Boots has proven to be a sleeper hit for Netflix, the military drama placing high on Netflix’s top 10 list among much more high-profile shows. Based on a book called The Pink Marine by Greg Cope, it chronicles a young gay man’s experience in the Marines.
Entertainment Weekly got the idea to ask the Pentagon itself for comment about the show, seemingly to provoke a fiery answer, and they got one.
When asked about Boots, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson replied, not mentioning the show by name, but lambasting Netflix all the same for its LGBTQ programming:
“Under President Trump and Secretary 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.” Then she continued, saying they “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.”
So, while saying there is no preference about servicemembers so long as they can meet uniform standards, there is a clear shot at Netflix and its programming. While Boots was the show asked about here, the reference to “woke garbage” aimed at children is no doubt also linked to a recent social media campaign that traveled all the way up to Elon Musk, with right-wing figures citing specific children’s shows that contained LGBTQ characters. Among the shows cited were The Baby-Sitters Club, Dead End: Paranormal Park and a singular scene in CoComelon. The first two shows were already cancelled years ago, but the “Cancel Netflix” trend took off for about a week.
Dead-End: Paranormal Park
Netflix
Netflix likely does not care what the Pentagon, of all places, thinks about its content, and there are no reports the cancellation campaign had a significant impact on subscriptions. As for Boots, it is not billed as a limited series, but it is based on a memoir, so it’s not clear if it will return for season 2. Its performance and its low budget would normally indicate that if there was material, a show like this would, in fact, be renewed for season 2.
You might imagine that the Pentagon and this administration have larger issues on their plate than to get into some scrum with Netflix, but at this point, it’s somewhat impossible to guess what happens in the great “woke wars” sweeping the country in regard to media. We’ll see if this is the end, and what happens to Boots from here. Netflix has not yet commented on any of this.
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