Starting this past Monday on PBS I happened to stumble upon a documentary titled “Carrier” (website). This show is a ten part series that was airing two hour long segments each night this week. For some reason this show captured my attention right away and I have now seen the entire series. I think, for me, the part that fasciniates me is how they live their lives on the carrier while they are out at sea. There are the typical story lines that you hear when it comes to military families (e.g., baby born out to sea, the government owns me, I miss my family), but it was really interesting to see how these sailors reacted throughout the series when it came to these themes in their lives.
The ten hour series covers the entire six month deployment of the USS Nimitz from back in 2005. The series did a good job of mixing what life is like every day on the carrier with the life changing experience it gives the sailors. Some of those experiences are extremely beneficial to some sailors who may have otherwise gotten themselves into trouble back home, while others are more heart wrenching, like the birth of a new child or even missing their children who they have to leave back home.
Overall, the series was a great watch, it is in HD (which I love, because I’m an HD junkie), and it provided a view into the lives of those on the carrier like I’ve never seen in another show before. If you have the chance and you missed it on PBS, all of the episodes are available online at pbs.org.