CBS has always enjoyed delivering heart-pounding action and hit shows like S.W.A.T. and SEAL Team are a testament to that. These action dramas have been known to deliver fast-paced, engaging storylines without holding back on the stunts and fight sequences. On these shows, the situation is always fluid, and anything can happen. Here, even the main characters are not safe from getting killed off. It was the same way on The Unit, the mission-driven CBS action drama that premiered back in 2006. The show tells the story of a group of covert military operatives whose existence has remained a secret for years. Much like on SEAL Team and S.W.A.T., The Unit also goes beyond the men and the mission. After all, all this highly classified work can take its toll back home.
‘The Unit’ Is Based on the Real-Life Story of a Secret Military Group, Delta Force
The Unit is a moniker often used to refer to the Delta Force, an elite commando team in the U.S. Army that secretly operates in some of the most hostile environments in the world. This covert military group has been constantly engaged in combat since its formation in the late '70s. Over the years, Delta commandos have taken part in some of the U.S. military’s most daring operations, some of which ended in tragedy. Among them is the ill-fated Operation Eagle Claw in 1980 where the U.S. attempted to rescue 53 American hostages in Tehran. Years later, in 1993, Delta operators also took part in Operation Gothic Serpent in Mogadishu where two Black Hawk choppers went down after being shot by militias.
Meanwhile, unlike the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team, the Delta Force rarely gets any acknowledgment in official reports and press statements. As a 2015 report by The Washington Post also noted, Delta operators tend to keep things ambiguous when describing their affiliations, only mentioning that they’re part of an “Army Compartmented Element” or “Special Mission Unit.” And when a Delta operator was killed in action in Iraq, the Pentagon only referred to the commando’s unit as “Headquarters U.S. Army Special Operations Command.”
That said, this has done little to keep Hollywood out. For instance, Chuck Norris headlined the 1986 action flick The Delta Force alongside Lee Marvin, which would become one of his best movies of all time. This later led to the sequel, Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection. A few years after that, Delta operators also figured prominently in Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down, the 2001 action drama that delves into the tragic events surrounding the failed operation in Mogadishu. Several years later, award-winning filmmaker and playwright David Mamet also decided to bring the story of Delta Force to the silver screen.
It all started when he met Eric Haney, a retired covert operative who detailed his experiences in Delta Force in his memoir Inside Delta Force: The Story of America's Elite Counterterrorist Unit. Following the release of his memoir, Haney received several offers to adapt the book into a film, but he wasn’t interested. Haney had always envisioned that his book would be better off as a TV series. “It tells the story more fully about this world and this life,” he explained during an interview with Today. To complete the team, Mamet also brought in The Shield creator Shawn Ryan (the very same person who would become a showrunner on S.W.A.T. and fight for the reversal of that show’s cancelation) as an executive producer. CBS soon greenlit their pitch.
In ‘The Unit,’ Everyone’s Identity Is Top Secret
Ryan’s The Unit is centered around a small group of operators carrying out clandestine missions while passing themselves off as the 303rd Logistical Studies group. Of course, much like on SEAL Team, The Unit has several teams ready to deploy, but the show mainly focuses on the five-man Alpha team that is overseen by Colonel Tom Ryan (Robert Patrick). On the field, they are led by Jonas (Dennis Haysbert), while the team’s second in command is Mack (Max Martini). Meanwhile, the newer recruit Bob (Scott Foley) takes over as Jonas’ number two when Mack is deployed elsewhere. Rounding out the group are Hector (Demore Barnes) and Charles (Michael Irby). Together, the men pull off varied missions – hostage rescue, assassinations, disruptions, intelligence gathering – before returning to a base where not everyone is aware of the existence of their black ops group.
In The Unit, however, it’s not just the men living pretend lives daily. Their families, who also live on base, do the same. They keep the existence of the Unit a secret like everyone’s life depends on it, because one more person who knows about them is one more person who could put everyone’s lives in danger. Jonas’ wife, Molly (Regina Taylor), is the mother hen who helps keep the other wives in line. She also offers support and assistance to other Unit families with the help of Mack’s wife, Tiffy (Abby Brammell) and Bob’s wife, Kim (Audrey Marie Anderson). Admittedly, living life this way eventually takes its toll on everyone. Jonas, Mack, and Bob deal with marriage tensions on the show, while Hector and Charles struggle with making real connections outside the group. For these men, it’s never easy to open up to someone who doesn’t know what they do for a living.
‘The Unit’ Examines the Challenges and Consequences of Operating in the Shadows
In The Unit, there is a clear distinction between the Unit and other military units around them, including the Army. As Molly told Kim when she first arrived on base, “You’re not in the Army. You’re in the Unit.” On the show, the Unit operates with its own dedicated group of intelligence and support personnel. Much like on SEAL Team, it is only this team that can deploy Alpha and other Unit teams.
As for the missions, they vary widely throughout the episodes. While many take place abroad, others hit close to home. For instance, Jonas leads a team taking down a group of terrorists in Wyndham after they take a commercial plane hostage in the pilot episode. Later on, he and his men are on the scene when a rebel group attempts to destabilize the U.S. government by assassinating the president-elect and vice-president-elect. Meanwhile, the entire Alpha team and their families also later become targets of a biological attack after a group of terrorists introduces chlorine gas into their town’s water supply. At the same time, the team also deal with threats from within when powerful people attempt to dismantle the Unit after Jonas and his men discover the CIA’s floating prison for detainees.
While the missions and situations featured on the show may be fictional, The Unit aims for realism as much as possible, especially when it comes to how the work affects the team and their loved ones. For Jonas and the rest of the team, there’s a personal cost to each mission. It can be the growing emotional distance that develops between them and their loved ones or the family milestones they don’t get to be a part of. Sometimes, missions also take a toll on their health. At one point, Bob struggled with opiate addiction after he was forcibly injected with drugs during a mission.
By the time The Unit reaches its fourth and final season, Jonas, his men, and even their families have certainly gone through the wringer in this underrated television drama. They have engaged with more terrorists and other sinister groups than anyone can imagine. They have faced threats at home and abroad head on. And they've had to say goodbye to one of their own. It’s all too much for most people, but not for them. In The Unit, it’s just another day.
The Unit is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.
