Boots web series review
Cast: Vera Farmiga, Miles Heizer, Max Parker, Liam Oh, Ana Ayora, Blake Burt, Kieron Moore, Dominic Goodman
Creator:Andy Parker
Star rating: ★★★★
A soldier should not be weak or worry too much about getting hurt. Plus, as per the rule, a soldier had better not be gay. This is instilled very early on during the training base camp at the US Marine Corps boot camp in 1990, where the closeted gay boy Cameron Cope (Miles Heizer, in a stirring performance) is a recruit. In the beginning, he might just be the least likely person to get into this institution, but at the end of this eight-episode series, his progress speaks for itself. This is a delicately balanced show willing to take the jump, and is powered by a wonderful bunch of young actors who make every single reason count.
The premise
Adapted from Greg Cope White’s memoir, The Pink Marine, Boots might also be the final executive producing credit for the late Norman Lear. It has a fairly adequate episodic structure, where each episode focuses on a specific task assigned to the boys at the camp. Cameron is the one holding the pulse of the viewer, as he begins his arduous journey that will test him both physically and mentally.
Cameron is there with his only friend, Ray (Liam Oh). He is the only one who knows he is gay. Ray has left the Air Force Academy and enlisted in the Marines. Meanwhile, Cameron’s mom (Vera Farmiga in a severely underwritten role) is too occupied to care where her son is going, a decision that leads her to her own journey of sorts.
At the training, Cameron shaves off his hair and is constantly pushed to do better at pull-ups and other courses by the drill sergeants, McKinnon (Cedrick Cooper) and Howitt (Nicholas Logan). Cameron’s performative instinct kicks in big time, while the show plugs into the chaos within the community of young men with distinct personalities, each fending for themselves over the other. Will Cameron give in to the pressure? What will it cost him to survive the base? The arrival of Sergeant Sullivan (Max Parker) amps up the training, but Boots straddles the dramatic beats with effective close-ups and tight one-take sequences that never let the pace dip.
What works?
The young ensemble is uniformly superb, with Miles ably taking on the dramatic weight of the coming-of-age tale. It is an understated turn, where the demands of the role occasionally outweigh the screen time, but the actor delivers a gently focused and confident performance. The standout among the others is clearly Max Parker, who is unbelievably ruthless one second and harrowing the other. That being said, Boots leans way too close to cliches at times, and is at its weakest when Vera Farmiga’s scenes come along.
What worked the most for me is that the show does not treat queerness as an element of surprise or thrill. There is no shock or awe in the fact that this young boy is attracted to men, and thankfully, Cameron is not positioned as someone who is a cause for disruption. He can figure out his queerness later; first, let him figure out how to survive the next day. The other flailing boys provide more reasons for that. Whether he is gay or not, he is just a boy. He is a boy, realizing how discipline, perseverance, and commitment are not things that they are born with, but rather a way of life. Boots has a lot of humor and heart, and by the end of it all, there is a gratifying sense of thrill to know these young men from up close.
