I can’t be the only person who grew up in the ’90s who vividly remembers the television commercials for the United States Marine Corps. Almost every spot would feature a young man, usually white, as he lands in what appears to be a final level of a video game, and he defeats a generic evil before being enveloped in the uniform of a hero. I can still recall how the soldier’s sword would flip up as the narration says, “the few…the proud…the Marines.” We see one of those ads briefly early on in Andy Parker’s Boots, a compelling and surprisingly earnest series about a young, gay man determined to prove himself in a world established to reject him.
Parker’s series might the first in history to refer to both Full Metal Jacket and The Golden Girls in the same coversation–together at last! Liam Oh’s Ray asks his best friend, Cameron (played by a fantastic Miles Heizer) if he ever saw Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam War classic. Sorry to disappoint, Ray, but Cameron was much too busy binging the beloved Emmy-winning sitcom to prep for boot camp. Cameron is quiet and naturally shy, and he only enlisted in the Marines because he had no plans after high school and Ray said he would look after him. “You used to be more masculine,” Vera Farmiga’s Barbara Cope, Cameron’s mother, claims. What closeted kid wouldn’t try to escape? Especially to a world packed with strapping, good-looking men?
Set in 1990, Boots is an adaptation of Greg Cope White’s memoir, The Pink Marine, and it shows us a time just before Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was taken up in 1993. With a character that is as introspective and careful as Cameron is, he needs an outlet to check in with himself, but he’s surrounded by macho, muscled, and potentially dangerous young men who have been trained that being gay is one of the worst things you can be even if you are trying to be all that you can be (yes, I know that’s the tagline for the Army–shush). Boots enlists a Cameron double, also played by Heizer, as a surrogate to his fears and worries that I have dubbed as him Cameron’s True Fabulous Self. He is less inhibited and knows that Cameron has to believe in himself but stay alert if he is going to not just survive but thrive.
What may surprise viewers is how Boots is not just a coming-of-age tale but one of transformation. While Cameron’s central conflict, at first, is keeping his sexuality a secret, that is not the entire narrative drive of this first season. So many films and television shows collect a band of uniquely drawn brothers, and Boots is no exception. Blake Burt and Brandon Tyler Moore play brothers (one athletic, the other desperate to prove himself) whose connection to their father comes from different places. Johnathan Nieves’ Ochoa is sensitive but others underestimate his abilities. Dominic Goodman’s Nash is a subdued object of Cameron’s eye who gets himself in trouble with the entire crew. Kieron Moore’s Slovacek has a temper as fast as his fists, and Angus O’Brien’s Hicks waffles between unpredictable troublemaker with a Joker-like grimace. Heizer is astounding, building a character before our very eyes. He meets every physical challenge head-on, impressively showing that being in touch with yourself is an asset that should bte embraced as a strength to one’s masculinity.
At first, the strongest tether is between Cameron and Ray but it switches to Cameron and Segeant Sullivan, played with hushed volatility by Max Parker. Sullivan begins a tormentor but then grows to become Cameron’s unlikeliest mentor. There’s something in Parker’s eyes–the way they scan the room–before he barks an order to his young troops. While Cameron tries to go undetected, these eight episodes unfold a mystery around Sullivan’s identity that links him to Heizer’s character in a fascinating way. Later in the season, Jones, another closeted recruit with heavier, sadder eyes, captures Cameron’s attention, and him, Cameron, and Sullivan create a compelling study of the push and pull of one’s own self-acceptance.
Some might assume that Boots will tread into familiar territory. While it does pay homage to those who sacrifice for their country, it also highlights how a lot of us feel painted into a corner. Some of us do not think they have a choice in terms of where their life is heading. Do we honor those individuals differently than those who are eager to serve?
Boots is streaming now on Netflix.
