went into this miniseries having read every article and interview, watched every trailer and featurette I could find about "Generation Kill". I admire and appreciate the lengths that David Simon and Ed Burns have taken to not compromise the truth, and to do justice to the real people being portrayed and their story. But the realism aside, this is simply great television, and terrific drama. The acting is excellent throughout, with what deserve to be breakthrough performances by Alexander Skarsgard and Stark Sands.

Balage gave it a10:
Addictive! It gets to the real thing as close as it can get. If you get to see 30 minutes on Discovery Channel, you'd think you are watching documentary. While being entertained by a real-life war story, it makes you think in many ways ... I wish, I'd see more of this. TV at its best! Congratulations!!

John S. gave it a9:
Many people are saying here that it is openly against the war, or insulting the military, but those of you who believe that are blind and foolish. The message isn't anti-military in any way. The show is gripping, the characters are charming, and the show has high production values.

Keith A. gave it a2:
This is an incredibly pathetic attempt to paint those in the armed forces as either incompetent, antisocial or inconceivably dumb. The point is clear: the writer doesn't like the war in Iraq. Ok, we get it. Thank God it's only seven episodes.

czar gave it a10:
This is a great series. I love the way it portrays the long stretches of boredom that troops endure, without getting boring itself. I love the fact that petty motivations and screwups can have profound effects in the field. It also does a great job of showing how people growing up with ipods, laptops, video cameras and internet react when put in combat situations. One moment it feels like they are all on a high school trip next moment training kicks in and they are professional soldiers. Great dynamics. Shame that there are only 7 episodes and I have seen 5 already.

D gave it a10:
Great characters, very believable. Overall a joy to watch.

Baro L. gave it a2:
Mildly entertaining at times, but clearly created, written, and directed by people who have no idea how the military operates. The characters are the standard military cliche you would expect in a subpar series like this.

Generation Kill MINISERIES: HBO, begins Sunday 7/13 at 9:00p

Generation Kill
MINISERIES: HBO, begins Sunday 7/13 at 9:00p