TV alert for Sunday

[Taylor Stevenson]

Ya'll are getting to picky with the stock photos... You can't argue when they go so far as to use the original style, metal-capped canteens. Extreme attention to detail. I am amazed at the CGI it took to create the ships/invasion scene.

[Jerry O'Neill]

In BoB, Sobel was the clear protagonist in the first episode. That let the viewer bond with the men of Easy Company very quickly. One person, everyone's problem.

In "The Pacific", the protagonist is the Japanese. That is a large and dangerous protagonist, but it didn't "personalize" the story very well for the viewer.
I will still hold off to see how the other episodes develop.
jerry

[Jarink1]

I think the difference so far is that even after the first BoB episode "Toccoa", you started to get a feel for the characters and how they interacted. So far with "The Pacific", the only way I've felt I knew who was who and how they related to the other characters was because I've read their books. I don't see how they're going to be able to develop the characters and their relationships to each other like they did in BoB. Battles and people are too spread out in both time and space (Guadalcanal, Cape Glouster, Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Fall 1942 to spring/summer 1945; about double the time frame covered in BoB) and so far the tie-ins between characters are more confusing than anything, especially for those that aren't already familiar with the characters.

Ditto for the some of the major events. I'm glad that I already know what is going on, because the events are not really explained. How would anyone not already very familiar with Guadalcanal understand why the Marines went inland and then fell back closer to the beaches? The Battle of Savo Island was interesting, but I thought fell short on how the Marines felt about being abandoned by the Navy. They also failed to mention the landings on Tulagi, Gavutu and Tanambogo. (My stepdad was a little miffed about that because his dad was on Tulagi.) Heck, the landings on Guadalcanal were originally planned as a supplement to taking Tulagi and the nice harbor and seaplane base that was there!

Strangely, given the lack of explanation of the overall picture, they got the details just about perfect.

Still, I thought the first episode was a reasonably good start. Personally, I would have dropped the newsreels, maps and Tom Hanks voiceover at the beginning in favor of a little time spent explaining how the main characters got involved in the Marines. I think everyone understands the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor (heck they even still teach it public schools, so it must have been important!) and pretty much had their way for the first 6 months of the war.

I'm certainly looking forward to Episode 2.

[viking73]

If you have Direct TV, they are showing the series on channel 101 for those of us (me included) who don't have HBO... I found out last night it was on and set the DVR to record them.

I haven't watched the first episode yet but plan on doing so today after work. I was going to mow the grass but looks like the rain today put that on hold (again). So I'll have to watch this instead (darn)...

-Derek

[Holedigger]

From the responses to the first TP episode, it seems there is a lack of "Big Picture" thus far. Could it be intentional? How much did the grunts in the "field" know about the big picture? This series is following regular guys, not commanders, so might this be intentional?

[Mudge]

So far, I can't distinguish one character for another. They all kinda' look the same. They don't establish the interaction between the characters that was there from the beginning in BoB. Maybe individuals will establish themselves in the next couple of episodes. If not, I'll probably give up on the show.
I actually found #1 a bit boring.

Mudge the critic

[Django]

I watched the Amazing Race. Pretty cool fly bys!

The Pacific is set to Tivo tonight finally. Maybe I should move it up higher in the priority list.

Interesting to read the comments about episode 1. The only thing I have to ad, is that while reading G.I. Jive recently (GREAT book!), the author clearly points out the lack of knowledge of the big picture which is almost second nature today.