The Pacific - Anyone else a little disappointed?

Still vastly superior to most other things on TV atm in spite of maybe not living up to our expectations. Agree that 5 & 6 have been better. However, I've been watching lots of WWII docs recently such as the BBC WWII collection and Hell in the Pacific. Both put Pacific in perspective, as a high quality TV drama but doesn't convey the realities.
 
I'm really enjoying it, the depth of it is quite good, BoB covered a small part of the invasion where as this is taking on a much greater amount.

It will come under critism for the character development but when so few actually survived what do you expect?

KaHn
 
The hype was always going to be too much for the Pacific to live up to, after the years of build up and fan boy over excitment it was going to have to be a lot better than BOB to even stand a chance of a favourable comparison. I was always a little sceptical as they didn't have the same quality of source material, the story of E company is beyond the realms o fiction and were it to be written today people would dismiss it as pure fantasy. The books used as the basis for the Pacific are good and the stories compelling but they don't have the brotherhood and the continuity and the screenwriters have had to fill in too many gaps.
 
KaHn said:
It will come under critism for the character development but when so few actually survived what do you expect?
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That's not why it should be criticsed imo, it's the endless spells of boring irrelevancies. Vast swathes of some episodes are taken up with the crucial story of what the squaddies got up to whilst sightseeing in town when on shore leave. Yes they should touch on this, but it goes on for far too long. So dull.
 
Robbie G said:
That's not why it should be criticsed imo, it's the endless spells of boring irrelevancies. Vast swathes of some episodes are taken up with the crucial story of what the squaddies got up to whilst sightseeing in town when on shore leave. Yes they should touch on this, but it goes on for far too long. So dull.
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Not sure I would say that "vast swathes of some episodes", I can only really think of 1 episode where the shore leave was a heavy part of the episode. I cant remember any other episodes where I would say that the shore leave would constitute a vast swathe.
 
With BoB, we largely saw the same people starting in boot camp at a steady pace until the end, so you're bound to get to know the characters better.

I really don't like the kid from Jurassic Park in Pacific, I don't even know his name :(
 
Tombstone said:
Not sure I would say that "vast swathes of some episodes", I can only really think of 1 episode where the shore leave was a heavy part of the episode. I cant remember any other episodes where I would say that the shore leave would constitute a vast swathe.
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In simple terms: I find large portions of it completely boring.

bledd. said:
With BoB, we largely saw the same people starting in boot camp at a steady pace until the end, so you're bound to get to know the characters better.

I really don't like the kid from Jurassic Park in Pacific, I don't even know his name :(
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Ahhh! I knew I recognised that guy!
 
I've only watched one episode and that was the one screened last night. I've been holding off until it gets released on Blu-Ray but I couldn't hold myself back any longer and had to watch it. I suppose I can't complain about understanding the characters as starting off watching episode 6 (I think it was?) isn't really the best way to enjoy a mini series, I can appreciate.

My gripes with yesterday's show are these; the interview at the beginning had a marine telling us how he was surprised that any of the first wave of attackers on the Peleliu airfield even survived but when we actually got to that part in the episode I was left very underwhelmed. All we really saw of the defence was that building with a few machine gunners on it and a bunker that was shooting at the mortar soldiers hiding behind the lorry. We saw some Japanese ordnance killing the marines but we never actually saw the marines take these guns out as far as I recall.

To echo others sentiments it felt very rushed as if it was in a hurry to get somewhere, the battle that was fought there could probably have been given most of the episode running time but it was way too brief for my liking, then of course we had that bore fest on the ship as the wounded soldiers whose names I don't yet know seemed to yack to each other for an age but never actually *said* anything, just seemed to be a bit of filler in my opinion although I could be very much mistaken as I haven't seen the other episodes yet.

All in all it's very disappointing compared to Band of Brothers and although I'll buy it when it's released I don't think I can really compare the two series'. Another thing that left me a bit annoyed was that the program was scheduled to finish at 11pm but actually finish a quarter hour earlier which could have been completely avoided if they made the best scenes longer, I just feel that we saw hardly anything of the taking of the airfield and I'm sure the Japanese would have fought much harder to defend it and would've had much better defenses than just the 3 or 4 machine guns that we saw huddled into the single building.

There were good bits, but last night for me the negatives outweighed the positives.
 
think the problem here is that people keep using the word "characters"

this isnt some made up storyline that some clever scriptwriter has had made, its real people and real events, the pacific is showing you what it was really like and what really happend

ive just read with the old breed and the show recreates the events in perfect detail

ive enjoyed every episode so far, not sure I understand why people are complaining, and even that its a little disrespectful that people think all those poor people dying was "boring"

BOB was the best tv program ive ever seen but that doesnt mean this is crap in comparison
 
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gettothechopper said:
ive enjoyed every episode so far, not sure I understand why people are complaining, and even that its a little disrespectful that people think all those poor people dying was "boring"
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Haha that's brilliant. It's apparently disrespectful to not enjoy a drama, just because the drama tells the story of some people that have died :D. So is it also disrespectful not to enjoy Uwe Boll's 'The Tunnel Rats'? Are you for real? I sincerely hope not, because that is the single most ridiculous thing I have ever read on these forums :D!

Besides, it's not those parts that I found boring, it's the endless side stories as I already said.
 
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K1LLSW1TCH said:
To echo others sentiments it felt very rushed as if it was in a hurry to get somewhere, the battle that was fought there could probably have been given most of the episode running time but it was way too brief for my liking, then of course we had that bore fest on the ship as the wounded soldiers whose names I don't yet know seemed to yack to each other for an age but never actually *said* anything, just seemed to be a bit of filler in my opinion although I could be very much mistaken as I haven't seen the other episodes yet.
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Isnt that supposed to be a part of the human side of things though. It really does sound like all some people (not necessarily you, a general people) actually want is just 10 hours of explosions, body parts and running gun fights. I get the impression that some folks would probably complain about the "talky" parts in Platoon :)
 
Although I don't think it lives up to BoB - and, as others have already said, it was never really likely to - I think TP has a good mix. There are battles and bloodshed but it is balanced with the tender, human side of events , i.e. Leckie's time in Oz. Even in a war as bitter and horrific as the Pacific theatre the soldiers didn't spend all their time in battle. Take it as a more rounded version of what happened and not as some michael Bay bullets n' bangs action-fest.
 
Under par.

Having only watched BoB recently I can't understand why it seems a much longer than Pacific and the fact you have a great understanding of each main character and you go up and down with them throughout.

I feel detached from the characters in Pacific and I only hope to see action, because everything else is all over the place and I can't follow what is going on with the characters.
 
I have to admit that I've found it disappointing :( I dont know any of their names and nor do I really care like I did in BoB. It just seems like its been cobbled together at random
 
Its not as good but really how many hours of people getting almost randomly killed do you want to watch ? I watched the last episode from a download, 8 i think it was and its more about John Basilone, i wont spoil it obviously.

Although for the blood thirsty we are now on Iwo jima, the only place the US took more casualties than the Japanese so im expecting, episode 9 to be nasty.
 
THANK YOU!

I really do think The Pacific is very good but good grief it could have been a whole lot better! I find it a bit boring at times and I've often found myself actually wondering who characters are and what actually went on in an episode.


As the OP said, by episode 6 in Band of Brothers you'd had:-
- Signing up/training/shipping out
- Invasion of Normandy/'Carentan'
- Attack/counter attack/retreat in 'Replacements' and 'Crossroads'
- 'Bastogne' and 'Breaking Point' are just epic

Spielberg is obviously trying to portray the psycological effects on the soldiers and certainly in episode 3 I don't think you even saw a Jap.

If you haven't seen it yet then don't expect it to be anywhere close to BOB standards because it isn't. Still better than most things on TV these days though!
 
gettothechopper said:
think the problem here is that people keep using the word "characters"

this isnt some made up storyline that some clever scriptwriter has had made, its real people and real events, the pacific is showing you what it was really like and what really happend

ive just read with the old breed and the show recreates the events in perfect detail

ive enjoyed every episode so far, not sure I understand why people are complaining, and even that its a little disrespectful that people think all those poor people dying was "boring"
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I agree completely with this.

Thinking of the two side by side, I can't help but feel that BoB is presented in more of a dramatised fashion and thats why people find it easier to identify with the show. Even as I started watching this I was looking to draw comparisons but after a few episodes I realised that this wasn't Band of Brothers, its a completely different story.

As Brits we only really knew of the fighting in Europe and even during history classes at school, or main focus is on Nazi Germany. The Pacific shows us something different, something that many people have not seen nor heard of before.

In BoB you had a group of trained fighters, a unit that had learned to survive together and we were told the story of their victories. In The Pacific we are told the story of trained but under equipped soldiers who in many battles with the Japanese watched scores of men die around them whilst they could do absolutley nothing. Its a much more harrowing tale and I think the oft depressing nature of the show has disappointed a lot of people.
 
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