Bullet Points: Salvage Marines (Season 1)

In the early days of my streaming life, Popcorn Flix was a frequent stop. I must admit over the years as the streaming options increased, my visits to Popcorn Flix became almost non-existent. Until now…

Popcorn Flix and other ad supported streamers have taken a page from the paid subscription services they compete with by introducing original and exclusive programming. Last week Popcorn Flix debuted the original series Salvage Marines starring Casper Van Dien of Starship Troopers fame and the the series was not afraid to put CVD in some very Starship Trooper-esque situations over the course of the six episodes…

• Episode 1: The first episode, titled “Tango Platoon”, checks all the boxes of what a series premiere should do… 1) Establish the big picture. We learn that humankind has colonized space and that two mega corporations, Grotto and Helion, have been battling over who controls what planet resulting in a never-ending war… 2) Introduce the hero of the story, in this case Samuel Hyst (Casper Van Dien, ). Like many in colonized space, Sam finds himself buried in debt and in indentured servitude to the Grotto Corporation. Sam has a pregnant wife named Sura (Linara Washington) and the rate he is going he will never pay off his life debt and end up passing it on to his son, just like his father did to him… 3) But there is a solution to Sam’s problem but it is a risky one, Sam is going to enlist to be one of Grotto’s Reapers and just like that our hero’s quest is established.

• Enlist: Sam convinces his ex-con best friend Ben Takeda (Peter Shinkoda, The Predator) to go on this quest with him and both men sign up for two years with the Reapers (Research Exploration And Procurement Engineer Regimen for those in the know) or as they are also known, The Salvage Marines. We get some basic training montages and by the end of Episode 1, Sam and Tak have made it through basic training and officially part of Tango Platoon and on the way to their first mission. Some of the other notable members of Tango Platoon include Jada Sek (played by Casper Van Dien’s wife Jennifer Wenger), who is attracted to Sam and it is obvious she is going to be a temptation for Sam as the series progresses… especially if his shore leave keeps getting canceled by the powers that be. And Harold Marr (Shane Graham), who unlike the others, is well off financially but much like he has rebelled against his wealthy family it isn’t long before that rebel spirit comes through where Marr’s Grotto “family” is concerned… and Boss Wynn Marsters (Kevin Porter), who is your classic drill sergeant type and quite believable in that role.
• Sophomore Slump: The first episode was so good that Episode Two almost felt like a bit of a letdown… however by the second half of Episode 3, I was back into it as the emotion and drama ramped up when some expected Tango Platoon personnel changes went down… I say expected because in the Salvage Marines, the hazard pay is high and the survival rate is low. In fact that line, can be heard at the start of every episode during the opening narration done by CVD himself.

• The Action: Salvage Marines features what I could best describe as video game style action, in fact if you told me this series was based on a video game I would not have questioned it for a second. For the record, Salvage Marines is actually based on the Necrospace novels written by Sean-Michael Argo. But back to the action… we see the Salvage Marines not only battle against Helion soldiers, but giant robots, large mechanical spiders, giant space worms and a half man/half robot with moobs. However there’s another battle brewing between the Salvage Marines and their corporate overlords, specifically Tyrol Gaius (Gianni Capaldi). Tyrol is high on the Grotto food chain and is the man responsible for selecting the missions for the Salvage Marines, who he treats as expendable assets and for the most part is the face of the corporate greed, making him the easiest character to hate.

As I alluded to in my intro, Salvage Marines almost felt like an homage to Starship Troopers in many ways and if you loved Casper Van Dien as the young, brash Johnny Rico, you’ll more than likely love him as the grizzled, grounded Samuel Hyst (or Prybar as his platoon calls him). I will say the frequency of the commercial breaks did take me out of some of the episodes. I saw Shaq so many times while watching I started thinking he was a member of the cast… but I realize the commercials are a necessary evil for the free entertainment I was being provided.

I will now provide you these Bonus Bullet Points, free of charge…

• If You Ever: …wanted to see a hologram Armand Assante, Salvage Marines is the series for you. Assante plays the head of Grotto, Kelkis Morturi, and can be seen through out the series in hologram form either spreading Grotto propaganda to the people or communicating with his chief weasel, Tyrol Gaius.
• The Grotto Motto: “This is the job!”
• Co-Ed Showers: One of the Starship Troopers-esque moments I keep mentioning comes early on in the series, when we get a co-ed shower scene involving the members of Tango Platoon.
• If You Ever: …wanted to see Casper Van Dien take a collection call, then Salvage Marines is the series for you. I have never known anyone to take collection calls as often as Sam does in Salvage Marines.