Very few of us actually venture into a war zone. What the layperson knows about modern warfare is gleaned from the news, movies or TV, mostly sanitized versions of the realities on the battlefield. (Of course, there are certainly some realistic depictions, like The Hurt Locker, The Pacific or Saving Private Ryan, to name a few.)
History’s Six is one of the more true-to-life TV war dramas in recent memory, featuring stories inspired by real Navy SEAL missions. The eight-episode miniseries follows members of Navy SEAL Team Six, whose mission to take down a Taliban leader in Afghanistan goes awry when they uncover an American citizen working with the terrorists. The team’s leader, Richard “Rip” Taggart (played intensely by Walton Goggins), starts to unravel under the high stress, leading to negative consequences for himself and the rest of the team.
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If that weren’t enough, Six also delves into the Boko Haram schoolgirl kidnappings — in a no-holds-barred fashion — as the story makes its way to Lagos, Nigeria. And, in a unique approach that isn’t often seen in war dramas, Six viewers get a look at Navy SEALs’ lives on the homefront: how they adapt to life out of the war zone and what their wives and children suffer through each time they leave for a mission.
Brought to life by William and David Broyles (who is a military special ops veteran) and produced by The Weinstein Company, there’s some serious weight behind Six. Here are some details you need to know going in.
Goggins was a last-minute casting switch.
Joe Manganiello of True Blood and Magic Mike fame was originally cast as Rip, and he even shot two episodes of Six before he bowed out due to health issues. Goggins, completely different in terms of stature and screen presence, brought a new vibe to the role, adding an intensity to Rip that may not have existed with Manganiello at the helm.
Goggins’s electrifying quote (with a blood-filled mouth) from the Six trailer — “I’m a Navy SEAL, motherf**ker!” — says it all, really.
The cast is like one huge family.
It’s something that actors are trained to say: the cast is tight-knit and inseparable, a family, the usual empty accolades about one another. But in the case of Six, there is actually a visible bond and connection. The large group of actors is constantly hugging each other, laughing and inside-joking. The very nature of the military drama lends itself to camaraderie, given the rigorous training and emotionally difficult scenes they had to shoot (rapes, killings, ambushes).
Moral ambiguity abounds in Six. What role does the modern military have? Who is the terrorist? At times, says the cast, it’s hard to reconcile what their character is doing with their own personal beliefs. It’s essential, then, that they can turn to one another for support.
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“It was so intense and so real and scary… but the way we bonded as men was, like, unknown to me,” said Barry Sloane, who plays Joe “Bear” Graves, a hard-nosed, dedicated Navy SEAL. “I’m closer with these guys than I am with some of the guys I went to school with back home.”
“It was ultimately about self-discovery and testing your own limits and figuring out how far you can be pushed mentally and physically before you say ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ said Canadian actor Kyle Schmid, who plays wise-cracking SEAL Alex Caulder. “Part of the SEAL code is ‘I will never quit.’ We learned that, and we learned it well. We got through a season without ever complaining or bitching or anything else.”
The cast also says that the ultimate motivation for all of their characters is family.
“This is a show about war, but it is about family on all sides,” reiterated Broyles.
Navy SEAL home life can be just as harrowing as life in the field.
When we think of war we think of the field, and don’t even consider what goes on at home. For every man and woman flying overseas, there is a family waiting back home for their safe return. Six explores this side of the military and the toll it takes on loved ones and family connections.
“We’ve seen SEAL shows and movies on the combat side, but we haven’t seen what happens when they come home,” agreed David Broyles. “A lot of this show is about the tension between those two families, the SEAL family brotherhood, which you’re seeing, and the home family. How do they travel in between those, and how does it push and pull between their worlds? It’s also about the cost of war. The guys we’re portraying and others in the military have been at war for 15 years, and that exacts a price.”
The audience also gets a taste of what it’s like for a woman at war.
The Nigerian plotline features Nondumiso Tembe as Na’omi Ajimuda, a schoolteacher abducted by Boko Haram along with her students. Her character in particular is subjected to horrific crimes, including gang rape, and even though it’s acting, Tembe says she was still mentally broken down by the intensity.
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“It was very important in such a masculine show… to provide strong female characters and heroes for women as well,” she continued. “My story with Walton is very heavy, very dark, and Na’omi illustrates the horrors of the female experience in war, and how women suffer uniquely in war. There were days where it was very difficult for Walton and I to shut it off. There were days when it felt a little too real.”
Calling her character a “warrior,” Tembe got through the difficult scenes by being part of the so-called Six “brotherhood.”
“I felt so embraced and welcomed by this brotherhood, even though I’m a woman,” said Tembe. “I love each and every one of these men. They’ve been a wonderful relief for me, since my world was so intense for a very long time.”
This is a very raw, unfiltered look at war.
From the very first scene, Six starts off raw and unflinching. Immediately, there are questions of what is right and what is wrong, who to trust and who not to trust, and we see Rip starting to descend into a sort-of war numbness. In some instances, he’d rather just kill a perceived “enemy” instead of negotiating or dealing peacefully. There is blood, battle and brutality around every corner for the Six team, and the producers didn’t sugarcoat anything.
“I’ve seen firsthand the red-hot fulfillment of combat and also the terror of it, and one of the things that we set out from the beginning of this show, at least from a SEAL perspective, and actually from all perspectives, was these guys are often portrayed as superheroes, as bulletproof, and as infallible,” said David Broyles. “What I found was that they’re not. They’re actually real people that have fears and make mistakes, and yet they do this incredible job under the most challenging circumstances, and that, to me, is what makes them heroic. That’s one of the things we wanted to show… is to really humanize these guys as real people. In fact, we want to do that with all our characters. Everyone in the show was grounded in the reality that hasn’t really been shown before.”
This is not a flag-waving American show.
TV audiences are also used to war shows being biased towards the American experience. While yes, Six focuses on Navy SEALs, it features an international cast that should appeal to an international audience. You never witness a rash of senseless killings and then a group of soldiers erecting the American flag. Instead, there is a great deal of introspection and hand-wringing, in addition to an unexpected feeling of self-doubt when you witness a character doing something you don’t agree with.
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Six shows the viewer that SEALs are mere humans, no matter what their origin or background.
“This is not a flag-waving American show,” said William Broyles. “It’s very much about the ambivalence of being a warrior in rough times. This is especially relevant now, since the terrorism we thought was taking place somewhere else is actually coming to us. These issues we’re dealing with aren’t American issues anymore; they’re everybody’s. We’re in Nigeria, Afghanistan and we have a Muslim-American SEAL. There’s the whole question of identity… we’re telling a universal story. ”
‘Six’ premieres Wednesday, January 18 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on History.
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