Anyone going to be watching this?

I am a huuuge fan of 'Band of Brothers' (favorite ep: tough call between 'replacements' and 'day of days'...though 'crossroads' was amazing as well), which I've got on blu-ray and watch endlessly. Also inspired me to read the book, which was excellent.

'The Pacific' is produced by the same gang who made 'Band of Brothers' (Spielberg, Hanks, et al).

can't. fucking. wait.

Will be watching this tonight. Am looking forward to it

so far so good. i'll be rewatching it again tonight, but it was a solid start. the photography, in particular, was gorgeous.

i can already tell that this is going to make 'band of brothers' seem like a romantic comedy by comparison. talk about tense.

my only complaint was that the preview at the end of the first ep gave away too much. annoying.

Saw it last night. This will be brilliant.

I loved band of brothers, no HBO here though i'll be waiting for DVD.

My prediction.

At first it will look as if Japan will stage a convincing victory.

Then it will be touch and go for a while.

In the end, the U.S. will be victorious.

Sure, we know the basic arc. But I'll be interested to see if/how they handle the dropping of the bomb. Kind of one of those victories that it's hard to feel GOOD about.

Estimates were that America and it's allies would suffer well over 100,000 casualties invading mainland Japan.
Dropping the bomb saved a lot of allied lives.

It also killed a shit-ton of Japanese civilians.

tough nuts
Don't start a war you're not ready to lose.

Just saying. Pretty monstrous use of ordnance, really.

I believe the U.S. dropped tons of leaflets on the area warning people about the forthcoming bombs.

Why was it necessary to drop the nuclear bomb if LeMay was burning up Japan? And he went on from Tokyo to firebomb other cities. 58% of Yokohama. Yokohama is roughly the size of Cleveland. 58% of Cleveland destroyed. Tokyo is roughly the size of New York. 51% percent of New York destroyed. 99% of the equivalent of Chattanooga, which was Toyama. 40% of the equivalent of Los Angeles, which was Nagoya. This was all done before the dropping of the nuclear bomb, which by the way was dropped by LeMay's command. Proportionality should be a guideline in war. Killing 50% to 90% of the people of 67 Japanese cities and then bombing them with two nuclear bombs is not proportional, in the minds of some people, to the objectives we were trying to achieve...

...LeMay said, "If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals." And I think he's right. He, and I'd say I, were behaving as war criminals. LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side had lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?

Robert S. McNamara.

I dug the first episode of this series, by the way. The "at home" stuff seemed a little going-through-the-motions, but once it gets to the island it picks up. I like the nod to the Saving Private Ryan landing and the way it plays with your expectations.

i was referring to the story arc involving the character with the heart murmur, btw.

mastering the obvious here, but i would think this will do wonders for sales of eastwood's relatively overlooked (commercially, at least) 'letters from iwo jima'. i'll be renting it.

I know

Got the first episode taped, and definitely looking forward to it. BOB was damn good TV.

Based on this, Japan should have had the common sense to surrender before the US ever dropped the atom bomb, but they didn't.

All evidence, based on the fighting, up to Hiroshima & Nagasaki, indicated Japan was willing to fight to the last man standing.
Keep in mind Japan kept on fighting after Hiroshima. They didn't give up until two of their cities were destroyed.

A mainland invasion of Japan would have killed more US Soldiers, more Japanese soldiers and a shitload more of Japanese civilians.

Having said that, I'm still not convinced it was exactly the right thing to do.

But that's kind of getting off topic. I've got the first episode of this ready to watch and I can't wait. Who knows when networks decide to air it here in Australia...

But the A bomb is the real topic. All the scientists behind it begged Truman not to use it. I back his decision, but shit, to me-- that's a whole movie in itself. The decision to unleash hell.


Twice.

The most interesting arguments come from the stories that the Germans and Japs were closer to the technology than most people realized. But if you're going to go down the A-bomb road, I hope you realize that the Enola Gay was also fueled with vengeful, racist hatred.

Horrible comparison, but I think one of things that caused shit like Abu Ghraib to happen was the fact that America freaked out on 9/11/01 In that respect, I think one of the reasons Hiroshima happened is because America freaked out on 12/7/41. America is one crazy stupid bitch when she's freakin'.

(sorry to fly off-topic)

Seven are actually going to be showing it pretty soon I think. I went down the same path as you though, I couldn't wait that long.

I watched the first episode last night and thought it was pretty great.

That's the key, no doubt each time the allies though "ok they will surrender for sure if we hit them with this" The stubborn/proud bastards running things in Japan are just as much to blame as the allies.

Maybe if America was nuked we could rebuild our economy like Japan.

Hmm, trying to bring this back on topic, I watched the 1st episode and wasn't overly impressed. I thought the "at home" lead-in was trivial and had no feeling for the characters as they went into battle. One of the great things about Band of Brothers was the whole Curahee experience where they really became brothers. I didn't even these guys names down when they were diving headlong into a world of shit. I thought the only truly dramatic scene of the whole episode was when the last Japanese guy was pleading with the the Americans to kill him and they only fucked with him, until the one guy (I don't know his name yet) had the decency to end his life.

I'm hoping this gets better.

Yeah I have no interest in the "at home" thing. I don't need to see people living in suburbia or in a city. I do that shit everyday. Take me to places and show me things I don't get to see everyday.

Anyone catch the second episode?

I thought it was a step up from the first, pretty intense in moments. Also a good portrayal of what a soldiers life might have been like on the front lines, the lack of supplies, illness, dysentary etc. Lookin forward to the next one.

Yep, I caught it. Bah-rutal. As with the first episode, I think it'll take repeated viewings to catch some of the details. It's really tough to distinguish one character from the next and the dialogue is also hard to make out.

Didn't realize that Basilone's heroics took place on Guadalcanal. For some reason, I'd envisoned it happening further along. But wow. Hard core.

Is the guy who plays JP Morgan 'Turtle' from 'Entourage'? They look alike.

Just watched it. Good stuff. Harrowing as fuck. That shot showing the gory aftermath of the one artillery hit was pretty rough.

i enjoyed the second ep more the second time through. ('enjoyed' is probably not the right word, but let's go w/it.) there have been some elements that have seemed a bit pat--for instance, them getting coffee when they return to the ship and the cook telling them that they're heroes. but it's still very impressive. i'll be sticking with it through the bitter end.

i appreciate the lack of voice over ( when compared to B.o.B.) - puts the viewer more into the action and gives you a similar POV (not knowing entirely what is going on) that the soldiers have.

Band Of Brothers consistently set up most every battle - "our soldiers are lined up here, these guys here are in charge. the krauts are behind those buildings over there, with this kind of artillery, and some of them might be in that building shooting sniper fire at us. this is how the battle is gonna play out." and the narration implied past tense. even knowing how the war ends it still managed to remove quite a bit of the tension.
it's not something you notice as much until watching the Pacific and you notice it's absence.

My great-uncle who recently passed away worked on the Manhattan Project. We found all the papers after he died. He was with them in Oak Ridge, TN, Manhattan, and Los Alamos and was intimately involved with this project. He made $120/month. The once or twice he talked about it, he said that the bomb was what saved American lives, that it ended the war. I think you have to believe that, or how do you live with yourself when you know what you developed? That being said, he later went crazy. I have to assume that the guilt probably pushed him in that direction.
He was a brilliant man, but that's quite a burden to carry.

About the second episode, it seems there'd be something that guy could've used, a torn sleeve, or even a large leaf or something, to wrap around his hand or arm before he lifted the barrel of his machine gun. And I hope he had those 3rd degree burns checked out. That's an infection waiting to happen. Surprised at how nonchalant he was about his arm being all fucked up.

Consider the context. When you're about to die, those sort of things aren't really considered.

Part two was pretty solid. I was shocked when it ended. I thought they'd only given us a half hour, it went by so quick.

Can't wait for episode III

Ok so when I watch this show I kind of expect there to be some fighting involved so the last episode was ok, not the greatest.

It was interesting for me, being an Australian to see how they would portray the Australians of that era and the city of Melbourne and I thought they did a pretty good job. But yeah, I must admit, I was yearning for some action throughout and I kind of thought it wasn't going to come and it didn't.

Boring, sappy sentimentality. "Pacific" is weak sauce compared to "Band of Brothers". If I wanted to watch people drink in a bar and play in a garden I wouldn't turn to a war series. Show just lost me.

Agreed. This episode was a disappointment and without any battle scenes to carry the narrative the weak, non-descript characters were left to fend for themselves. Now 3 hours into this series and I don't know who any of these guys are. 3 hours! Compare that to 3 hours of Saving Private Ryan. For better or worse, you know that cast of characters. They're well-drawn and distinctive. What could you possibly say to describe any of the characters in The Pacific? I'll finish the series, but I can't imagine rewatching any of these episodes (unlike Band of Brothers, which just gets better and better). Definitely sappy and over-serious, like the characters all KNOW they're making a solemn World War 2 film.

That's exactly what I was thinking when I watched this last episode. However, there is one character I find interesting and that is the commander. They never really show him though( he spoke at the briefing in EP 1 and had a few scenes on Guadalcanal). That's about it. The characters all look the same to me - all dark haired dudes doing and saying uninteresting things. And how forced was that "you...you guys are heroes" scene at the end of EP 2? That was a big red flag.

Spot on

still enjoying this, despite the 3rd ep. almost feels like hanks/spielberg and the rest of the producers decided to make this one more of a history lesson of sorts, as opposed to really fleshing out the distinct characters that made up B.O.B.
it's almost a shame this show gets inevitably compared to BoB, nothing could live up to that. If you watched this w/o knowing BoB existed you'd probably be pretty content with it.

HEY I'VE LEARNED THAT WAR IS REALLY HARD GUYS

I think the one thing this has over band of Bros is the production value. The action scenes have been pretty well directed and convincing, I'd say. It's really shiny (for better and worse at times). As for the characters, well...

There's Bob, he's smart and thoughtful I guess--MAYBE TOO THOUGHTFUL FOR HIS OWN GOOD

That little Italian guy, he's kind of a firecracker, a loose canon IF YOU WILL

That hero who seems conflicted about stuff all the time but I can't really tell what

That ass hat with a heart murmur and a daddy that cares TOO MUCH

That young blond guy who I guess is a main character for some reason but I have no idea why

So, yeah. GOOD CHARACTERS ABOUND.... errrr....

Anyway, I'm enjoying it and will continue watching it. I'm far from a history buff and am at least learning a bit about a part of the war that gets swept under the rug. I agree with WO, though--let's abandon the BoB comparisons for remainder of thread. It's clearly not that.

Agree with everything upthread harshing on the third episode. It was a bore--and not just because it was slaughter/action-free (BoB did not suffer in its more-contemplative moments, of which there were many).

On the plus side, apart from the Medal of Honor winner's U.S. tour, I suspect that we won't have to endure too many more of these tangents away from the battlefield, which is an odd thing to say considering the bloodbaths to come.

I also agree, btw, that the character development has been lacking and got a good laugh from whoever said that they couldn't tell who was who even three eps into the series.

Another somewhat boring episode.

I think I'm now able to place the actor who is playing Basilone--I think it's the same guy who played the reluctant soldier in episode 1 of Band of Brothers ('Curahee'). If you recall, they had to go back into barracks to change into their PT uniforms to run Curahee for infractions that Sobel had detected (i.e., Frank didn't shine his shoes; someone had a rusty knife; etc.). Everyone leaves the barracks at Lipton's urging except one soldier who remains sitting on his bunk, head down. Lipton tries to coax him out, but he doesn't leave and Lipton leaves him behind. I think that's the same dude that's playing Basilone.

Yeah it wasn't that great really.

I think its good that they are acknowledging the psychological effects that war has on human beings though. Its something which isn't always present in films or tv made about the issue. I just read a book about the Normandy landings and the amount of casualties due to battlefield exhaustion and the psychological effects of war were just staggering.

This is pretty so-so. Four hours in and, other than Leckie, I barely know anything else about the other characters than I learned in the first 30 minutes of the premier. Is it expensive and well-produced? Yes. But I have a hard time giving a shit other than to think "wow, that war really sucked. Those guys are studs. I don't know how I would have held up under those conditions."

Ugh. I'm just annoyed with this series now. Every single line of dialogue can be said by any single character, it doesn't matter. The script is composed of little more than mutter this and mutter that, a joke here and there, the word "jap," and scattered factoids about the war. None of these guys have any personality beyond a thousand yard stare. As dirty as the soldiers may get, the show itself is polished to within an inch of its life. There must've been a lot of hope and expectation strangling this production because it's an absolutely lifeless piece of work. Last week was a disappointment. This week was bad.

Seems like we are all in agreeance on this series. Jess and I have watched the first two, and while it is pretty intense TV, I keep wanting more. Whatever. BOB set the bar, and everyone would rip Hanks and Spielberg a new one if they just repeated themselves.

FWIW, I remember I didn't know who most of the 'brothers' were, until like the "bulge" episode or so. That said, nice to see John Seda on TV again.

Geez, crease-- you didnt' know that was John Seda? He was the best thing to come out of the last 2 seasons of Homicide. He was also a guy who got killed too early on OZ.

sorry. i never watched those shows.

my guess is that the series will bounce back in a resounding way next week.