HBO The Pacific

[AstroWolf]

i just saw the episode with leckie in the nut house...which one is that? should i keep watching from there? did i miss anything? tell me what to do.

[jake431]

You saw episode 4, I believe. Is ep4 the first you've seen?

[fffffut]

i just saw the episode with leckie in the nut house...which one is that? should i keep watching from there? did i miss anything? tell me what to do.

watch all of them

[Magsåvningsreserven]

wow, part 9 was absolutely brilliant again, superb

but where the fuck is Leckie??

[sybaritical]

Snafu reminds me of cheep.

[Tim_Whatley]

am I the only one that has been let down by the Pacific?

I know it's not really fair because my expectations were so high, but this show doesn't even come close to how awesome the original was.

I felt as though I knew the characters from BOB much better than this show, I think they did a poor job of developing them (to the point where I couldn't remember their names until way too far into the show). Also, once I sit down and think about it, I realize that I don't really give a shit if any of them live or die. Furthermore, I don't think any of them really give a shit if the others live or die. Maybe this is the psychological difference between the European theatre and the Pacific theatre, and that difference is manifested in the behavior of the marines, but I really don't get any sense of brotherhood at all. The only two soldiers I ever felt even had any kind of bond with one another were Sid and his friend from home (who wasn't even happy to see Sid, and they fought together for all of like 10 minutes).

I suppose in the latest episode snafu and sid seem to be becoming friends. but for the most part I feel like everyone sees everyone else as an inconvenience. Also, I really don't like that snafu character, something about how slow they seem, almost like the director was trying to make that character "spooky" or something.

I dunno, I can't really critique things well, I just know that the original blew the doors off of this one...hopefully it finishes strong, but I almost wish this one had come out first because I would have appreciated it more, and likely still would have been blown away by BOB.

thoughts?

[AstroWolf]

all i know is that it would suck nuts to have the euro war end, and have to keep going in the pacific, dudes in the eu were getting laid and rocking out while these dudes were eating shit.

[jake431]

I think most people have that reaction. The European war has been lionized by everyone since the end of the war. The Pacific war has been largely ignored in America. Based on the memoirs I've read from Pacific soldiers, as well as my Grandfather's own memoirs, I think the show has been very accurate portraying the mundane awfulness of that theatre.

Also keep in mind Band of Brothers was based on a book which was altered by the writers of the show for dramatic purposes. The Pacific has been more true to the original material.

Lastly, consider that the Marines, while elite in much the same way as the Airborne is, as it played out in the Pacific theatre, the Marines were basically like the grunts in the European theatre (who conveniently were offscreen in BoB) - people who were in for the duration, given insufficient equipment, and never sent home, unless, broken mentally, damaged physically, or killed outright.

All in all, I think the show conveys the brutality much better than BoB did precisely because it doesn't attempt to frame their actions as a crusade.

Just my two cents.