The Pacific

A 10-part HBO mini-series from the creators of "Band of Brothers" telling the intertwined stories of three Marines during America's battle with the Japanese in the Pacific during World War II. Starts March 14.

More info:
http://www.hbo.com/the-pacific/index.html

I'm a big fan of Band of Brothers...so I'm really looking forward to watching this.

Looks awesome.

"Part 5" was pretty wicked. It's funny to see Tim from Jurassic Park again, he sure grew into a lanky bastard. lol

Peleliu looks like it's going to be hell.

I hated hated hated hated hated part 4 Good god it was boring. It was so damn repetitive dialogue wise. Haven't watched 5 yet.

I love the fact that they deal with the whole Psychological aspect of being a soldier in this series.

I forget which episode it was but a father is about to send his son off to war and he says "You know what the worst wounds I treated were? It wasn't the burned flesh or the missing limbs, it was the loss of joy in their eyes. I never want to see that in you."

That's a pretty accurate description of what I went through over in Iraq. I know there's a piece of me that I left over there that I'll never get back after things I had to do and it warped me from the man that I was before I went.

So, yeah, I enjoy the Pacific, it's a fantastic series.

I would have loved a great episode looking at the psychological effect on the mind, but instead we got episode 4. I'm not sure who wrote it, but I have to assume he hadn't written any other episodes.

Is that the one where he's at the hospital?

Alrighty, looked up the episode, so it looked like a ton of down time, but after what he just went through at the Canal plus the other battles, imagine a self rightous prick like his CO was messing with him for no other reason besides he wants a pistol, friends sick as hell/dying, and a friend offing themselves, that's enough to push anyone over the edge. It was a cumulative effect. It made sense that he would snap, I've seen people snap for allot less than what he did.

It's not about him snapping. My problem wasn't the set up to the episode, it was the writing of the meat itself. The first thing anyone who wants to write for the screen (movie or TV) learns is in a script, each scene either has to :

1. Introduce a new character

2. Ask a new question

3. Answer a question

For the majority of the episode, none of those things happened. It was just the same conversation a hundred different ways.

I am on the fence about the series. I REALLY hate the Tom Hanks history lesson voice overs. I don't feel as engaged with the characters as I did with Easy in BoB. I think the formatting, where it started with them in training and followed them through the entire war, just worked better to make me know who they are and care about them.

I'm with you on not being drawn to the characters like I was (though I did watch BoB in about a week on demand, so not having to wait may of helped). One thing that may effect me is just the difference between Marines and other millitary soldiers. The Marines are just bred differently. I had a friend who joined the Marines and when he came back on leave after a few years, he was completely different. And not in a good way. Coupled that with the scene of the Marines shooting to wound and not kill that Japanese soldier ("playing"with him) it just makes me sort of, detached, because theres hardly anyone to root for or like. In Band of Brothers, you could see what killing did to these guys, and so far in the Pacific, they seem to relish it and enjoy it, (except perhaps at the very end of episode 2) and it just makes me uncomfortable a bit, I think.

Part 6 was pretty fucking intense. I won't spoil it for anyone but holy cow what a great episode.


"Woof"

I just finished part 5 and plan to watch part 6 soon. Its really good I plan to get this Boxset ASAP and watch this and Band of Brothers one of these weekends. I've enjoyed the hell out of the series and the fact that this is based on actual events is just awe inspiring. These men went through hell and the stories they are telling just show why they are called "The Greatest Generation."