How CW’s ‘Valor’ Stands Apart From Other Fall Military Dramas

Similar to yesterday’s TCA session for CBS’ SEAL Team, the press continued to wonder why there are so many military dramas on the broadcast networks this fall. So today they leaned on stars and EPs of the CW’s Valor for an explanation.

In addition to the CW series about Army helicopter pilots, NBC has the undercover military hero series The Brave bowing in September.

“This is a female-driven military drama, which sets it apart,” said Valor EP Anna Fricke. And like SEAL Team claims to be, Valor isn’t all about the missions but the characters, and in the case of this CW series, there’s a soapy element to it. The series comes at a pivotal time when, according to Fricke, “female pilots are being taken into a combat position.”

“Most of the time there are rules to follow (in the military) and they have to be buttoned up. Nora (Christina Ochoa’s lead character) and her boyfriend can’t touch each other on base. So we get to see how these people fall apart when they’re at home versus at work,” Fricke said.

And as far as all these new shows doting on elite forces, EP Kyle Jarrow said a lot of that has to do with present-day military scenarios. “The reality of warfare is that it’s being done by special ops. It’s not a major ground war. There are special ops operating in over 100 countries, carrying on missions. Warfare is about special ops,” explained the EP.

Jarrow sparked to the idea for Valor since his brother is a vet. “I wanted to write something about military life and what struck me about his experiences. We have a large military and a large country and the percentage of Americans who served is very low. There’s not a lot of knowledge of what the day-to-day military life is,” said Jarrow.

Ochoa and star Matt Barr were also on today’s panel. Valor will premiere on Monday, Oct. 9 at 9PM, and air on the same night as Supergirl as part of the CW’s strong, heroic women night.