What’s Worth Watching: On the Ground in Afghanistan

The Fighting Season, “Origin of The Fighting Season” (Tuesday, May 19, DirecTV’s Audience Network, 9/8c)

“We are here so our kids don’t need to come back,” says one of the soldiers profiled in The Fighting Season, a six-part docu-series that takes an engrossing you-are-there approach to the war in Afghanistan. Producer/actor Ricky Schroder spent three months in 2014 with a film crew embedded alongside U.S. military units. The units’ activities included working with the civilian police squad in Kabul to avert Taliban terrorist activity and going on night missions to find the source of missile attacks that have earned one of their bases the nickname “Rocket City.” A primary goal as the series begins is to ensure a peaceable democratic election for the presidency. “We’ve been here 13 years just for this moment,” says a military leader.

The Fighting Season reminds us of the sacrifices our troops are making to try to ensure stability in this volatile part of the world, but in its uncensored verisimilitude, it also celebrates their camaraderie. As one soldier notes, “We do have the brotherhood down pretty good.”