China Beach: The Complete Season Two

Most successful television series have a tendency to cruise through their second season, buoyed by the success of their first season and a fear to upset the apple cart too much and lose their fan base before it’s really firmly established. China Beach doesn’t play that way; in fact, the opening two-part episode, Lost and Found, parts 1 & 2, takes just about every major character from that successful first season and shakes their life to the core. Lila takes over the command and, as her first act, throws KC off the base. McMurphy finds out a secret about Nash that threatens their relationship, right before a devastating event changes both their lives forever. It may all sound a bit like a soap opera, but this series never sinks low enough to be anything but honestly compelling and believable, whether its dealing with epic events like the Tet Offensive (Tet ‘68”) and the assignation of MLK or just the normal stuff that  goes on beyond a man and a woman, the stories told here are just as compelling as they were when they first aired back in the 1988-89 season.