This series was pretty bad...
As a simple adventure series, it isn't bad. It's better than something like
Garrison's Gorillas anyway.
That show made almost zero effort and existed purely as an excuse to routinely get the protagonists into German uniforms as often as it could. It wasn't bad, but it was even more lowbrow than
this show, which is saying something.
The Rat Patrol's sins are no worse than ones committed by, well, damn near every over war show on at the time:
1. The good guys hit everything.
2. The Americans are the main focus (I wouldn't call this a "sin," necessarily, but it's something a lot of people gripe about).
3. The Germans can't hit a damn thing.
4. The enemy vehicles are often Allied ones painted a different color (yellow, in this case).
I see
The Rat Patrol compared very unfavorably to
Combat! a lot, and while I understand
Combat! fans' viewpoints, I have to say that their attitude towards
Combat!'s short-lived competitor can come off as being a little snotty (no offense). As for me, I'm a recent fan of
both series (I refuse to pick one or the other). I really do enjoy
Combat!, but as good as it is, as much as it genuinely is the more well-written of the two shows... its serious, moody tone can get a bit depressing, so it can be a bit of a chore to marathon. Yes, war is hell, but dang. The jauntier
Rat Patrol offers a breath of fresh air to its more successful but ultimately less cheerful rival. When I want serious drama, I watch
Combat! When I want simple WWII-era nonsense (that isn't actually a comedy), I watch this.
Plus,
Rat Patrol has a few things going for it:
1. Moffitt. The end.
2. Troy makes a good main character, a nice contrast to Saunders, and I liked his devil-may-care attitude. He felt like a WWII-era Errol Flynn, a wartime swashbuckler.
3. Dietrich. Normally I dislike recurring enemies because I feel it makes the world of the show feel small, and
Combat! kept introducing new Nazis every episode, refusing to even recycle ones who'd survived a previous one. But I liked Dietrich and he had different guys with him every time anyway, so that balanced it out.
4. Kübelwagens. Everywhere.
Combat! did not have a single one for damn near four seasons (I think I spotted one in a late season four episode). It seemed like the show had to be colorized before it'd include one of the war's most iconic Axis vehicles, whereas this show included them pretty regularly.
5. Not to crap on season three's
The Duel, but this show's
The Darers Go First Raid was pretty darn good "Americans against a German tank" story. Sure, the tank didn't go anywhere until after the Rats had successfully gotten it, but I found it satisfying and tense, largely because it was less about beating the tank than it was about beating the men inside. Plus it had a cute little dog. :)
So, long story short, I like both shows. Eh.
I mean, really, how many times will you look under Jabba's manboobs?
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ToranRa
8 years ago
I'm with you on that, Koosh, and that type of thing carried well on into the 1980s. But also, to respond to Billy:
The show was inspired by and loosely modelled on the New Zealand/British/Rhodesian Long Range Desert Group, which used modified trucks armed with machine guns as their transport through the treacherous desert terrain, and Popski's Private Army. The title of the program refers to the nicknames given to some of the British Commonwealth forces in the North African campaign (Rats of Tobruk or Desert Rats).
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rat_Patrol "Fear Sells." - World War Z (no, not from the horrid adaptation, this is from the book)
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