The unit is handling huge civilian casualties. They are people from a small village that has been decimated by American bombs. Hawkeye and Trapper, going against the advice of Henry, stirs the pot. He expects the Army to help these people rebuild. Instead, it is passed off as fortunes of war. First of all, the Army won't admit that they were responsible. When Hawkeye hands over the evidence it is never seen again. In "Stars and Stripes" it is written that the Chinese were responsible for the bombing. What is neat about this episode is that Frank, though inflexible at first, comes out OK this time. There are times that the balance is so tipped that it's worth trying to even the balance, at least a little bit.
4 Reviews
What is it good for
safenoe11 March 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Jeff Maxwell continues his role as Pvt. Igor Straminsky, and it's an important supporting role because in a way Igor is the glue that keeps the 4077th together. Kellye Nakahara continues her important role as Lt. Kellye Yamato, and she and Jeff continue in their roles until the end of the series.
Anyway, in 2018 Jeff teamed up with superfan Ryan Patrick to launch the M*A*S*H Matters podcast, which is a superb podcast. I've enjoyed listening to Jeff's recollections of his time on M*A*S*H and the podcast has interviewed many of the performers, they talk about the early years of M*A*S*H and many things.
Anyway, in 2018 Jeff teamed up with superfan Ryan Patrick to launch the M*A*S*H Matters podcast, which is a superb podcast. I've enjoyed listening to Jeff's recollections of his time on M*A*S*H and the podcast has interviewed many of the performers, they talk about the early years of M*A*S*H and many things.
Fighting Corruption With Corruption
craigbenting16 January 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I love all the MASH episodes in all the seasons and have watched all of them at least a half dozen times each since I was a kid when they were first broadcast.
What's interesting is how some episodes of MASH seem different than I remembered as a kid, like this one. I remember watching this episode as a kid and thinking, "Why are they trying to stop them from letting people know the Army messed up and they need to be more careful? They're doing the right thing!" This turns out to be a very naive and simple understanding of what happens in the episode, but then I was a kid. What's bizarre is how some adults today would still see it the same simple way.
Now I watch it and see everything, from laughable fantasy to an ending that is so bizarre to my eyes as a mature adult I had to watch it a few times.
I was in the Army, in the 80's, and in the artillery, in fact. First, people getting shuffled off to remote, favorable, fantasy assignments just doesn't happen. Maybe in MASH and Stripes, but basically, Hollywood is its own bubble that reality never enters, so that part of this episode is a complete fantasy. My brother happened to be an officer in the Army artillery, too, in the 80's to 90's, so yes, we know being an officer is a lot of politics, but they don't just shuffle you around to a different part of the world to facilitate a cover-up. You just end up in a career dead end for years, blackballed, and eventually you quit the military out of frustration.
And a general warning you that the Army will file reports on you being a troublemaker and those will follow you for life, give me a break, it's like a lame attempt at a child's scary movie.
But, near the end Hawkeye is writing his father to get around the Army stonewalling him by asking his father to get a Senator friend involved because of "some help he gave him in the past". So, ask a friend to get a friend to help you punish these guys who are stopping you from rubbing their noses in their screw-ups (who cares about the villagers at this point, it's all about Hawkeye and his ego), kind of the way the Army has an officer who was responsible for the shelling of the village gets his friends to help him avoid a problem by stopping Hawkeye's report. Basically, this episode advocates fighting corruption with corruption or the idea that no sane person agrees with, that the end justifies the means.
So, at the end we hear Hawkeye's father's response to his letter, read by Radar, who is shocked at what he's reading, and Hawkeye laughing is head off all the way to the end of the show and the credits. I thought it was bizarre, because Hawkeye's laughing at what sounds like his father tacitly admitting he was party to illegal activity with the Senator and before the Senator could help him again, he was charged with "influence peddling" and jailed, and this is exactly what Hawkeye's letter was asking his father to get from the Senator: influence on his problem for a past favor his father did for the Senator. So, Hawkeye's father narrowly avoided jailtime, unless somehow working on a campaign for a politician would get you a favor from him to intervene in a military matter?? Doubtful, he did more than that for the senator, but you don't just write such matters down in a letter.
I watched several times and Radar's shocked face seems to show his realization that Hawkeye was actually doing something unethical/illegal by asking his father to do something illegal or borderline illegal with a politician who did this regularly, they almost got caught, and Hawkeye is just laughing and laughing and laughing as if he doesn't realize all this. Or maybe he does and actually doesn't care and/or he knows exactly what he was doing and what he was asking his father to do. Which is why this episode started out as a fight for the villagers who were hurt and ended up as a heavy duty battle of the egos.
And all this after the whole premise of the episode is that the Army is corrupt, covers up anything bad it does, and attacks anyone who gets in the way. Which is all 100% fantasy. But, corrupt politicians selling their influence? We all know that's 100% reality.
Wow, talk about wrapping a sour reality inside a sugary fantasy. This episode is like bizarro world. If nothing else, you have to admit there are a lot of layers to the story in this episode.
What's interesting is how some episodes of MASH seem different than I remembered as a kid, like this one. I remember watching this episode as a kid and thinking, "Why are they trying to stop them from letting people know the Army messed up and they need to be more careful? They're doing the right thing!" This turns out to be a very naive and simple understanding of what happens in the episode, but then I was a kid. What's bizarre is how some adults today would still see it the same simple way.
Now I watch it and see everything, from laughable fantasy to an ending that is so bizarre to my eyes as a mature adult I had to watch it a few times.
I was in the Army, in the 80's, and in the artillery, in fact. First, people getting shuffled off to remote, favorable, fantasy assignments just doesn't happen. Maybe in MASH and Stripes, but basically, Hollywood is its own bubble that reality never enters, so that part of this episode is a complete fantasy. My brother happened to be an officer in the Army artillery, too, in the 80's to 90's, so yes, we know being an officer is a lot of politics, but they don't just shuffle you around to a different part of the world to facilitate a cover-up. You just end up in a career dead end for years, blackballed, and eventually you quit the military out of frustration.
And a general warning you that the Army will file reports on you being a troublemaker and those will follow you for life, give me a break, it's like a lame attempt at a child's scary movie.
But, near the end Hawkeye is writing his father to get around the Army stonewalling him by asking his father to get a Senator friend involved because of "some help he gave him in the past". So, ask a friend to get a friend to help you punish these guys who are stopping you from rubbing their noses in their screw-ups (who cares about the villagers at this point, it's all about Hawkeye and his ego), kind of the way the Army has an officer who was responsible for the shelling of the village gets his friends to help him avoid a problem by stopping Hawkeye's report. Basically, this episode advocates fighting corruption with corruption or the idea that no sane person agrees with, that the end justifies the means.
So, at the end we hear Hawkeye's father's response to his letter, read by Radar, who is shocked at what he's reading, and Hawkeye laughing is head off all the way to the end of the show and the credits. I thought it was bizarre, because Hawkeye's laughing at what sounds like his father tacitly admitting he was party to illegal activity with the Senator and before the Senator could help him again, he was charged with "influence peddling" and jailed, and this is exactly what Hawkeye's letter was asking his father to get from the Senator: influence on his problem for a past favor his father did for the Senator. So, Hawkeye's father narrowly avoided jailtime, unless somehow working on a campaign for a politician would get you a favor from him to intervene in a military matter?? Doubtful, he did more than that for the senator, but you don't just write such matters down in a letter.
I watched several times and Radar's shocked face seems to show his realization that Hawkeye was actually doing something unethical/illegal by asking his father to do something illegal or borderline illegal with a politician who did this regularly, they almost got caught, and Hawkeye is just laughing and laughing and laughing as if he doesn't realize all this. Or maybe he does and actually doesn't care and/or he knows exactly what he was doing and what he was asking his father to do. Which is why this episode started out as a fight for the villagers who were hurt and ended up as a heavy duty battle of the egos.
And all this after the whole premise of the episode is that the Army is corrupt, covers up anything bad it does, and attacks anyone who gets in the way. Which is all 100% fantasy. But, corrupt politicians selling their influence? We all know that's 100% reality.
Wow, talk about wrapping a sour reality inside a sugary fantasy. This episode is like bizarro world. If nothing else, you have to admit there are a lot of layers to the story in this episode.
The one where Hawkeye tries to right a wrong
jarrodmcdonald-111 April 2023
Warning: Spoilers
This is another one of those preachy episodes, in which the producers' leftwing political views shape the story that plays out on screen. In this case, the U. S. military establishment is the big bad villain, no surprise there, and Hawkeye is the hero, again no surprise there.
It all starts when Hawkeye and Trapper realize that casualties from a nearby village have been the result of army maneuvers. They want the U. S. government to compensate the survivors of the village, and they launch an investigation into the matter. First, while this may be admirable, I don't really think medics who barely can get enough sleep each night, would have the time and energy to pursue such a matter. It would certainly cut into what little free time they have with the nurses.
Plus it would probably take months to go through all the red tape, and we have had many stories already that play up military bureaucracy. This episode makes it seem like this is all done in a rather short period of time, since Hawkeye is having his dad back in Maine apply pressure on the army through a senator they know.
The other thing that occurs to me is how the entire village has not been wiped out. So when the army responds it will help rebuild the village and repair damage caused by recent raids, this seems like a fair compromise.
I think Jerry Mayer, the writer of this episode, is trying to use a plot point about victimized South Korean villagers as a metaphor for the U. S. government's need to compensate native Americans for what they lost during westward expansion. And on top of this, the story is suggesting a conspiracy, but I guess that's to be expected from an episode made during the Nixon-Watergate era.
The comic subplot involves Margaret and Frank. They believe that when General Clayton looks into these matters, he and the top brass are getting ready to bestow a commendation on Frank. Yeah, these two don't seem to be playing with a full deck. Comedy bits like these, though amusing, seem to undermine the credibility of these characters, especially Margaret whom one expects to be a lot more intelligent than this nonsense.
It all starts when Hawkeye and Trapper realize that casualties from a nearby village have been the result of army maneuvers. They want the U. S. government to compensate the survivors of the village, and they launch an investigation into the matter. First, while this may be admirable, I don't really think medics who barely can get enough sleep each night, would have the time and energy to pursue such a matter. It would certainly cut into what little free time they have with the nurses.
Plus it would probably take months to go through all the red tape, and we have had many stories already that play up military bureaucracy. This episode makes it seem like this is all done in a rather short period of time, since Hawkeye is having his dad back in Maine apply pressure on the army through a senator they know.
The other thing that occurs to me is how the entire village has not been wiped out. So when the army responds it will help rebuild the village and repair damage caused by recent raids, this seems like a fair compromise.
I think Jerry Mayer, the writer of this episode, is trying to use a plot point about victimized South Korean villagers as a metaphor for the U. S. government's need to compensate native Americans for what they lost during westward expansion. And on top of this, the story is suggesting a conspiracy, but I guess that's to be expected from an episode made during the Nixon-Watergate era.
The comic subplot involves Margaret and Frank. They believe that when General Clayton looks into these matters, he and the top brass are getting ready to bestow a commendation on Frank. Yeah, these two don't seem to be playing with a full deck. Comedy bits like these, though amusing, seem to undermine the credibility of these characters, especially Margaret whom one expects to be a lot more intelligent than this nonsense.
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