‘Valor,’ ‘Seal Team,’ and ‘The Brave’: The Tropes and Triggers of TV’s New Breed of Military Drama
The opening scene of Shooter, a USA Network drama starring Ryan Phillippe as former Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger, could be read as a sort of conservative fable. As with many fables, it begins with the hero encountering an animal in the woods: a wolf whose foot is caught in a trap. Although Swagger initially …