The Pacific. 8 Episodes Down.
 

Your thoughts?
:helpme

last night was boring, but last week's episode had me almost in tears... best one yet... but not anywhere near band of brothers...

Agreed.
:thumbsup

The first 5 sucked. Lecky is boring and I didn't give a damn about him at all. Sledge is cool and seems likeable, so what do we get? A basilone episode that twists the shit out of history to make his death more dramatic. Real life? He was killed instantly by a mortar. I guess that wasn't dramatic enough for them.

Also on the topic of basilone, they are cruel assholes, those producers. They make this entire episode about him just to kill him off in a fictional way. If someone didn't know that basilone died, then that episode would be shitty because of how they made it. And now they think he died slowly by a bullet.

The only good part of the series has been the last 10 minutes of episode 8. The rest of the battle scenes have been stuffed full of ww2 movie cliches.

Also, if someone watching doesn't know the timeline of the Pacific theatre, they have no idea when these things are happening. The show makes it seem like Sledge joined the marines like a month after his friend, in reality, it was something like 1 1/2 years later. Even as a ww2 buff, I have a hard time figuring out what year it is, and how long ago such and such a battle was.

They should have made Basilones story a 2 hour movie, ignored lecky since he is boring and no one seems to like him (and the entire australia episode is fiction), and focused on Sledge, and isntead of trying to jam every battle into it, they should have focused on iwo jima, instead of trying to stuff every single thing into a 10 part series...

Each episode is like 50 minutes long, with like 8 minutes dedicated to credits and tom hanks blowing himself, as well as the "previously on". As a result, we get 42 minutes of show, where they try to jam in 3 different stories at once. Just doesn't work, because there is simply not enough time to cover what they are attempting to cover.


4/10. Too much shit is made up. Every battle except iwo was loaded with spielberg cliches. Episodes are way to short, and even shorter with the super long intro/previously on/tom hanks talking. Some of the stuff that happens in battle scenes makes it impossible to suspend disbelief (dropping a mortar round into a tube, and then having it explode on target a second later? Really?). Not to mention a japanese tank missing a shot from like 60 feet away.

Basically, the directors all suck, everyone except for basilone and sledge suck, the battle scenes (with the exception of iwo) suck, there is too much fiction, pacing is terrible, and no one has any idea how long anything has been happening for. Going by the show, you'd be forgiven if you thought guadalcanal took 2 days to wrap up.

I understand that it is a show about the soldiers and not just the war/battles. That would be GREAT, except only two of them are likeable, and one of the episodes is 100% fiction. And now one is gone and the other is dead, so hopefully the final 2 episodes are amazing and Sledgehammer lives up to his nickname and makes me want to cum in my pants. Otherwise, what a terrible waste of a series with great potential.

If you disagree, you are wrong. Fuck you.

Not close to BOB but still has been decent. Not great just decent. Not sure if I will pick it up when it comes out on Blu Ray.

Agreed.
:thumbsup

Especially the part about knowing the history of all the island hoping. :disgust When some of my friends have tried to watch it. They are lost and wondering why you are jumping all over the fucking place. I can see why they would be confused.

I frankly think it would have been better under the BOB formula in telling the Pacific side of the war. This is really an insult I think to the stories of the Pacific.

not a huge fan...Band of brothers kills pacific.

I loved BOB and so did my wife. it was an amazing series.. Have not seen any of these yet. Waiting for DVD.

I am watching it more out of duty than enjoyment. Been hoping it would pick up enough to get emotionally involved but its pretty clear by now that that will not happen.

I'll finish it anyway just to up my history knowledge a little.

I am reading a book at the same time called "no surrender" about the Japanese soldiers in the pacific who refused to accept that the war was over. It's interesting seeing both sides at the same time more or less.

Agreed on all points:thumbsup Thanks for the concise rap up.:thumbsup

If this show had of stuck to tellng the story of WWII in the Pacific as closely to how it actually happened as possible (like it was originally intended) I would have shredded you all for saying it's "boring" or "not as good as Band of Brothers" etc, because that war wasn't fucking fought for your entertainment. I'd have said shut up and learn something for a change.

But this show can't seem to make up it's mind whether it's an accurate portrayal or entertainment. So I suppose I won't shred on anyone for harsh critiquing it.

However, there are some pretty good scenes of battle and some pretty decent acting as far as showing just what kind of horrors those guys faced. It doesn't begin to scratch the surface of it mind you, but it does at least make more of an attempt than most old war movies.

But again, that war wasn't fought for our entertainment. Any show like this that at least tries to give the viewer even a vague idea of just what kind of sacrifice those guys made 65+ years ago should be given at least a small amount of latitude. At least I think so. They weren't over there to be fucking "likeable", they were there to kill Japs.

I totally agree about the timeline. I was hoping this show would have been a bit more linear, and kept the order of events more, well, in order. And with less fiction. The events that really happened to a lot of those guys is crazy and intense and interesting enough, a lot of their stories simply do not need fictional embellishing.

Truth is always stranger than fiction, especially in war.

Oh, I forgot...

My overall assessment of this series ---

I'll keep watching for now, but based on these first episodes I'd have to say quite frankly I was hoping for more from it.

An insult to the stories of the pacific when they tell the stories of the soldiers and not just all battle scenes? You're a fucking idiot.

This is a discussion for mature adults.

Move along.
:disgust

I find it quite boring and as PF said

"Each episode is like 50 minutes long, with like 8 minutes dedicated to credits and tom hanks blowing himself, as well as the "previously on". As a result, we get 42 minutes of show, where they try to jam in 3 different stories at once. Just doesn't work, because there is simply not enough time to cover what they are attempting to cover."

hate that shit, its been going on n on for months prior to the show:mad:

Meh. I never made it through one episode and I love the hell out of BOB. They missed the boat on this one. Hard to believe they read the scripts and thought "yeah, this will be great".

First couple were good, but that was about it. Most recent (#8) was a real snoozer!

I just can't get into it as a series. It's just not connecting.

For a person that is not as familiar with Pacific part of the WW2 as some of you guys, I'd say its a pretty damn good show.