It appears the U.S. Department of Defense is weighing in on Netflix shows now.
Earlier this month Netflix released “Boots,” a military-themed comedy-drama based on Greg Cope White’s memoir “The Pink Marine” and follows a closeted gay teen U.S. Marine Corps recruit in the 1990s.
The project also marks the final TV series of late sitcom legend Norman Lear (“Maude,” “Good Times,” “All in the Family”) who passed away in late 2023 and who served in the Army Air Forces during World War II.
Now, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson has issued a statement via Entertainment Weekly responding to the series, dubbing the show ‘woke garbage’. They say:
“Under President Trump and Secretary [Pete] Hegseth, the U.S. military is getting back to restoring the warrior ethos. Our standards across the board are elite, uniform, and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man, a woman, gay, or straight. We will not compromise our standards to satisfy an ideological agenda, unlike Netflix whose leadership consistently produces and feeds woke garbage to their audience and children.”
The show has scored fairly good reviews, landing a 93% with critics and 89% score with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 71/100 on Metacritic.
What makes the statement even stranger is that negative criticisms towards the series have been that it’s too upbeat, sentimental and portrays the military in arguably an overly simplified and very generous light.
Miles Heizer (’13 Reasons Why”) stars in the show as the directionless and closeted Cameron Cope, who impulsively follows his best friend Ray McAffey (Liam Oh) to enlist in the military in the 1990s – four years before the controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy went into effect and being gay in the military was still illegal.
