It’s not the easiest thing to convince someone that they should check out a TV show that lasted [checks] a half of a season. You either think that such a show was cancelled for a good reason or that, if it actually happens to be good, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment 13 episodes from now when it abruptly ends. Even so, I think Enlisted is worth the risk.

Apart from M*A*S*H, there really haven’t been many military sitcoms (and certainly none in the last couple of decades), which is weird when you actually consider it. There’s got to be a lot of comedic gold in the military profession, and yet networks seem to skirt around it in favor of well-trod areas. But then along came Enlisted in 2014, which managed to walk that fine line of getting laughs out of the military without making fun of it.

Fox, which never has done a great job keeping promising shows on the air, gave Enlisted a horrible time slot and basically shot it in the foot before it really had a chance. And that’s a crying shame, because it’s a genuinely funny and engaging show that I’ve watched start-to-quick-finish several times now.

Enlisted is set at Fort McGee in Florida, a fictional base which has most of its troops deployed overseas. The only people left behind make up the rear detachment, the troops responsible for base upkeep. Naturally, they aren’t the crack troops of the U.S. Army, but they… mean well?

The show starts as Sgt. Pete Hill returns from a tour of duty in Afghanistan after assaulting an officer. Demoted, Pete is assigned to head up a platoon of misfits that includes, oddly enough, both of his younger brothers: cynical Derrick and overly emotional and gullible Randy. There’s also a competing unit led by rival/potential love interest Jill Perez, but her platoon doesn’t really come into the story very much.

There’s a little bit of tension as Pete feels humiliated at the post and his brothers chafe a bit under his leadership, but that quickly fades away to what is the core of Enlisted: brotherly relationships. I am totally serious about this, but I will take any sitcom setup that’s more about familial relationships than will-they-or-won’t-they love stories any day of the week. I think there’s so much potential in brothers and sisters hanging out on screen, especially since families like the Hills come with a load of backstory and traditions. Pete, Randy, and Derrick are a hoot to watch as they insult, support, and goof with each other.

In the zippy 13-episode run, you can see Enlisted carefully feeling out what it wants to be. There’s some mild friction with a smarmy West Point Lieutenant, some learning from father figure Commander Sgt. Major Cody (an always-excellent Keith David), a few nods toward the difficulties of deployment on relationships, and a whole lot of dorky people doing dorky things. It actually reminded me a little of the earlier seasons of M*A*S*H, when the cast would take every opportunity to subvert the boundaries of military life, but again, Enlisted doesn’t have much of a bite to its humor. It isn’t out to take the Army down a peg, just to use a base and the military trappings as a different kind of setting for wacky sitcom tales.

The way I deal with Enlisted’s sadly truncated run is to view it as a rather long movie instead of a shortened show. While it certainly doesn’t wrap up a lot of the little plot threads that it dangles all over the place, Enlisted’s final episode does a great job being a series finale of sorts with a big party, emotional catharsis, and some decent laughs. Yeah, it’s a shame Enlisted didn’t get a good three or four seasons, because I really do see it going the distance there, but it was a nice treat to stumble upon a while back, and I wanted to share it with you.