Netflix’s ‘Boots’ Deserves A Season 2

Liam Oh and Miles Heizer in ‘Boots’ on Netflix.

Photo by Patti Perret/Netflix

They thought boot camp was hard. They haven’t seen anything yet…

The military dramedy Boots has become a streaming sensation since its Netflix premiere nearly one month ago. In many ways, it’s the modern-day version of the long-running hit series M*A*S*H.

In this modern version, the classic series that centered on a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War is swapped out for the tale of a closeted gay recruit who decides to join the U.S. Marine Corps. and go through the 13 weeks of hell that is known as boot camp. Boots is set in the 1990s, when being gay was still illegal in the military.

So far, Boots has spent four weeks in the Top 10 on Netflix, with more than 23 million views, and season one is standing at attention in the No.1 spot in 16 countries.

Series creator Andy Parker, who adapted Greg Cope White’s memoir “The Pink Marine” for television and served as co-showrunner alongside Jennifer Cecil, said in a phone interview as he and the team awaited news of a second season that, should the show go on, there will be much higher stakes for Miles Heizer’s Cameron Cope and his fellow recruits.

If Netflix gives the green light, Parker knows exactly where he’d want the story to go, and season two will look very different from the first. “In season one, Cameron and all the guys that he meets are on this journey of transformation. Their goal is to become Marines, and the question that we, as an audience, are invested in is, will they make it? Will all of them cross that finish line at the end? And what’s it going to cost them? Each one of them has something they have to overcome and/or face.”

Boots has brought worldwide attention to the Marines, turned an ensemble of mostly unknown actors into A-listers, and put a spotlight on the realities of military life.

In an interview just before the October 9 premiere, White talked about how he turned his book into a TV series with the help of his mentor and friend, the legendary writer-producer Norman Lear, and producer Rachel Davidson.

“I was raised at a time when society was telling me that I was wrong, that I wasn’t wanted, that everything about me was undesirable, and that I had no future and no hope,” explained White, recalling how it felt to be gay in the 1970s. “Norman’s shows had gay storylines, and I got glimpses from those stories that told me I was okay.”

Parker acknowledged how risky it was for White to join the military back then. “The stakes in the show are explicit. It’s illegal for Cameron to be gay in the military. So, if he wants to commit, and cross that line, and become a Marine, he’s going to have to deny who he really is. And that’s a tremendous price. I want the audience to have a sense of victory at the end of the first season, but also a lump in their throats, fearing for Cameron: What’s going to happen to him? What is this going to do to him?”

The eight-episode season ends with the newly minted Marines celebrating the end of boot camp in a bar as news headlines of an impending Gulf War, aka Operation Desert Storm, play on TV. “They had a goal and they made it and became Marines,” stated Parker. “Then the question becomes, all right, what now? Now that you’re Marines, you’re going to have to face the reality of being a Marine, not just in peacetime, but in wartime.”

Parker’s instincts are that Boots would have to find a new depth if it were to be picked up for a second season. “The story would begin to unpack and unfold the reality of what it means for them now that they’ve achieved this goal. What does it feel like to go out and execute that? So much of the show is about what it feels like, and I think that’s why people seem to be responding to it.”

High viewership, praise from critics and fans, and massive social media engagement have been good indicators that the show will go on, but as of today, there is still no official word of a second season from the streamer.

“To see people have a true catharsis by the time they get to the finale has been really interesting to me,” noted Parker. “It’s been so heartening because I think it shows that the emotional reactions people are having are coming from such different points of view, from different kinds of people all over the world. That gives me a sense of hope, because what we set out to do is to tell a universal story, and I’m so heartened that the show seems to be making those connections.”

Military-based series are important because they bring the realities of what it’s like to serve our country to the forefront. As for the timing of Boots amidst recent news headlines involving comments from the Pentagon calling the series “woke garbage,” Parker knows that the show is clearly striking a nerve, which is a good thing.

He told me that he began developing the show back in 2020. “I thought I was going to make a show about a certain time in the U.S. military’s history in the 1990s. It was pre-don’t ask, don’t tell, when it was illegal to be gay in the military. We wanted to investigate that time period; it was going to be a history lesson in some way, for a generation that grew up later and didn’t understand what that was about. We’re certainly seeing echoes today of the kind of policies that people had to endure.”

Parker described the show as an investigation into the emotional, psychological, personal, and spiritual toll that those policies can take on affected people.

“I don’t think Boots has a political agenda beyond that. I think there’s more of a human agenda here. The show, to me, is an exercise in empathy,” added Parker. “What you experience if you watch the show through the season is people who come to the Marines from all kinds of motivations and backgrounds, who don’t think they’re going to have anything to connect on whatsoever, and then discover that through this process and hardship, they’re forced to confront each other and themselves. And in doing that, they form unexpected connections.”

Parker has his opinions as to why the show has resonated with so many people. “We’re starved for narratives of unexpected connection and grace in the midst of difficulty. I think Boots delivers that. For me, that’s what this show is about, and will continue to be about.”

Boot camp turned these boys into men. What will war do to them?