*OFFICIAL THREAD* "THE PACIFIC" on HBO

[Sheik Yerbouti]

I was nothing but disappointed with last nights episode, while it furthered the character development of some of the Marines, it was complete filler and fluff that could have been incorporated into a much more fulfilling episode.
Even if they showed them interacting with the Navy crew, talking about Guadalcanal, it would have shaped them, and they could have had mini flashes to leave in Australia. Sorry, when you have only 10 episodes to portray the Pacific Theater in WWII, you don't waste 1 hour of that 10 on showing the men on leave.
My father was a paratrooper in WWII part of the 541st Infantry, so this really was going to be a special telling series for me. I know my dad wasn't a Marine, but he was brave enough to jump from a plane and helped keep the airborne division around.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/541st_Parachute_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)

In a word, last nights episode was filler.

 

[brblx]

i've only watched the first episode so far.

all that can be said for sure is that this is not going to be anywhere near as good as band of brothers. period. that shit hooked you at the first episode, and every single one after it was fantastic.

after hearing about ep3 of the pacific, i'm not sure i want to even bother watching anymore.

 

[Train]

i've only watched the first episode so far.

...sure is that this is not going to be anywhere near as good as band of brothers. period...

Thats a pretty stupid thing to say.

 

[brblx]

exactly how is it that a stupid thing to say? especially given that i gave my reasoning after what you just quoted?

BoB had you invested in the characters by the end of the first episode, and every single episode was stellar, in all different sorts of ways.

after an hour with these characters, i don't give a shit, and apparently three episodes in and we've already got a filler episode.

 

[Train]

exactly how is it that a stupid thing to say? especially given that i gave my reasoning after what you just quoted?

BoB had you invested in the characters by the end of the first episode, and every single episode was stellar, in all different sorts of ways.

after an hour with these characters, i don't give a shit, and apparently three episodes in and we've already got a filler episode.

It's stupid because you've seen 1 of 10.

If the 3rd episode of Pacific is "filler" then so are the first TWO of BoB. (make that 3, the last episode consisted of playing baseball and getting tans)

Just because BoB gave you character development in the 1st episode doesnt mean you have to replicate that in every other war movie/series.

Seriously, you guy ae being fuckin retarded.

 

[brblx]

you people need to just not post on the internet if you're going to get so butthurt over everything.

 

[techs]

I have not found The Pacific to be anywhere as entertaining as BoB. I am not comparing them, just rating TP on its own.

If there had been no BoB I would still have to give TP a rating somewhere between Meh and a little higher than Meh.

 

[purbeast0]

i just want to say that the intro to The Pacific is probably my favorite intro i've ever seen in a show.

the music gives me goosebumps every time i hear it.

 

[soulcougher73]

i just want to say that the intro to The Pacific is probably my favorite intro i've ever seen in a show.

the music gives me goosebumps every time i hear it.

Not to complain but BoB intro music and images were better

 

[GTaudiophile]

Not to complain but BoB intro music and images were better

Yep. Hans Zimmer failed with this one...and I say that as a big fan of his.

 

[Regs]

It's stupid because you've seen 1 of 10.

If the 3rd episode of Pacific is "filler" then so are the first TWO of BoB. (make that 3, the last episode consisted of playing baseball and getting tans)

Just because BoB gave you character development in the 1st episode doesnt mean you have to replicate that in every other war movie/series.

Seriously, you guy ae being fuckin retarded.

No need for personnel attacks. Just because it's a show you idolize and a war you romance over sucks, does not mean you're any better to judge!

Muu hahahaha *evil grin*

 

[techs]

Bump because its on in a couple of hours.

Hope this episode lives up to what I have been hearing about it.

 

[TheVrolok]

I think The Pacific is really getting better. I wasn't too into it after the first two episodes, but now I can say I'm really enjoying it.

 

[Arkaign]

I just caught episode 4, it was pretty interesting. I just re-watched BoB in 1080p with the gf, she really enjoyed it.

It's really difficult to compare these two series, and I'll reserve my complete personal opinion and judgments until I can see this to completion. For now, my thoughts are that the BoB original source material was just more complete and focused. It was probably a monumentally more difficult task to make sense out of the complete chaos of the marines in the Pacific theatre in contrast to following primarily one company through their campaign. Also note that Stephen Ambrose died a while back, and his loss probably made this incredible task a bit more difficult.

Episode 5 looks like it's going to considerably heat things up.

I think time was a major problem for this series. I know they had to drop a lot of things to make the series fit, but it still feels rushed (eg; several month battles/engagements being boiled down to a single episode). It would have been golden if they were able to get the budget approval for at least two seasons of this series. We can at least hope that the DVD/BR release has some good extras whenever it drops.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I just caught episode 4, it was pretty interesting. I just re-watched BoB in 1080p with the gf, she really enjoyed it.

It's really difficult to compare these two series, and I'll reserve my complete personal opinion and judgments until I can see this to completion. For now, my thoughts are that the BoB original source material was just more complete and focused. It was probably a monumentally more difficult task to make sense out of the complete chaos of the marines in the Pacific theatre in contrast to following primarily one company through their campaign. Also note that Stephen Ambrose died a while back, and his loss probably made this incredible task a bit more difficult.

Episode 5 looks like it's going to considerably heat things up.

I think time was a major problem for this series. I know they had to drop a lot of things to make the series fit, but it still feels rushed (eg; several month battles/engagements being boiled down to a single episode). It would have been golden if they were able to get the budget approval for at least two seasons of this series. We can at least hope that the DVD/BR release has some good extras whenever it drops.

That is a good comment about source material.

In the decade between the two series, what massive chunk of living WWII vets died? I know my grandfather did.

 

[Bucks]

Great episode tonight. Lots of action. The previews for the next one look good too. The guys look so badass strafing while just unloading their Thompsons

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

I was really looking forward to last nights episode, but 40 minutes into more 'character building' they finally get to battle. And it lasts for all of 10 minutes. WTF!????!?!?!
Each episode is more disappointing than the last.
For all the hardship talked about during the intros by Tom Hanks, there's VERY little conflict shown.

 

[rudder]

I was really looking forward to last nights episode, but 40 minutes into more 'character building' they finally get to battle. And it lasts for all of 10 minutes. WTF!????!?!?!
Each episode is more disappointing than the last.
For all the hardship talked about during the intros by Tom Hanks, there's VERY little conflict shown.

Pay closer attention to the dialogue. There is a lot of conflict... just not all outwardly physical. For instance the conversation between lucky and sledge.

Really there is no point in just watching 45 minutes of constant shooting. Pacific has taken a little more to get it rolling, but last nights episode was really good. Last week the hardships were portrayed with the battle against the rain, mud, waiting, exhaustion, etc.

 

[TheVrolok]

In the decade between the two series, what massive chunk of living WWII vets died? I know my grandfather did.

Mine is ailing fast. It's a shame our country is losing the generation that lived through the Great Depression and WWII.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Pay closer attention to the dialogue. There is a lot of conflict... just not all outwardly physical. For instance the conversation between lucky and sledge.

Really there is no point in just watching 45 minutes of constant shooting. Pacific has taken a little more to get it rolling, but last nights episode was really good. Last week the hardships were portrayed with the battle against the rain, mud, waiting, exhaustion, etc.

I am paying very close attention to the dialogue, and understand there's conflict between marines, between the marines and the navy, but clearly they are referring to battle conflicts. And I know you can't show a 45 minute firefight, but in all honesty this hasn't lived up to the hype, and I believe that is the general consensus. We did not need 1 hour of them getting drunk and laid in Australia, I'd have preferred showing them on ships, getting to know them in those terms.
I just don't connect with any of the main characters, IMO, because of the writing. I easily connected to many of the members in BoB. These guys had it rough, I know, my dad was in the Pacific theater in WWII, and he told me about how much the weather sucked, the terrain was new, and the enemy was something like we never faced before.
I'm just saying this should have started fast and kept going.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

On balance I find The Pacific very disappointing. Clearly they chose to spend less time developing the characters on the front end, and as a result I can't help but care less about them than in Band of Brothers.

 

[Rudee]

The DVD/BluRay sales of this series are going to be very disappointing when they eventually get released. So far, I give this Series a 2 out of 5. Quite the yawn fest.

 

[Regs]

Mine is ailing fast. It's a shame our country is losing the generation that lived through the Great Depression and WWII.

Which is why Tom Hanks is taking on all these stories and making them into movies/short series because time is precious.

And I agree with everyone that I still see the characters as complete strangers. Let's say if I was stuck with a squad or platoon of men for months, we would likely come all best friends or worst enemies. In this case, it seems no one knows each other in this series after the "years" they been with each other.

The series lacks any serious direction. The first two episodes was learning about the Marine corp.. culture...or was it? Maybe it was learning about the characters and how they bonded together in a god awful war? Maybe it was about dehumanizing life? Maybe it was about strategy, heroism, glory, struggle, or defeat? The only thing that was really compelling or showed any shroud of real human emotion was when the Japanese man chose death over surrendering.

 

[bdude]

I was really looking forward to last nights episode, but 40 minutes into more 'character building' they finally get to battle. And it lasts for all of 10 minutes. WTF!????!?!?!
Each episode is more disappointing than the last.
For all the hardship talked about during the intros by Tom Hanks, there's VERY little conflict shown.

That was the best depiction of any war film / show I've ever seen. Holy shit the entire sequence from when Sledge boarded the landing craft till the end of the episode was absolutely jaw-dropping.

God damn.

You guys are hard to please.

 

[HendrixFan]

I just posted this in the other "The Pacific" thread but I think it applies here as well:

I started watching The Pacific, I didn't wait for it to finish to pick it up like I thought I would. Through five episodes I must say I find the commentary here surprising. As has been discussed elsewhere in this thread, Band of Brothers wasn't the most action packed series itself yet the complaint with The Pacific is that there isn't enough action.

With Band of Brothers the first two episodes were training, the last one was sitting around waiting to get shipped to the pacific, and there was a stretch near the end where they spent two episodes dug in frozen trenches staring at an invisible enemy who never brought on a full attack. The series followed small squad attacks on a line of troops doing shooting practice, into a small village before falling back, and taking a prisoner during the night across a river amongst others. You had very little sense of the advancement across the European front, just the experience of the soldiers. Seems the same is going on in The Pacific but for some reason that isn't good enough. The fighting was much more chaotic due to the nature of the landscape and the enemy. The quality of the action in episode 5 alone was better than anything from Band of Brothers. Yeah, it has been almost ten years so they should be able to create a more realistic and immersive battle sequence, and thankfully they do.

As far as character development, I feel The Pacific does a superior job of building real characters. Band of Brothers was a collection of many characatures but not real people. Winters was well developed but that was about it. There were too many characters shown in too short of a time to really get into the meat of who they were, including having someone be the primary focus of an episode to just never seeing them again. Since many of the guys were still alive who were portrayed in Band of Brothers, I can't help but feel they took away as much of the rough edges as they could with those guys. Any "war is an atrocity" things were done by people outside of those guys. In The Pacific, they are really jumping into the characters and showing that they weren't perfect and the situation out there was far from perfect as well.

Band of Brothers covers around a year of time, whereas The Pacific covers over three years. Much of it is glossed over, and I was saddened to see Guadalcanal over so quickly; but then again Normandy from Band of Brothers was much smaller as most the fighting went on away from the screen. With either series, if you want a tutorial on the battles (with visuals) you should go elsewhere. If you want to know what the combat was like for the individuals involved then you should be satisfied.