The Pacific

I'm not disagreeing with you in a sense, but weren't they in Melbourne for like a year? Even if they didn't call it quits the day he shipped back out there could have been some serious time to get involved with a girl and her family. That's totally enough time in real life. However, we are in fictional 1 hour episode life, so I don't think it works all that well either.

That's my biggest problem with the show. My WWII history is lacking so I don't have the feel for how much actual time has passed. I think they were on Guadalcanal for like four months, but for whatever reason I didn't get that feel when I watched it. It feels like this could have a relatively simple fix. All they would need to do is say Days In Melbourne-1 at the beginning scene and then increase it as the episode goes along.

Maybe I'm just missing subtle cues about the time issue. Either way I have confidence that the next 7 episodes will be able to do this series more justice.

 

Just to be clear, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with throwing in a love story, or that's it's unrealistic that it would have happened. I'm just saying that the way it was presented I didn't buy into it. They've said all of four sentences to each other and next thing you know they're sleeping together and having that cliche post-sex 'heart to heart' talk. It was a very different scenario than what we saw with the nurse in BoB.

If they were in Melbourne that long though, I definitely didn't pick up on it from the episode. It seemed to be a much shorter time frame. Oh well, I guess it's better to keep it short and get back to the war effort anyway.

 

I have been enjoying the series, only because I am pretty interested in what happened in the Pacific. Of course I am ready for some battle scenes as well.

My buddy sent me this text last night, absolute comedy.

What an awesome storyline! Lecky keeps wetting the bed! That's what I wanna see, Forget about fighting the Japs just keep the show focused on that bedwetting.

We are getting some things we never saw with BoB, we never really saw an asshole officer. Dyke was incompetent but he didn't steal from his men and Sobol was not in combat with them. You never really saw guys go off the line either, you had a brief scene with Buck overcome with grief and a guy trying to dig a fox hole with his hands but never the suicide and crazy house that the Pacific had.

I'm sure all of us will be patient, but let's get some battle scenes in already.

 

I didn't care much for last night's episode. I can't believe I'm saying this, but if next Sunday doesn't give me a good reason to keep watching I'm going to give up on this show. To me, it's been pretty much all shit up to this point. I'd get more out of watching battle 360 on the history channel.

I am looking forward to the beach landing that I saw in the previews though.

 

I've been disappointed in this show so far as well. I think a big problem is that it they're rushing the story. Take the latest episode. The interview before the ep. talked about how it rained for practically three months straight, and by the end they just didn't care about anything. They then spent only about 15-20 minutes of the episode showing that experience. The awful experience in the rain should have been an episode of it own, and the fall out from that (the psych ward) should have been another. I think that this applies to the last episode as well. The love story could have been very interesting, but the rushed it. They're not taking the time and letting the viewers connect with the characters. I think the same story we've seen so far would have been better served it had been at least 8 episodes compared to 4.

 

Pretty sure he said, "Jesus, I envied him."

 

I think it's picking up a little bit. I really enjoyed the whole sequence of leaving the ship and arriving on the beach, I thought that was really well done.

They also introduced a couple characters that I think we can all enjoy, Snafu was incredibly creepy but I enjoyed every time he was on!

My new favorite character (he's been around a couple episodes but he really shined in this one) was the Gunnery Sgt. He just got nude and showered at the first sign of a rain, and gave a little speech about how marines stay clean.

A couple quick questions why did Gunny freak out on the LT at the firing range? Also what is up with the "salt pills" didn't the Marines have water?

This is never going to be BoB, but I still find it incredibly interesting. I think it was going to have a hell of time living up to the expectations of everyone.

 

He exercised poor muzzle control of his pistol. Fucking dumbass had his finger on the trigger and the barrel pointed right at Gunny, instead of downrange. A heaping big no-no.

 

Exactly what phil said above. The Lt is lucky the Gunny didn't tackle his ass to the ground. It's a loaded weapon he was pointing at the dude next to him.

As far as the salt pills go, they keep water and electrolytes in your system really well. When I was at OCS it was 95 degrees and about 98% humidity, so it was hot as hell, people would pass out because they weren't drinking enough water or gatorade. During our chow time, we covered everything in a layer of salt, I even snuck a few salt packets on some of our hikes because I would sweat out all the water I drank. It's necessary.

 

Nothing yet on Ep. 6 eh? Well, what stuck out in my mind was four things.

1. When they were firing the mortars at the Japs with the machine guns from the airfield they were pretty damn accurate. Like, slipping mortars inside doors accurate.

2. "Sledgehammer"

3. The guy who got killed when he was having the nightmare. "Better him than all of us"

4. When the two guys on the Medical ship at the end (sorry I'm horrible with names - Leckey maybe?) are headed home. Leaving your company like that must kill you inside.

 

FINALLY!!!!!!!

I'm not sure about everyone else but that was exactly what I was waiting for. I'm not talking about the graphic violence, I meant the emergence of characters that you could really enjoy, and see yourself following and fighting with.

Ack-Ack (I have no clue if I'm spelling that right) was fucking fantastic. He is intelligent, a good combat officer and a selfless leader. He cares about his men and is willing to do anything that he would ask them to do.

Gunny is just great, it's a totally different character from anyone in BoB. His "semper fi do or die" attitude is just great. You didn't see that type of personality in BoB, Gunny loves being a Marine.

I like Snafu as well. Again all the guys in BoB were pretty clean cut, while Guaniere (Wild Bill) had that South Philly edginess to him he didn't cut gold out of the enemies mouth.......he was not creepy.

I think we are in store for some fantastic episodes, Iwo Jima will be awesome. Hopefully they don't dive into too much of Leckie's recovery in the VA hospital, his character is being put in less and less interesting scenes.

That LT with the southern accent is pretty cool as well, that whole scene with them stopping the tank for the wounded men was fantastic.

 

I'm not quite sure that was just a nightmare. Having to be restrained by five men suggests a little bit of a breakdown as well, it was a great scene though.

Seeing the chagrin and remorse on the LT's face who did it was great acting. (What is that southern guys name??? Had we seen him before??)

 

Am I the only one still watching this?

Great Episode. Seeing Hillbilly and Ack-Ack get killed was awful. You got a great look at how incredibly de-sensitized these guys were, Snafu throwing rocks into a guy's half blown off head was pretty nasty.

The fact that they laughed at the guy who ran out of the cave shitting (after they killed the soldier chasing him) showed just how much death and carnage they had been a part of.

Pretty frank expression of what happened in the Pacific, pretty grizzly as well. You can see now how they are using all the characters, I wouldn't be surprised if it's Basilone that end's up in Iwo Jima.

For all you HBO series fan's John Basilone was Dino Ortaloni from Oz.

 

I'm still watching and enjoying. My problem with the show is they plow through characters way too quickly. Someone is introduced, and within an episode or two he is gone. After seven episodes I don't know who to care about. It seems like they wanted to work-in source material from guys they interviewed as they did with BoB, but in doing so (almost a decade later) they were unable to capture as complete a story. Probably because they didn't have Dick Winters to interview.

The show is also so brutal it's almost hard to watch. Almost.

 

The stretcher scene was awful. It may have been the worst depiction of battle I've yet seen on film. I've since read that Japanese snipers were told to aim for stretcher-bearers to draw more Marines into the open, so being assigned that detail was basically a death sentence.

Grab a 6 foot long, 30 pound litter, throw it over your shoulder, and run out into a hail of gun and mortarfire until you find the first guy with his guts falling out of his stomach, load him up and run him back here without getting killed. Then, go do it again.

Another thing I appreciated (for lack of a better word): the way the Captain died. They gave us forty minutes of raw, unhindered violence. Then, when things calm down and it seems like they've caught a small break, we hear a shot ring out and someone scream "Corpsman" from off-screen. That's it. That's how they kill off the character that had been keeping everyone else from collapsing in despair. Brutal.

I suppose that was the reality of the situation. At any moment, from any direction, in the blink of an eye, an indiscriminate bullet could destroy you or the man next to you. Imagine living with that reality, day in and day out, for weeks on end. That is as real as hell gets.

 

The show has gotten much better. It really turned a corner when they started focusing on "sledgehammer" and his unit. They're doing a great job of portraying how mentally draining that experience must have been.

 

I'm watching this show and truly enjoying it. I wish I had been able to see it when my grandfather was still alive because these islands they're depicting is exactly where he was for much of the war.

I feel like a giant pussy when I watch this show too. After watching an episode I don't complain of think any ill thoughts about my life for at least two days or so. I can't imagine being an 18-20 year old kid and running into a hail of mortar, grenade, and machine gun fire jumping over blown apart bodies of the guys who tried to get to the objective you're trying to get to. Then in your down time you're trying not to fall asleep in the jungle where everything is trying to kill you.

Fuck this show is intense.

 

The issue is they do not have the same luxury of being able to follow one unit through all the island campaigns in the pacific, the way they could follow Easy Company through Europe. That is why they are using Leckie, Sledge and Basilone because between the three of them they probably went to every island.

 

This is what I took away from the last episode. The guys just are barely hanging on day to day. You'd think they'd almost get used to the gunfire and explosions, and they do to some point, but you can just see the toll it's taking on them. To have to be so alert all day every day would just wear you out. Then when they lost their captain, it just took whatever they had left right out of them. It's not on the same level as BoB, but I am enjoying it. The first couple episodes seemed rushed and cluttered, but now it seems they're telling the story better.