Netflix's Boots is afraid

Netflix’s Boots transports the audience back to the early ‘90s as closeted and oft-bullied teen Cameron (Miles Heizer) is persuaded by his best friend Ray (Liam Oh)—the only person who’s in on Cameron’s big secret—into joining the Marine Corps together. Fully aware of the perils that lie ahead should anyone discover he’s gay, as it was illegal to be gay in the military at this time, Cameron begins to transform, embracing both growth and devolution simultaneously, as he and his eccentric fellow recruits advance through boot camp and make their way through an intensely toxic environment. I watched these screeners back in late August/early September and have sat with them since, struggling to piece together my thoughts about this series. Boots has a lot of potential, and it’s always nice to have more representation on-screen, but what I’ve ultimately been left with is an overwhelming sense that the series is too afraid to say or do anything meaningful… or, perhaps, the powers that be behind it are.

Granted, not every series needs to have a meaningful message; however, in this case, it does everyone a disservice. Maybe everyone expected Boots to air in a different world, with another individual sitting in the Oval Office, given that it was filmed in 2023 and 2024 and wrapped months before the election. Nonetheless, anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment has been growing over the last decade, and there was an opportunity here to make a real, powerful message on the state of the world and just how swiftly things have deteriorated in our society.

Despite being set three decades prior, Boots is incredibly timely, which is a bitter pill to swallow. Former Fox News anchor and total joke Pete Hegseth has already assisted this administration in banning all transgender individuals from serving in the military. Appeals on this ban are currently pending, but they’ve made it increasingly clear their next steps will be to ban all members of the LGBTQ+ community from service and bring back these antiquated laws should their unjust will be upheld by corrupt courts. Taking the audience back to when this discrimination was in full effect, Boots either isn’t able or chooses not to capture the truth and darkness of the situation. Considering it’s the driving force behind the show’s central conflict, it’s rather odd that it shies away from the brutal reality, instead forcing the audience to suspend their disbelief to accept how relatively easily Cameron’s able to conceal the truth after we’ve already learned he wasn’t able to in high school. On one hand, we’re told there are significant stakes, but the one explicit example of the law in effect throughout these eight episodes is rushed through and somewhat brushed aside.

Similarly, as more young men fall prey to toxic masculinity and conservatism, Boots is afraid to dig its heels in and call a spade a spade. It cannot decide whether this experience is supposed to be horrific with a few positive outcomes or vice versa. Primarily, we see this through Cameron’s internal conflict. He’s desperately trying to survive and be the “man” everyone expects him to be (and has constantly taunted him for falling short of), which comes at the cost of stifling his true self. In dark, uneasy moments, Cameron’s inner monologue comes out in conversation with his shadow self, the part of him who embraces his sexuality and is fully aware of the toll that comes with this path. Likewise, Sergeant Sullivan (Max Parker) is older and more experienced but facing terrible inner conflict as he’s pulled between his life as a Marine and being true to himself. He’s the real example of how dangerous the situation is, not only being gay in the military, but also the price of buying into toxic masculinity. The racism Ray faces for being an Asian-American is another example, but Boots spends so little time exploring it—and by extension, the blatant racism baked into the military-industrial complex—that you could blink and miss it. But, when the series is also flaunting how this life has helped so many others and set them on the right path, as we see with recruits like Slovacek (Kieron Moore) and John Bowman (Blake Burt), the message is too muddled and feels like it’s trying to appeal to all sides.

On another note, Boots struggles to simply develop its flawed characters. In only eight episodes, it feels like there are two or three versions of each character, and each successive version is wholly unearned. Also, the central friendship between Cameron and Ray is too hard to root for from the jump. Ray pushing Cameron to join the anti-gay military is astounding ignorant, and Ray further exacerbates this divide by screwing Cameron over repeatedly throughout boot camp. Lastly, not even the illustrious and talented Vera Farmiga can make the D-plot centered on her character, Barbara, feel necessary enough to justify her status as a series regular.

Overall, Netflix’s Boots is rather disappointing. It could have been something important, with a real and timely message woven into the fabric of the show, but instead opts to take the easy way out for mass appeal and diminishes every aspect of its story. Simply put, there’s nothing of substance here, and it seems highly unlikely that it would change its tune moving forward.