For anyone who hasn't finished watching 'The Wire', hurry up. Mainly so we can all talk about it loudly without someone rushing out of the room with their fingers in their ears to avoid spoilers, but also because the televisual-rule-book-ripper-upper, David Simon, has a new series heading for UK TV.

Fortunately for your social lives, 'Generation Kill' only runs to seven episodes but will occupy a similar place in your life for the duration, with that unique and inexplicable way Simon's dramas manage to grip you without resorting to (indeed, often deliberately avoiding) traditional devices like cliff-hangers, character development and, in this case, plot!

 

Set in the first week of the invasion of Iraq, 'Generation Kill' is based on a book by Rolling Stone journalist Evan Wright, in which he recounts his experiences travelling in an unarmoured jeep with a platoon of underfunded, ill-prepared Marines as they blunder blindly into the most dangerous place in the world on a mission they believe will last mere days.

 

HBO, as usual, has pulled out all the stops and the show is as visually believable and graphically horrible as any big budget Vietnam movie. 'Generation Kill' leaves you in no doubt about the top-level stupidity running modern military operations, making murderous psychopaths of ordinary men, to serve their political purpose.

 

And if that all sounds a bit much, rest assured there's some top class swearing and a superb running joke about masturbation to help you get through it.

 

Five "happy Hajis" out of five

'Generation Kill' starts on FX, January 25

 

by Tim