Thoughts on The Pacific

As most of you likely know already, I'm a keen student of World War 2 (and even did a RPG on the topic, V for Victory). I think I've read more books about that conflict than any other topic. I'm sure it's no surprise then to learn that I was really looking forward to the new HBO mini-series, The Pacific. The idea was to do a show similar to Band of Brothers but set in the Pacific theater. The producers chose to focus on the classic island hopping match-up: US marines vs. the Japanese.

I've now watched six of the ten episodes and I'm finally fully bought in. I was worried for the first month because it did not suck me right in (unlike Treme, the other new HBO show, which had me in the first 10 minutes). I've been pondering why that is and I think I've figured it out.

Band of Brothers benefited from focusing on one small unit, Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. A challenge of any war movie is that most of the protagonists will be dressed in the same uniform. The film makers thus have to work a little harder to differentiate the characters, since visual cues are often minimal. Basically, one guy in fatigues wearing a helmet looks much like another, at least at first. Band of Brothers was better able to bring out its characters in part because the show was about only one company and there was a core of reoccurring characters.

The Pacific tells the story of the war through three men: Robert Leckie, Eugene Sledge, and John Basilone. They were all in the 1st Marine Division but they weren't in the same company or even in the same battles necessarily. Basilone was on Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima, Leckie on Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, and Peleliu, and Sledge on Peleliu and Okinawa. This means that each of them has a separate cast of supporting characters and that's been problematic. It's often difficult to keep the various background characters straight, especially when you might only hear their names once. I've ended up watching each episode twice. The first time I take in the overall story. The second time I watch for little details and try to make connections I may have missed.

Of the three main characters, two of them wrote books after the war. Robert Leckie wrote "Helmet for My Pillow" and Eugene Sledge penned "With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa." Last week I was the bookstore and I decided to pick up Sledge's book, since the show was shifting its focus onto him. I finished it before the latest episode aired last night and I'm really glad I read it. It was much easier for me pick out the support characters. Ah, there's the captain they called "Ack Ack," there's the crazy gunnery sergeant who scrubbed his scrotum with a steel-bristled brush, etc.

By the fifth episode I had already felt like it was cohering better, and that was cemented last night. It seems there will be a third episode on Peleliu and that will help as well. The early episodes did skip around a bit and the pacing was sometimes odd. With only four episodes left, I guess that means one more for Peleliu, one for Basilone on Iwo Jima, and then two for Sledge on Okinawa. I will be interested to see how the whole thing hangs together once I've seen it all and to see if it passes my "random flip" test. Basically, I know I really like something if I'll stop and watch it whenever I'm flipping TV channels and come across it. Band of Brothers passes that test, which is somewhat ridiculous since I own the series and can watch it anytime. We'll see if The Pacific measures up.

Frak You, Apollo! [BSG Finale Spoilers]

I hope someone reads this someday. I'm going to carve it into a cave wall if I have the strength. Or maybe I'll just carve one thing: Frak you, Apollo!

It's been 10 years since we arrived on "Earth" and now I know why Lee Adama's call sign was Apollo. He obviously thought the sun shone out of his arse.

Oh sure, his plan sounded great. We'll fly our ships into the sun and live off the land. We won't bring our petty squabbles to this pristine new planet. After the hellish journey we had just finished, we probably would have agreed to anything. I ask myself daily why we listened to Lee Adama. We should have remembered that he was the guy who defended the traitor Baltar (who still isn't dead, by the way; what the frak!).

It was a beautiful day when we landed, but winter was a different story, especially for those of us lucky enough to be sent north. A quarter of us died during that hellish freeze because we didn't have enough food, warm clothes, or medicine.Or say the shelter of a landed spaceship.

We could have stayed together and used our technology to tame this planet. Our numbers would have counted for something. Our ships could have scouted out the best places for new cities. Instead we are scattered across the world, weakened and divided. We must deal with predators, the savage natives, and the breakdown of our culture and laws.

When we were on the run from the Cylons, at least there was a hope that some day things would get better. Now thanks to the high handed Adamas we're trapped on this hellhole forever. It's only a matter of time before we start frakking the natives and ultimately we'll lose everything that made the Colonies special. But what does Apollo care? His wife killed herself, his best friend was a frakkin' ghost, and he's off climbing mountains somewhere. I wish I had gone with the Centurions instead of staying here.

So frak you, Apollo. I hope a moutain cat eats your whiny ass. Oh, and God, if you exist, frak you too for your great divine plan. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to starve to death.

Pouring Out a Virtual 40 for My Homey

Well, my favorite character on the Wire took a bullet to the dome this week. Knowing that the writers were hearkening back to Greek tragedies with the show, I expected he was going to go out in the final season but hoped to be proven wrong. I imagine David Simon didn't want to make a hero out of the guy either, preferring to show the harsh realities of the street. It's been three days since the episode and I still find myself thinking about it and being bummed out. That's what you call effective drama.

If you haven't seen the Wire, start with Season 1 and watch the episodes in order. You will not be disappointed.