TOUR OF DUTY is a Vietnam War show following a single Platoon of US GI's. In the first series they are out in the jungle. In the second series it gets more soap-ish as they end up in Saigon. In the third and final series they end up assisting a Special Forces unit. I have only watched the first series because I couldn't get any further.At heart this show is like COMBAT! A core of characters, a number of redshirts and a different mission every week. The show has some simply superb history behind it with excellent costumes, good sets and historically based situations (often cribbed from memoirs). The grunts even move like grunts. It is also excellent to see the sheer range of story lines. Combined with the statistic that flashes up at the beginning of each show (a different one every week), the show has some real educational quality, covering the gamut of what infantry in Vietnam might see.However because this isn't post-watershed TV the blood is pretty light, the main characters never die or get wounded (or only very, very rarely) and the enemy often verge on the stupid. The lack of threat to the main characters is particularly problematic because it robs a lot of the tension from the series. I'm in two minds about the lack of hard- hitting commentary on Vietnam. Because there can be no drug abuse, no rape, no real representation of the worst horrors of war, it cheapens the series a little. On the other hand the show has a valuable educational purpose and adding all the nasty bits of Vietnam would only prevent kids from being allowed to watch it. There are also a handful of ridiculous plot moments or dreadful attempts at comedy. Yet this show tries its best and deserves respect for that.The actors are generally pretty decent, although the episodic format means that the characters largely remain the same throughout the whole series, with very little development. Contrary to some on here I wouldn't call the cast outstanding. They do a good job, especially for young guys, but they are hardly world class and often verge on the hammy. The youth and lack of fame of the cast does work to their benefit however in adding to the reality of the series.Ultimately the long series length, the episodic structure and the lightness tell against it in this modern world of TV boxsets. Watching an adventure a week on TV was probably pretty fun but trying to watch more than that on DVD is often a little boring as the 80's cheese and lack of change in the characters grates on the viewer.

"Tour of Duty" makes my top 10 of combat TV series. I think it presents a more realistic view than the movies presenting one extreme situation, and compares to "Combat" and "Band of Brothers" (WWII era). It may have some faults due to artistic license, but I find more interesting details while viewing the DVDs than I noticed originally."Tour of Duty" tries to present hard questions, from a soldier on the ground's point of view and his understanding of the situation. It shows the ruthlessness of the VC enemy fighting for homeland, and the uniformed NVA enemy. Sometimes the two fought with each other adding to the complex problem of identifying the enemy.The real politics of the US government in Washington, DC and Vietnam is another story that begins at the end of WWII when huge shipments of arms not needed for invading Japan were sent to Vietnam from Okinawa, Japan. The books of Col. Fletcher Prouty are a better source for that. However, a villager in "Tour of Duty" curiously has a WWII era M1 Garand rifle and know how to use it. My question is were does he find the ammo, since I believe this fires the less common 30.06 round? I like this series for the good acting and Terrance Knox as the Sergeant that holds things together, and looks after his men. It doesn't answer everything about Vietnam, but provides a better understanding of the what it was like there. The show features a realistic variety of soldiers of all backgrounds, and presented the problems of Americans trying to deal with survival under poor conditions, their sense of duty, their growing doubts, and wanting to believe that the end results would be worth the high cost.The series is still surprisingly good.

"Tour of Duty" still is the best TV series about war ever made for American TV.The mood is perfect, the acting is great and the story lines are interesting. I haven't see it since it originally ran so I can't tell you if it has aged well but I'm guessing it has. Also, I'm not a Vietnam veteran so I can't tell you how accurate it is. I'm guessing they take some serious liberties with reality!It's not a good choice if you've seen all the episodes of MASH or Hogans Heroes and want something similar--- it's a completely different than those.But it perfectly elicits the mixed mood of agitation, melancholy, moral ambiguity yet optimism of the 60s.

This was a pretty good, well acted and directed 80's war drama based in Vietnam. Well the first season was excellent, but afterwords, while still remaining quite watchable just wasn't as compelling as that first season due to the fact that 'the Powers that be' seemed content to make the show more like the lesser artistically, yet bigger ratings-wise, "China Beach". China Beach while being a good show in it's own right, was detrimental to this show which was a shame. So in summation, you can't go wrong with Season 1 of this one. Just don't get it on DVD, as with all the music that's omitted and changed, it just doesn't feel the same which is very sad indeed.My Grade: A