you creamed it, you ninny!

watching my way through m*a*s*h and i'm awestruck by how much the show does not valorise the practice of military medicine...? the sense of contempt that the text of the show has towards war, the military and american institutions also extends to medicine in some inexplicable way. they're saving lives out there, they're good work but it's not important bcs they shouldn't have needed to do it at all. hawkeye shouldn't have to stitch up kids on his operating table bcs the kids shouldn't have ended up there anyway. neither should've hawkeye himself. at the end of "the late captain pierce", when bj is trying to get hawkeye off digger's bus, he doesn't give rallying crying about how noble and important their work is. bcs it isn't and they know it. hawkeye is keenly aware of his moral duty but it doesnt seem enlightening or revelatory - it's a noose around his neck. i'm in season 4 rn and the most dashing, "heroic" acts of medicine they do - when they help that north korean soldier in "the bus" or the girl blown up by the landmine in "welcome to korea" - are when they actively say a big ol' fuck you to their roles and responsibilities as army surgeon

i really enjoy how even beyond 'they shouldn't have ended up there,' hawkeye is SEVERAL times forced to grapple with the knowledge that in many ways he is only healing them enough to chuck them back into the grinder, begging the question of whether the healing is even a kindness or moral imperative at all. if the healing isn't damnation in and of itself.

not counting introductions. the first thing bj hears hawkeye say is "I missed trapper by ten minutes TEN LOUSY MINUTES" and the first thing hawkeye hears bj say is "anything I can help with? can I help?" and they put this on television in 1975 and we all already know this why am I telling you. it's so dark in here

This!! This is what I'm talking about!