--- description: This fall, three new network shows look at different aspects of the U.S. military: NBC's The Brave is about undercover specialists; CBS's SEAL Team is... title: Network TV’s Calorie-Free Take on American Patriotism image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2772c4696cc5f26/6988dea3ab6d77f64e6afe3f/network-tv-calorie-free-take-american-patriotism.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Television](/tag/television/) ## Television Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Network TV's Calorie-Free Take on American Patriotism  by [Daniel D'Addario](/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 21, 2017 10:14 AM CUT  Boreanaz, left, and fellow members of his SEAL team Boreanaz, left, and fellow members of his SEAL teamSkip Bolen—CBS  by [Daniel D'Addario](/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 21, 2017 10:14 AM CUT This fall, three new network shows look at different aspects of the U.S. military: NBC’s _The Brave_ is about undercover specialists; CBS’s _SEAL Team_ is about a SEAL team; and the CW’s _Valor_, true to the soapy network’s form, is about torrid drama on an Army base. All three share dialogue rich in technical jargon–on both _SEAL Team_ and _Valor_, characters refer pointedly to “helos,” instead of helicopters. All three share the same antagonist: the global spread of ISIS. And, unfortunately, all three share a shallow take on American righteousness. Take the first episodes of _The Brave_ and _SEAL Team_, both of which get their charge from overseas kidnappings of blond American women. “We are fighting people that want to wipe us off the planet,” Anne Heche, as deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency on _The Brave_, intones. “That means we have to be as ruthless as they are.” Later, another character provides his own take: “I’m not saying I’m gonna enjoy killing these guys, but you kidnap a woman, you get what you deserve.” _SEAL Team_ takes much the same tack toward its villains. These shows seem to be trying to provoke a vengeful growl from the audience. _Homeland_, in its lesser moments, had similarly nasty paranoid outlines. But that show has been more adept at moral ambiguity. On _SEAL Team_, meanwhile, lead David Boreanaz jokingly pretends to find it racist when another character compares Liberia to the postapocalyptic film _Mad Max_. On _Valor_, the show most concerned with the human side of war, pilot Nora (Christina Ochoa) keeps a doll in the cockpit: “It was a gift from a little Afghan girl. She said that until me, she didn’t know women could be soldiers.” These characters generally don’t have the time or inclination to care about pieties, unless those pieties can be spun in self-aggrandizing ways. We are living in the longest period of war in American history and, watching the new TV season, one might think the grinding nature of the conflict has made meaningful storytelling about it impossible. War provides an innately compelling hook for these shows, but there’s something unpleasant and hectoring about how bluntly incurious they are about what it might all mean. They seem satisfied to prove a case with which so many will easily agree: that the military comprises hardworking people, that global terrorism is bad. But true patriotism means wanting one’s own homeland to be the best it can, not just repeating three times a week in prime time that it already is. The Brave _premieres Sept. 25 at 10 p.m. E.T. on NBC;_ Seal Team _premieres Sept. 27 at 9 p.m. E.T. on CBS;_ Valor _premieres Oct. 9 at 9 p.m. E.T. on the CW_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4951188/nbc-the-brave-cbs-seal-team-cw-valor/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4951188/nbc-the-brave-cbs-seal-team-cw-valor/"},"headline":"Network TV's Calorie-Free Take on American Patriotism","datePublished":"2017-09-21T10:14:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:31:48.049Z","description":"This fall, three new network shows look at different aspects of the U.S. military: NBC's The Brave is about undercover specialists; CBS's SEAL Team is...","url":"https://time.com/4951188/nbc-the-brave-cbs-seal-team-cw-valor/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2772c4696cc5f26/6988dea3ab6d77f64e6afe3f/network-tv-calorie-free-take-american-patriotism.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel D'Addario","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2772c4696cc5f26/6988dea3ab6d77f64e6afe3f/network-tv-calorie-free-take-american-patriotism.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"network-tv-calorie-free-take-american-patriotism","caption":"Pilot","creditText":"Skip Bolen—CBS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4951188/nbc-the-brave-cbs-seal-team-cw-valor/","name":"Network TV's Calorie-Free Take on American Patriotism"}}]}] ```