The Long Road Home (miniseries)

The Long Road Home is an American drama miniseries created by Mikko Alanne. It is based on the 2007 book The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family by Martha Raddatz, which tells the story of a U.S. Army unit during the first day of the siege of Sadr City (مدينة الصدر) in 2004. The series stars Michael Kelly, Jason Ritter, Kate Bosworth, Sarah Wayne Callies, Jeremy Sisto, Noel Fisher, Jon Beavers, E. J. Bonilla, Jorge Diaz, Ian Quinlan, Darius Homayoun and Patrick Schwarzenegger. The miniseries premiered on National Geographic on November 7, 2017.

Cast

 * Michael Kelly as LTC Gary Volesky
 * Jason Ritter as Troy Denomy
 * Kate Bosworth as Gina Denomy
 * Sarah Wayne Callies as Leann Volesky
 * Jeremy Sisto as SGT Robert Miltenberger
 * Noel Fisher as PFC Tomas Young
 * Jon Beavers as SGT Eric Bourquin
 * E. J. Bonilla as LT Shane Aguero
 * Jorge Diaz as SPC Israel Garza
 * Ian Quinlan as SPC Robert Arsiaga
 * Darius Homayoun as Jassim Al-Lani
 * Patrick Schwarzenegger as SGT Ben Hayhurst
 * Katherine Willis as Cathy Smith
 * Franklin Silverio as SPC Acevedo
 * Joshua Brennan as SGT Jackson
 * Joey Luthman as SPC Jonathan Riddell
 * Thomas McDonell as SPC Carl Wild
 * Devonne Palmer as CPL Allan Alexander
 * Charlie Parrish as Burkholder
 * Micah Pediford as CPL Coleman
 * Devyn Placide as PVT Derrick Perry
 * Alex Ross as SFC Jerry Swope
 * Ezekiel Z. Swinford as SPC Matt Fisk
 * Roland Buck III as SPC Rafael Martin
 * May Calamawy as Faiza
 * Rana Haddad as Samira
 * Peter Malek as Essam
 * Laith Nakli as Alim
 * Bruce Peacock as SSG Haubert
 * Carter Redwood as Pedro Guzman
 * Jill Blackwood as Belinda Miltenberger
 * Mike Davis as CPT Dylan Randazzo
 * Andrew Michael Johnson as SPC Joshua Rogers
 * Ian Pala as SPC Seth Weibley
 * Christopher Dontrell Piper as SGT Reginald Butler
 * John Trentacoste Jr. as SPC Sean Crabbe
 * Luis Amory as SGT Miranda
 * Brandon Charles Chesser as SPC Jonathan Denny
 * Karina Ortiz as Lupita Garza
 * Sebastian Cook as Denomy's Soldier
 * Kenny Leu as SGT Eddie Chen
 * Parker Weathersbee as Elijah Aguero
 * Roby Attal as CPT David Mathias
 * Josh Cavazos as LT Clay Spicer
 * David DeLao as Chaplain Pena
 * Cotie Domm as PFC Luke Fournier
 * Garrett Graham as CPT John Moore
 * Charlotte Delaney Riggs as Chapel Kid
 * Gurie Sheffield as SFC Butler
 * Oriana Ledesma as High-school Student and Denomy’s Soldier
 * Duncan Coe as LT Cannon
 * Patrick Gathron as SPC Ahmed Cason
 * Joshua Phipps as SPC Stephen Hiller
 * Rochelle Robinson as Cindy Sheehan
 * Josh Vinyard as Jerry Bune
 * Josh Blaylock as SPC Packwood
 * Rumor Ledesma as Child Church Attendee

Critical reception
Maureen Ryan writing for Variety gave the show a mixed review pointing out some strengths but perceiving it to be painful to watch and propagandistic in tone at times with major weaknesses throughout. She lauds the show's success at depicting the logistics of war and creating empathy for American soldiers and the ethical choices they were faced with during their missions in the US Invasion of Iraq. She however finds that these intimate psychological portrayals of extreme situations lack well written characterisations of the protagonists one is made to empathise with, though she does laud the actors for their performances of these roles finding the fault in the writing of the show. To her dialogue is cumbersome and cliché and the scenes away from the battlefield are superfluous and needlessly stretch the show's runtime thereby sacrificing a lot of its watchability. Ryan observes the tone of the show to at times be highly propagandistic making the show itself almost feel like propaganda for either the United States Army or a "narrowly defined vision of America" whose ability to create any kind of poignant psychological effect however is foiled by the show's generic and predictable writing outside of combat scenes. According to her the show at times attempts to create empathy for the Iraqis and their experience of the invasion and subsequent massacres. These attempts fall short based on a lack of development for any single Iraqi character; a quality they supposedly share with most characters in the show.