TV Pacific

[Dreamor]

Hi all, long time no post... well, about TV anyway

Pacific came out this weekend, first episode. Its from the makers of Band of Braothers, same setting... World War 2. This time, the yanks hit the Pacific area. Its 1941 and the Japanese have not long hit Pearl Harbour...

From the first episode, amazing. Love the work done to create the characters and replicate the experiences. If you loved Band of Brothers, you'll be hooked like before. The same intro is done, by people from the time/actual units.

I'm sure someone can find a trailer, but dont watch it... just watch the show!

 

[old.user4556]

It was discussed in the video thread, there is a trailer in there, it does look pretty good! Shame I don't have Sky

 

[Ch3tan]

It was discussed in the video thread, there is a trailer in there, it does look pretty good! Shame I don't have Sky

Luckily though, you do have the internet, negating the need for sky.

It's not just enough to have sky btw, they are only showing this on sky movies, which is a premium subscription channel.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Sky Movies is utter shite.

 

[throdgrain]

I will wait for it to come out on bluray

 

[Ch3tan]

I will wait for it to come out on bluray

very good quality hi-def versions are already available, it is very good, so you'll buy it later anyway.

 

[throdgrain]

I dont mind paying for it mate, not that I'm much interested in the Pacific war, but I dont want it downloaded on an avi, or on dvd, I'll wait and buy it on blu-ray instead

 

[Vasconcelos]

I liked it. Its not Currahee, but i enjoyed it anyways

 

[Deebs]

Cannot wait to see this....

 

[PLightstar]

Been looking forward to this, didn't realise it would be on Sky Movies, not paying extra money for a channel I don't have with my package. Think I may have to wait till blu ray copy

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Episode 1 was decent, nothing more. Seemed to only set up the rest of the series, some woeful dialogue and wooden acting. Hopefully it'll pick up.

 

[Gumbo]

Agreed, Episode one didn't really grab me, certainly not in the same way that Band of Brothers did from the start, but I am fully expecting it to develop strongly so will be sticking with it.

 

[Gumbo]

I just finished part 2. Much better. I think the whole thing would have been best shown as a 2 part double header to open the series. I really got into it a lot more, I felt for the characters more, and got a better sense of what the series will offer. Looking forward to next week now.

 

[megadave]

People still watching? I've counted 2 good episodes out of 8 so far. Really poor.

 

[Raven]

Watching it because its on series link, pretty crap so far.

 

[caLLous]

Yeah, not a patch on Band of Brothers (which it will inevitably be compared to).

One thing it has taught me, however, is that Roman numerals 1 through 8 sort alphabetically. I did not know that.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Noooooob.

 

[Deebs]

I am enjoying it but as others say it is not a patch on Band of Brothers.

 

[Raven]

Its not the same thing as the war in Europe though so I suppose its pretty accurate in that sense, it was a war against the landscape as much as against the enemy. The characters are boring though and the actors wooden. Still, I will watch it to the end but it won't be added to my blue ray collection.

 

[DaGaffer]

Its "Saving Private Ryan" v. "The Thin Red Line" all over again; bottom line, the war in the Pacific had some interesting landscapes but makes for boring narrative.

I'd really like someone to make a British BoB sometime; British and Empire troops had a longer and more varied war than the Yanks, (my Granddad had fought in six countries by the time he stopped a mortar round at Cassino) and you could do something with real multinational tv appeal if you did something about North Africa/Italy (I think I read once there were soldiers from over a dozen countries on the allied side in Italy).

 

[throdgrain]

I'd really like someone to make a British BoB sometime; British and Empire troops had a longer and more varied war than the Yanks, (my Granddad had fought in six countries by the time he stopped a mortar round at Cassino) and you could do something with real multinational tv appeal if you did something about North Africa/Italy (I think I read once there were soldiers from over a dozen countries on the allied side in Italy).

Quite right, though I bet it wont happen I hate it in BoB with the "Montgomery is over rated" bullshit that Americans have been force-fed by that charletan Stephen Ambrose so much they dont even question it.

My grandad by the way fought in North Africa, got a bayonet wound in Tobruk, then got patched up by the Germans, paroled back to Great Britain, then spent the rest of the war as an MP, the terms of his parole being that he had to be a non combatant. He was at D-Day +6 I'm told.

The North African campaign saw British troops, Indian, Australian and New Zealander too, plus some American troops towards the end getting thier arses kicked. Cant imagine the Yanks doing a series about that, unless it was to blame us for the arse-kicking

 

[old.Tohtori]

I'd love it if they had the cahones to show the other side of the line.

Band of brothers - axis story, where they portray them as regular soldiers too, following orders.

 

[DaGaffer]

I'd love it if they had the cahones to show the other side of the line.

Band of brothers - axis story, where they portray them as regular soldiers too, following orders.

The Germans had their own gritty, realistic WWII series long before BoB, Das Boot, still one of the best WWII TV series ever. There's never really been a British equivalent. Loads of films, but very few good TV series.

 

[Marc]

Its complete tosh when you compare it to BoB. A whole fucking episode about some guy falling in love with some chick and then helping her family in the garden. I mean, What..the..fuck!

 

[Mabs]

flags of our fathers / letters from iwo jima (i think off top of my head) the pair of films about the same thing that clint eastwood did, from opposite sides, i thought was quite well done tbh for a perspective thing

das boot is very very good but considered rather over done for dramatic tv purposes by the guy who wrote the book, but thats tv/film for you (hey, at least its not U-571)

BoB is still imo the best film of reasonable bunch, and having heard mediocre things about Pacific im waiting for it to come out on dvd and ill contemplate it.

but if you want a different perspective on something ,go watch Days of Glory , its about some french colonial troops and rather good, and devoid of US people

 

[DaGaffer]

Its complete tosh when you compare it to BoB. A whole fucking episode about some guy falling in love with some chick and then helping her family in the garden. I mean, What..the..fuck!

That's because the script is nailed together from several soldiers' memoirs; that particular story is from here:

Helmet for My Pillow: The World War Two Pacific Classic Pacific TV Tie in: Amazon.co.uk: Robert Leckie: Books

Its actually a good book, but for the screeplay they've tried to mesh too many elements together (particularly the stories of Leckie, Basilone and Sledge), and it just ends up a bit of an uneven mishmash.

 

[DaGaffer]

but if you want a different perspective on something ,go watch Days of Glory , its about some french colonial troops and rather good, and devoid of US people

Excellent film but I found the one-armed actor really distracting! I spent more time looking at how they kept trying to disguise it than I did concentrating on the story.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Been really disappointed with this.

Seems like an overly-long, shallow feature film stretched out into parts.

There's virtually no plot or narrative at all.

There's minimal character development, and when there is some they then stop with that character's story, or kill them off.

It is very pretty.

The dialogue is incredibly clunky, wooden and generally so basic a student studying screenplay writing would do well to avoid them.

The acting is very hit and miss. Some are good, most are terrible.

There is utterly no attempt in the slightest to humanise or even remotely cover the Japenese side of the story (although this is to be expected).

At times it seems like the only thing the show has to say is "look at how brutal war is, LOOK, LOOK, LOOK!"

 

[Shagrat]

All Quiet on the Western Front is the one you want to see for the war from the Axis perspective (well WW1 anyway).

made in 1930, still unsurpassed.

 

[Tahgut]

I was interested to hear the opinion from your side of the pond. I've tried hard to be objective, and I agree Pacific is not as good as BoB, but since my wife's Dad served with the 2nd Marines I find it hard to critisize.

I think they are more concerned with realism than story, and I'm a little disappointed that Hanks and Spielberg couldn't pull off both. I would love to seee them do the same with the Battle of Britain. Hell they could follow the Eagle Squadron if they need an audience over here.

BTW, Dad made 3 landings during the War, Guadalcanal, Boughanville (part of the 1st wave) and Guam. He caught shrapnel from a motor round on Guam and missed Iwo Jima due to his injuries. That probably saved his life. He's still living and is a tough sonofabitch.