Retrieve the Kraken!

That's the same way I feel about Space: Above and Beyond. Right from the beginning, there was more there than in your average space show. And it features a war modeled very much on the modern warfare of the last few decades. There is a definite melding of the futuristic and the all-too-familiar, and they never left the uglier side out. Some of it is rather shocking, and the depiction of the psyche of members of the armed forces during a conflict is engrossing. Nitty gritty, to the max. Dirty and messy, and full of the darker side you'd expect, but never get to see because of political correctness nowadays. Hmm, kind of sounds weird to state it like that, but it's the truth.