Netflix has been getting right up the nose of Donald Trump’s Pentagon with its hit military drama, Boots, over its 1990s-set story of a gay high school student in the Marine Corps. The show has been a hit with critics and audiences, but received a damning verdict from the Pentagon press secretary, Kingsley Wilson, who felt that it was completely justified to label the series as “woke garbage.”
Boots debuted on Netflix at number one on the global chart and number three on the U.S. chart, gaining momentum very quickly on the back of some strong critical praise and word of mouth. The synopsis for the series reads:
“In 1990, a bullied, gay high school student named Cameron joins the Marine Corps with his straight best friend, Ray — a dangerous move when being gay in the military meant jail time or worse. As these two friends plunge into Marine Corps boot camp, where the landmines are both literal and metaphorical, they join a platoon of young men on a harrowing journey of transformation.”
In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, Wilson shared a reaction to the LGBTQ+ series that was probably not the most unexpected attack on the subject matter. Wilson said:
“Under President Trump and Secretary [Pete] Hegseth, the U.S. military is getting back to restoring the warrior ethos. Our standards across the board are elite, uniform, and sex-neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man, a woman, gay, or straight. Officials will not compromise our standards to satisfy an ideological agenda, unlike Netflix, whose leadership consistently produces and feeds woke garbage to their audience and children.”
‘Boots’ Is Walking All Over the Netflix Chart
Regardless of how the Pentagon feels about the latest Netflix hit, it is clear that they are in a minority in their negative opinion of the show. Being based on true events, it is hard to argue that that story is a complete work of fiction and that the events it depicts did not happen in a similar way to how they are portrayed. In fact, for many people, the show is one that “feels necessary.”
FandomWire’s Callie Hanna calls the series “a genuinely solid show with an excellent ensemble cast,” while Jen Chaney of the New York Times adds that “the show demonstrates that individuals from all sorts of backgrounds potentially have a place in America’s military and, by extension, America itself.”
Whatever the Pentagon’s statement about “warrior ethos” is meant to mean to anyone, it clearly isn’t stopping Boots from putting its foot down and leaving a mark. The series has scored 93% and 87% with critics and audiences, respectively, on Rotten Tomatoes, and its place on the Netflix chart shows that a lot of subscribers have been adding the comedy drama to their watchlist regardless.