The Pacific

[Musashi]

The fact that they were down to eating WWI rations and maggot infested rice was a bit of a clue.

Sometimes we've seen the same scene in so many war movies that small details don't always have the impact they're supposed to.  When you've seen a bunch of old war movies where dudes are forced to eat old rations, it starts to lose its veracity.  The Pacific, so far, isn't doing a very good job with conveying the gravity of the situation unless you're like you and I and know a thing or two about it before we started watching.  I think that if they would have just had "Four Months Later" on the bottom of the screen at the beginning of this episode, it would have helped.

Also, I just re-read the past few posts and realized that I forgot to mention that The Thin Red Line is the worst war film ever made.  I don't want a derail on this, because it doesn't deserve it.  Nolte is the highlight of that movie.  That's saying a lot.  If you want to fight me on this, meet me in the movie sub-forum.  I'll find you.

[Ghambit]

Also, I just re-read the past few posts and realized that I forgot to mention that The Thin Red Line is the worst war film ever made.  I don't want a derail on this, because it doesn't deserve it.  Nolte is the highlight of that movie.  That's saying a lot.  If you want to fight me on this, meet me in the movie sub-forum.  I'll find you.

Agreed.  But, the fact it does a better job than TP in many areas is quite telling of the quality of the series right now.

[Rasix]

From the perspective someone that hasn't watched BoB or isn't some giant military buff, I'm enjoying this.  Yah, they have done a relatively poor job of explicitly conveying time, but other than that I've found it quite interesting thus far.   

[Tarami]

The fact that they were down to eating WWI rations and maggot infested rice was a bit of a clue.

A clue, but maggots in rice are very common in hot and damp places. Improperly stored rice would "spoil" in a couple of weeks, although the fact that they found LIVE maggots in boiled rice was beyond stupid. They're not Terminator maggots. I put quotation marks around spoiled since the rice wouldn't actually be the least inedible. Pick the maggots out or just swallow them, they aren't actually harmful.

Also, I ate canned soup from '79 while in the service in '03 (older than I was.) Perfectly servicable. <rimshot>

See, it's all about prior knowledge. I took the army rations to mean that their supply line had broken down, which made sense. Neither event gave me any notion of long time passing.

[Ghambit]

Werent there foraging squads for fishing and hunting?  And if I remember right, the natives helped out a bunch too.

[Slayerik]

Ouch. I earlier called the love story as being in this series...and well...fuck. As much as I like a nice T & A shot or two, I got Sparticus for that.

I'm pretty much done defending the series. Hope they come correct the rest of the way.

[Ghambit]

 
God what a bad episode.  I am sad.

[Abagadro]

You guys are weird. This is part of the story of the 1st Marine Division. They were in Australia longer than Easy Company was in Europe. Kinda be a big omission to leave that out.

[Ozzu]

This has been strictly mediocre thus far. I'm somewhat disappointed.

[Arthur_Parker]

I thought that was the best episode so far and had way more of a BOB vibe to it.  The episode order obviously has to correspond to the historical record but I really think they should have had an additional one or two background episodes, like this one, before the first two heavy action ones.  Remember that sergeant who went missing in the night and was found next day?  They obviously wanted the audience to care he was dead but there's no getting around the fact that it's difficult to feel much, if you don't actually know anything about the guy, even an obituary normally gives more than name, age and cause of death.

I'm not sure what is to come but no matter how good this is at the end, I'll bet "The Pacific" would have been better split over 12 parts rather than 10 even if they had to save some money on the action sequences to do it.

[Tannhauser]

I knew this was going to be the 'love interest' episode so I was ready.  Heck, this was better than the first episode.  I now care what happens to Bob Leckie, the actor finally drew me in.  Glad to see Basilone loosen up a little but then get told that he's becoming a symbol instead of a man.

[Ghambit]

I thought Leckie's acting was horrible and Basilone was still just mostly blank stares - again.  Neither are "lovable" in any sense, 'specially Leckie.

[Abagadro]

Leckie is not supposed to be lovable.  He was quite the screw up and they've actually left out a lot of his shenanigans up to this point.

[Sky]

Pfft. I'm done with this one.

[Tarami]

Somehow it's far too self-aware in its role as a spiritual sequel to BoB. It's like the writers and directors had heard about all the things that people loved about BoB then just crammed those events in there without any thought of why they worked. I.e., they forgot that the primary task was to tell an interesting story about authentic people, not to pull at the viewers' heartstrings in every scene. At times it's like the score and cinematography is yelling "FEEL DAMNIT, FEEL!" at me.

[NowhereMan]

I enjoyed the first two episodes but they didn't do a good job of conveying how long the marines had been in Guadal Canal. This one was ok but really felt like a completely different show from the last two and still feels rushed. I really feel like they need more episodes or should have considered axing or skipping some portions and giving more focus to others. Gonna keep watching this but it feels like it really isn't as good as it should be.

[Slayerik]

The psychological episode. Not a bad one. Not a great one either. I think the main thing I am getting from this series is how much worse it sucked to be in the crotch during WWII than any other branch. Fucking brutal.

Only things that would be worse: Being a Jew or being a Russian

It seems the next episode will be the one I have waited about 3 weeks for.

[Musashi]

The Freudian slip of crotch for corps is appropriate.

[tgr]

They've currently spent 3 episodes trying to emphasize how bad it was, but for me, their methods fail to engage me. BoB had a much better feel for just how shitty it was, and for all intents and purposes the pacific war should look feel even worse. I'm disappointed so far, really. I hope it picks up, or I'll have to go back to watching BoB again.

[Musashi]

It's just the sense of time they're still not getting right.  Everything else is so well known to the point of cliche.  We all know it sucks to be in a war.  We all know it would suck to be fighting a war in a jungle against Japanese People who we didn't understand a bit.  We know guys go crazy.  We know about shell shock.  We know all that.  What this show is failing to do is express the mind-numbing tedium, the months of sitting in the same hole, with the same stench in between fights that made this worse in some respects than other campaigns.  The amount of time they're spending in this format just isn't enough to convey the reason for the emotion that the characters are dutifully trying to express. 

I wonder if this story just deserves more episodes, or if it's just too much to try to stick all three stories into the same short format.  The most compelling part of the story has been Leckie, so far.  I guess I just end up feeling like each of the three branches of this story deserve more attention.  Even Leckie's parts kind of feel like he's pissed here because the actor read the book and he's supposed to be pissed here.  But I'm not convinced they're on Guadalcanal for months.  I'm not convinced they're in Australia for a year.  I'm not convinced they're in Cape Glaucester for four months.

[tgr]

What? They were in australia for a full YEAR?! I had the impression that was just a month.

[Tarami]

I thought it was 56 minutes.

[FatuousTwat]

A little P.S. at the end of each episode that filled in the voids ala BoB would do this show wonders. Why the fuck they didn't include it is beyond me.

[Slayerik]

War is hell. That's all I got.

[Nebu]

So far I've been preached:

- War is icky.

- War makes people go insane.

- War ruins relationships.

- People that win medals feel undeserving because of the death that surrounded them. 

I am not entertained. 

[Arthur_Parker]

It's half over and I've enjoyed a few Legend of the Seeker episodes more.  That's pretty sad (for both me and the writers).

[Slayerik]

I am still entertained. That was some pretty damn intense fighting portrayed, and I have always been into the combat side.

The show is just missing something. Character attachment probably...In BoB, Winters, Lipton, Spears, (and a few others) are names I still remember from the show.

Winters: Amazing officer, cool under fire, good judge of character, Hero.

Lipton: Bad ass NCO, held Easy together, compassionate

Spears: Cold, calculated, hard as nails. Built for war.


What will I say in a few years about character on Pacific:

Leichy: Well, he was your average soldier. Pretty likable, I guess. Could have been me

Basilone: One man army, bad actor

Sledge and boyfriend: Good hearts, religious


The show lacks the officer's view that BoB had. We would have updates about WTF was going on and why they do certain things. I liked seeing Winters get assigned the assault on the 88's, and them planning it out. I guess the problem is, when every time your mission is 'slowly clear this jungle rat hole of dug-in Japs and try not to die' - it doesn't leave much room for cool strategic missions on the Marine side . Now the story of Yamamoto being hunted down, Naval Battles like Midway...Hell that might be cool.

I think it is easier to like individuals in a Platoon or company then random guys in a division. I'm just not sure where else they are going wrong.

[Ghambit]

So far, the best character in the series is the Gunny.  And he's just given bit scenes.

[Musashi]

Yea I think, to add to what Slayerik is saying, that they missed great opportunity to tie all this shit together with Chesty Puller.  He's the Winter's guy you're looking for.  Actually, he'd kick Winters' ass.  They were using him in the beginning, and I'm not sure why they stopped.  And now his war is over after Peleliu.  He goes back to Camp Lejeune, NC to train recruits.  So that's that.  They just used him to tell Basilone's story because he was in Puller's direct command.  I know they're trying to make this show different than the one they told about Europe partly by not focusing too much attention on officers.  But it just isn't playing right.  They haven't gotten everything wrong.**  But not using Puller in a story about the Marines in the Pacific is almost unforgivable.  All I can think is that they were afraid to broach the legend.

Too much shit to cram into ten episodes.  Lacking a shitload of cohesion.  Intense fighting.  Not quite enough to pull it together.

** In fact their attention to detail is at times scary.  When they're loading up the Amtraks, and some un-named NCO is yelling, "Let's go.  Load 'em Up.  A to B.  A to B."  A to B means Asshole to Bellybutton, and they still use that in the Marines.  I loled.

[NiX]

It just doesn't feel the same as BoB. There's something that's missing that isn't making me say "Damn.." Sure, the fights are intense, but I still don't really get a feel for what they went through and every instance of them giving that stare that says "It was/This is hell" it just comes off as cliche. I don't know, it's not sticking with me.

[Tannhauser]

Actors aren't as good and the writing isn't as good as BoB.  Very glad to see a proper amtrac amphip invasion, especially Peleliu.
Jon Seda has one expression, the 1000 yard stare even when bedding the star.  Leckie's actor is better.  Yeah Gunny gives the show some pop but 95% of my enjoyment of the show comes from the combat.  I guess the show just feels rushed, I do think they crammed too much in. 

[Musashi]

That Gunny you guys are talking about is a Drill Instructor.  (You can tell by the Smokey Bear hat.)  They're, uh, special.  He gives me the creeps.  But that's only because I had the misfortune of spending three months with them running rough-shod all over my face.  I'm glad those guys are on our side, though.  To the casual observer, the scene where he's standing there reciting the Marine Corps Manual by heart probably makes him look like he's lost his marbles.  But DIs have to have all that shit memorized word for word.

[Abagadro]

That DI character was a real guy who was also a WWI veteran.

[MournelitheCalix]

I am really glad to see that I am not the only one here that feels like the pacific is totally missing the mark.

So far the only one I really think I care about storywise was Leckie.  The others honestly I can't say anything about their story has reached out and grabbed me.  Most sadly are not even memorable at this point.  Ironically what grabbed me was the Australian part.  Not sure why but it seemed to humanize Leckie with me and allowed me to identify with his character.  Bassalone, honestly I don't care for his story whatsoever and I think that is a crying shame at this point.   Eugene I think has some potential.  I am quite eager to see what happens to this character at least.  I think again the reason for this is that they took  the effort to humanize him by showing you his family dynamics along with the factors that were causal to his entering the conflict.

What I would have done differently was scale the episodes to the actual time in the war (save the australian episode).  Guadal Canal probably would have worked alot more if they made it three or four episodes and showed at the same time why it actually sucked just a bit more.  As it stands now, there just doesn't seem to be a followable timeline even with Tom Hanks explaining things at the begining of each episode.  That he needs to in my opinion also tells us alot about the writing.  Sadly to this point, I have no idea as to how hard it was even after watching this.  Scenes that should have had gravity to them simply didn't.  Specifically I am thinking of when we see the navy being blown out of the water in the Guadal Canal episode, the whole scene just lacked the gravity I think it should have had for those marines when immediately afterwards we see the army arrive.

[Musashi]

That DI character was a real guy who was also a WWI veteran.

The personification of Slege's Old Breed, GySgt Elmo Haney.  :)  Somehow he could only be named Elmo.  I just looked at the credits.  One episode only for the Gunny.  Not cool.