The Pacific HBO 2010

How are you all watching it when the first episode airs tommarow?
 
tesher06 said:
How are you all watching it when the first episode airs tommarow?
Click to expand...

Apparently HBO made a mistake and put it on their site, because the link Dax posted worked fine this afternoon. Not so much now it seems.
 
Is there any way to legally watch this tonight without an HBO subscription? Does the itunes version come out at the same time?
 
Well it's out, for those of you who know where to find it.
Nice to watch it in HD for a change.

So, a somewhat proper episode review.

I'm mostly going to repeat what I posted on the IMDB board: overall it was good, however, I had a few gripes with it. They've spent over 200 million dollars and over seven years on this project. Would it have killed them to make the first episode a little longer and more polished, 90 minutes or so to flesh out some of the characters, both on the home-front and the Guadalcanal scenes? The episode was about 51 minutes long, not including the credits-roll. The performances were pretty solid though.

This first episode is really best appreciated if you've read the books and know some of your history.
I'm confident it's going to improve later on, and in I believe in retrospect, much like with Band of Brothers, the first episode might seem better and easier to understand when put in context to the whole series. But thus far, as a stand-alone episode, it's kinda weak.

With that said, can't wait for next week's episode. :)

Emotional scene that stands out in this episode was the Japanese soldiers standing in the river sobbing while the Marines were teasing and laughing at him, and Leckie's mercy shot. And the scene where Phillips reads a letter from his buddy Sledge. Also, naval battle was cool. :afro:
 
Great first episode.
Gives us a taste of some of the characters and the action.

That patrol through jungle had my heart pounding with that haunting score and I was expecting someone to walk into a trap or something.

Can't wait for more.
 
i thought it was gonna be like the first few episodes of band of brothers (ie: no action/a lot of character development) but i like how the first half was mostly character based and the second half had more action, which was welcomed and surprising. my favorite scene was probably when the americans were
taking pot shots at the wounded japanese soldier across the river,
powerful stuff.
 
I think I spotted a weird mistake. When the non-coms are briefed on the war by the Marine general about halfway through the scene, there is a world map in the background. On it, Iceland is coloured in as part of the Axis. Now I could be mistaken, but it was occupied by the Brits in December 1941, wasn't it?
 
Dan said:
Is there any way to legally watch this tonight without an HBO subscription? Does the itunes version come out at the same time?
Click to expand...

I hope you did the only thing you really could do... propositioning your next door neighbor Bob(who has HBO) with a bucket of KFC and your very own chicken legs.


My favorite scene:
Like others, was the japanese soldier in the river, exasperated and sobbing. But before that, I really liked the scene with the Japanese grenade suicide. That's the type of scene that hits me and I go, "whoa..." with a sinking in my stomach. Because suicide stuff like that was notorious with the Japanese and I'm glad they're going to be covering it. I'm sure we'll be seeing kamakazie fighters too of course.
 
i enjoyed it, am eagerly awaiting more, but i can't help but feel it felt a little... disjointed. it felt very fast, very much straight into the fight as it were so i thought it very, very different from the pacing of band of brothers, which sets up all of the characters, settings, history and time very nicely in the span of boot camp and preparation for war, whereas this was kind of just 10 minutes of the families, then straight off the boat into the fight.

i'm aware that these soldiers did actually go through a very rushed and were kept fairly in the dark about what they were heading off to, but i still think there was room for a little more development beforehand.

still, the potential is massive and i can rest easy knowing it will be really very good, just found it a little jarring when compared to band of brothers. all this said, i cannot remember how i felt when i first watched band of brothers - i was young, young as in it was shown way past my ''bedtime'' and even then, i wasn't quite into scheduling time around a show so it's likely i didn't see the entire thing back to back, and what i did see i enjoyed simply because it was fightin' and guns! and the like.
 
knut said:
i enjoyed it, am eagerly awaiting more, but i can't help but feel it felt a little... disjointed. it felt very fast, very much straight into the fight as it were so i thought it very, very different from the pacing of band of brothers, which sets up all of the characters, settings, history and time very nicely in the span of boot camp and preparation for war, whereas this was kind of just 10 minutes of the families, then straight off the boat into the fight.

i'm aware that these soldiers did actually go through a very rushed and were kept fairly in the dark about what they were heading off to, but i still think there was room for a little more development beforehand.

still, the potential is massive and i can rest easy knowing it will be really very good, just found it a little jarring when compared to band of brothers. all this said, i cannot remember how i felt when i first watched band of brothers - i was young, young as in it was shown way past my ''bedtime'' and even then, i wasn't quite into scheduling time around a show so it's likely i didn't see the entire thing back to back, and what i did see i enjoyed simply because it was fightin' and guns! and the like.
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Pretty much came to post the exact same thing.

I really enjoyed it, but yeah - 'jarring' pretty much sums up the pacing for me. It just felt like they crammed as much as they possibly could into that 50 minutes. One minute Leckie's leaving to join the Marines, and literally a couple of minutes later he's on the landing craft ready to storm the beach. I guess I was expecting a lot more in terms of character development before they shipped out. I think it'd would've felt a lot more deliberate in terms of pacing if they would've just dedicated that first ep purely on exposition and life at home before they enlisted, just so we could have a better idea of who these people are and what they're about.

I think the Guadalcanal part would've actually worked well as a second episode in it's own right, because all that felt rushed to me as well. Day to turned to night and back again every ten seconds, and just as the big battle in the creek started to pick up steam - it just abruptly ended and cut to the aftermath. Bleh.

All in all though, a pretty solid start. Just wasn't quite what I was expecting.
 
It's not entirely improbable that they will explain the backstory through flashbacks.
 
Shakermaker said:
I think I spotted a weird mistake. When the non-coms are briefed on the war by the Marine general about halfway through the scene, there is a world map in the background. On it, Iceland is coloured in as part of the Axis. Now I could be mistaken, but it was occupied by the Brits in December 1941, wasn't it?
Click to expand...

You're not entirely mistaken. Iceland was never occupied by Nazi Germany. It's an error on their part.
Actually, the Brits occupied it in May 1940 and later in July 1941 handed over the defense to USA.

Anyway, a preview of part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCO2qoG5kVo
 
What about Iceland being in a union with Denmark?

Or maybe the fact that there is an arrow moving to it, indicating an expectation that Germany would conquer it soon, rather than actually occupying it.

160pm3b.jpg


There's an arrow to Norway too... but that was already occupied by Germany at that time. So I dunno.
 
The Germans never landed in Iceland, but the Danish government, which owns Iceland capitulated to the Germans in '41. So technically, when they surrendered all of their territory, they were also surrendering Iceland, and Iceland "belonged" to the Germans even though they couldn't reach it due to the RN.
 
swan_song1973 said:
i thought it was gonna be like the first few episodes of band of brothers (ie: no action/a lot of character development) but i like how the first half was mostly character based and the second half had more action, which was welcomed and surprising. my favorite scene was probably when the americans were
taking pot shots at the wounded japanese soldier across the river,
powerful stuff.
Click to expand...

I loved that scene, I really felt pity for the poor bastard.
 
Watched it last night. Pretty good episode all in all, but I'll agree with the notion that it wasn't as good as the first episode of Band of Brothers. By the end of the pilot BoB, I knew several characters names, and knew bits about them. This one was just rushed into the action too quickly, and frankly the only character I remember anything about is Eugiene, the kid with the heart murmur. Hes the only one who had any sort of memorable backstory.
 
Krynn72 said:
Watched it last night. Pretty good episode all in all, but I'll agree with the notion that it wasn't as good as the first episode of Band of Brothers. By the end of the pilot BoB, I knew several characters names, and knew bits about them. This one was just rushed into the action too quickly, and frankly the only character I remember anything about is Eugiene, the kid with the heart murmur. Hes the only one who had any sort of memorable backstory.
Click to expand...

Him and the guy who met the girl at the church.

But I still wouldn't recognize his face yet.

I do also agree that the episode played out kind of differently from the formula of Band of Brothers formula and I hope that the next episode won't have me feeling as disjointed. I hope I can find some stuff to really ground me and bring me in to the story.

Like at the end of the first episode of band of brothers... I had to remind myself to breathe, because the feeling of awe and anxiety as the men boarded their planes and set off to normandy.

This one ended with

Them wishing a dude happy birthday... and how ****ed they all are. It is foreboding because we know how ****ed they're going to be.

But it just didn't have that same gripping feeling as BoB did.
 
John Basilone is a god, hopefully they do him justice in this series.
 
Dan said:
The Germans never landed in Iceland, but the Danish government, which owns Iceland capitulated to the Germans in '41. So technically, when they surrendered all of their territory, they were also surrendering Iceland, and Iceland "belonged" to the Germans even though they couldn't reach it due to the RN.
Click to expand...
Denmark didn't "own" Iceland, they were in a personal union. After Denmark was occupied, they declared themselves neutral. Iceland was never in a state of war with Germany, nor was it occupied by it. Besides, Britain invaded Iceland in May 1940, which is (I'm guessing) way earlier than that map was made. So it was clearly a production error.
 
William Sadler, yeah. Recognized him instantly from The Mist.

and that one guy from Eurotrip, Jacob Pitts.

Oh, and Stifler :afro:

 
Stifler from American Pie? I don't think that's him.

Looks nothing like Sean William Scott.
 
that, and his imdb doesn't have him listed in it.
 
Krynn72 said:
Watched it last night. Pretty good episode all in all, but I'll agree with the notion that it wasn't as good as the first episode of Band of Brothers. By the end of the pilot BoB, I knew several characters names, and knew bits about them. This one was just rushed into the action too quickly, and frankly the only character I remember anything about is Eugiene, the kid with the heart murmur. Hes the only one who had any sort of memorable backstory.
Click to expand...

I remembered the heart murmur kid, his friend from A History of Violence, and Bob Lechey, the curly haired machine gunner NCO who gets promoted to corporal. I can't remember the face of the guy with the big family though.
 
Joseph Mazzello

watn-josephmazzello-431x300.jpg

so weird, hes a few weeks older than i too!

also watching the series on hbo.com
 
Dan said:
..Bob Lechey, the curly haired machine gunner NCO who gets promoted to corporal...
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I had to re-watch that section, is was the Professor that said they had to move didn't he? So the NCO took credit for someone else's actions.

Edit: Watched it again, turns out I was wrong.
 
i have a jacket from Guadalcanal that my grandfather wore. at least i think he wore it then, but regardless he did say he killed quite a few of them.


also:
11289790424110qj5qz.gif
 
Lucid said:
Stifler from American Pie? I don't think that's him.

Looks nothing like Sean William Scott.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know it's not Seann William Scott but that's who I first thought of :p
 
It displeases me that you guys are already talking about the episodes and I still have to wait a bloody week to see it :(
 
Dax said:
Yeah, I know it's not Seann William Scott but that's who I first thought of :p
Click to expand...

Me and my brother thought of Stifler as well. :p He just has this peculiar face.

Shift said:
It displeases me that you guys are already talking about the episodes and I still have to wait a bloody week to see it :(
Click to expand...

You're a better man than I am, cause I just downloaded it.
 
I made an honest attempt to purchase it. Unfortunately it cannot be bought on release date with anything short of an HBO subscription. And I am not getting a tv cable subscription just to watch a show on my computer.
 
Just finished watching the first episode and really enjoyed it :)

What day is it on in the stats?
 
just watched episode two, a few gripes have come to mind from watching these first two episodes alone and let clearly state now that i understand they portray the war very well, but whether or not it translates to TV very well - on the back of the success of band of brothers no less - is questionable to me right now. there is only so much of people a) sitting around in the dark and b) sitting around in the dark in very samey surroundings that i can take, and c) watching these people sitting around in the dark in very samey surroundings fighting wave after wave of mindless enemies charging their frontline.

i'll say it again that this is perfect for the setting; the enemy attacked at dark for obvious reasons; a jungle is a jungle and those were the tactics of the japanese soldiers. right now, it's just not making for the most interesting thing to watch but then i guess you have to realize that this is the setting, this is how it is and no matter how much the band of brothers name is plastered across it, it is, after all, a different war. a different show.

i just need to adjust to it, but again... potential is still there, and it was a good episode no doubt, just a few things flagged up in my mind as i was watching it. i think things are going to get a lot more interesting now they're moving out to the next frontline, so we'll see.
 
anyone know a good place to stream or watch for a small price?? I can't stand waiting for this to come onto bluray right now and itunes doesn't seem to have anything more than clips. megavideo maybe??
 
I don't think we are allowed to say... But there is this thing called Bit Torrent. Find Bit Torrent and you will find the answer.

What really bugs me is how obvious it is that the nigh scenes were shot during the day. I know that they want to let people see faces and details at night, but can they at least make it look a little bit like real night time? You know, dark.

The battle scenes felt very tv-ish compared to last week. I don't know if it was shot on a set, or outdoors, but it seems like everything is small and close together.

I watched some DeNiro movie get filmed at night once. The spot lights were so bright that it looked brighter than daylight where they were shooting.
 
I can't do bit torrent anymore, the man is watching me

maybe I'll just wait till its on Netflix. God hates me
 
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