History Channel (shockingly)

There goes my Saturday

I don't think I'll ever be tired of watching the series yearly.

I still refuse to watch Damian Lewis in anything else. Might ruin Winters for me.

Makes no sense? Yeah, I know.

The Pacific is another I try to watch yearly, but it's much harder to do...which imo is why it is important. I think it still doesn't get enough coverage outside of Pearl Harbor.

Mr. White said:

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I still refuse to watch Damian Lewis in anything else. Might ruin Winters for me.

Makes no sense? Yeah, I know.

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Homeland, 1st three seasons....trust me.

Billions is good...but yes, Dick Winters is one of the best characters in the history of television.

When the show premiered they had a special showing of episode 2 "Day of Days" in Rudder Theater for the Corps. Seeing it in big screen was awesome. Bought the DVDs a year later when I was a junior (for something like $99) and a few of us would watch an episode a night in my dorm room. Also met Ambrose during all this at a WWII deal at the Bush school and got him to autograph my copy of BoB. Like someone else said, I don't think I could ever get tired of watching this series.

Band of Brothers is the best TV show/Miniseries of all time, followed closely by Season 1 of True Detective.

I tried to get into the Pacific, but after 3 episodes, I just found I didn't care about the characters and had no more desire to continue.

DallasTeleAg said:

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Band of Brothers is the best TV show/Miniseries of all time, followed closely by Season 1 of True Detective.

I tried to get into the Pacific, but after 3 episodes, I just found I didn't care about the characters and had no more desire to continue.

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I watched The Pacific when it originally aired. Haven't desired to watch it again.

I've seen BoB a dozen times, at least.

GiveEmHellBill said:

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DallasTeleAg said:

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Band of Brothers is the best TV show/Miniseries of all time, followed closely by Season 1 of True Detective.

I tried to get into the Pacific, but after 3 episodes, I just found I didn't care about the characters and had no more desire to continue.

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I watched The Pacific when it originally aired. Haven't desired to watch it again.

I've seen BoB a dozen times, at least.

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BoB has the advantage of telling a more cohesive story. It sticks with the same core group of guys who are together, and with the exception of the flashbacks to training it takes place over 11 months. The Pacific has a harder task of combining three separate narratives that span over 3 years.

I love BoB and The Pacific. I get why The Pacific doesn't get the love that BoB gets - one is much more cohesive than the other, in that it follows the same group of guys, mostly, from beginning to end, whereas the other focuses on three guys who rarely interact.

BoB is a more identifiable tale with the goal to defeat an evil antagonist, that being Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. It flows smoothly from bootcamp to Europe and all the way through to final victory.

The Pacific, like the actual Pacific theater of operations, is more fractured in how it gets to its ultimate objective, the defeat of Japan. The action is spread out across a huge geographical area, most of which looks the same whether we're on Guadalcanal, Peliliu, or Okinawa. Whereas most people of the time likely knew where France or Germany was, I'd say that most had never heard of any of these islands let alone knew where to find them on a map. The Pacific just isn't as sexy as BoB.

Having said that, I actually favor The Pacific. This is largely because, at a young age, I remember reading stories of Pearl Harbor, Midway, the American Volunteer Group (not really Pacific but close enough), and just always loved the idea of these great battles involving capital ships that never sight one another yet were able to reach out (via airpower) to touch each other. Of course, The Pacific focuses on none of that, but is more about the Marine infantry units engaged in combat on any number of islands.

As for the Eighth Air Force series that is coming, I'll be subscribing to that network when it airs. That is one series that I'm really looking forward to watching, given my life-long fascination with WWII airpower.

I preferred The Pacific as I had the pleasure of knowing RV Burgin for many years. Growing up, I just thought he was the nice guy who worked at the post office with the Australian wife. Didn't understand he was a war hero until later on.

It's probably a good thing that most people don't really want to watch the Pacific again, that means it told the story well and accurately. It was a brutal war.

The source material for The Pacific is much darker than BoB. It makes sense too considering the differences in the enemies faced. The fighting in the pacific theater was much more tooth and nail and I think that is reflected in the series as well.

So I'm bummed out... Ever since I learned James Cameron was a blatant liar in his movies, I have been researching historical movies for accuracy. I hate it when they bash the reputation of a real life person. I watched BoB before I got on that kick and knew it was based on Ambrose's book, so I never thought to look into that one. I just looked it up, and it appears they did Lt. Dike wrong:

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• In the series, Lieutenant Dike is portrayed as being an incompetent coward. However, in real life he performed many acts of heroics. For example, Dike was awarded a Bronze Star for his action at Uden, Holland, with the 101st Airborne Division between 23 and 25 September 1944, in which he "organized and led scattered groups of parachutists in the successful defense of an important road junction on the vital Eindhoven (sic)-Arnhem Supply Route against superior and repeated attacks, while completely surrounded." Dike was awarded a second Bronze Star for his action at Bastogne, in which "he personally removed from an exposed position, in full enemy view, three wounded members of his company, while under intense small arms fire" on 3 January 1945. In preparation for the 13 January 1945 attack on Foy, Belgium, E Company was attached to the 3rd Battalion, 506th PIR. Division Headquarters ordered the attack to begin at 0900 hours. During the assault, Carwood Lipton, at that time the company's first sergeant, described Dike as having "fallen apart." Clancy Lyall stated that he saw that Dike had been wounded in his right shoulder and that it was the wound, not panic, that caused Dike to stop. Dike survived the assault, and eventually returned to the rear in the company of a medic. Afterwards, he was transferred to 506th Regimental Headquarters to become an assistant operations officer. Dike then moved on to become, as a captain, an aide to General Maxwell Taylor, Commanding General, 101st Airborne Division. He later served in the Korean War.

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There is another about Blythe (which I had heard before):

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• The end of episode three states that Albert Blithe never recovered from the wounds he received in Normandy, and that he died in 1948. Fellow Easy Company Currahee veterans interviewed while writing the mini-series Band of Brothers had thought that Blithe did not recover from his wounds, which they mistakenly recalled as a neck wound (in actuality he was shot in the right shoulder), and had died in Philadelphia in 1948. Albert Blithe remained on active duty, was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in combat, served in the Korean War and achieved the rank of Master Sergeant, married with two children. He died in December 1967 of complications of surgery for a perforated ulcer after attending a memorial ceremony in Bastogne and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

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I wish they would either 1) portray it as accurately as they can or 2) make up a name and make the character fictional. Don't make a real life guy look bad (especially if they have living family).

Personal story: My Great Uncle was in the 506 and knew "Bob Sink." He didn't recall any other guys featured in the show but I also was sensitive to asking more about the war. He didn't land on D-Day but was in Bastogne and at Berchtesgaden, where he might have kept a few "souvenirs." Class of '43 and the main reason I went to A&M. He was buried a few years ago at ANC, and I was lucky enough to receive one of the cartridges from his 21-gun salute. Dude is basically my personal hero.

Bruce Almighty said:

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PatAg said:

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Bruce Almighty said:

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I like the war part of The Pacific more than BoB. When the show attempts character development, it falls flat.

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They can only tell what actually happened and was written down. They can't just make **** up to get character development. "damn this guy died, it would be convenient if he could live so we could keep following his story line"

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I'm not talking about changing characters. All movies and tv shows have to fill in the gaps with fictional dialogue, even something crazy accurate like Band of Brothers or Apollo 13. The Pacific did not do a good job with that. The love story for example, was badly written and pointless.

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Ahh, I get what you are thinking about now and I do agree.

I'm not saying I enjoy the pacific on the same level, I have only rewatched the pacific a couple times over the years. It's just not as enjoyable, which I personally think is what they were going for. (could be wrong).

I've seen Generation Kill more times, as another HBO miniseries in that genre that I don't think gets enough credit. It's really well made.

Band of Brothers was just a rare occurrence where the actual events made for a truly interesting story. Then they nailed it with the casting and production.

My dad was in the 505th PIR of the 82nd. Jumped at Normandy and liberated Ste. Mere Eglise. Jumped in Holland at Nimejjan (sp?). Fought at St. Vith in the bulge.....suffered the effects of frost bite the rest of his life. Occupied Berlin. Silver star, two bronze stars, two Purple Hearts. Purple Hearts were a head graze and a gut shot. Died in '84 when I was 19....we were close. He was an old dad, I was an attentive son.

He really only talked to me about the women in each country....never the combat. When we'd travel, we'd often visit nearby "old army buddies."....usually either missing limbs or alcoholics.
He hated Aggies.....seems a group of CT's after the war jumped his butt at a Baylor game and he always associated A&M with those guys. He never found out I transferred to A&M right before he died.

Best trip I ever had was taking my to sons to Normandy to see where their grandfather fought....guided by a history channel historian for a day that was able to take us to the exact sites his company fought at.

I watch BOB every year. It mirrors my fathers war experience that he would never talk to me about. It really makes me miss my father and makes me realize why he didn't talk about the combat.
I cherish a letter I have from the mayor of Ste Mere Eglise that was given to my dad in England between Normandy and Market Garden. Also have a very interesting letter in French from a Normandy prostitute while he was occupying Berlin.....she evidently wound up paying him to come by when he was in Normandy. I'm confident my father had no idea what that French letter said.

I also had an uncle killed at Normandy....Saving Private Ryan also has a lot of meaning to me.

Went searching for a BoB thread here and this was the most recent one to show up. To celebrate the miniseries turning 20 (!) this year, HBO is putting together a podcast talking about the show. It'll go through the series episode by episode and the first two shows drop on Sept. 9th. It's hosted by Rog Bennett (of soccer's Men in Blazers fame). I'm really looking forward to it and will probably try to watch an episode of the series each week as it coincides with the podcast episodes.

https://deadline.com/video/tom-hanks-band-of-brothers-podcast-trailer-steven-spielberg-roger-bennett-hbo/