Definitely still watching. This past episode was pretty brutal even for me, but I'd assume that's exactly what it was like during the fighting. The Gunny cracking was a pretty pivotal moment when he was just standing there wide-eyed in the middle of battle. Old Corps, those are some hard mother fuckers. This is kind of what they were doing in Iraq back towards the beginning of the war: they'd plant two IED's, one to disable and injure a vehicle, and the second to take out any medical personnel who come to help. And I was not expecting the Skippers death like that. Maybe some last stand effort shooting a bunch of enemy while the company rushed to save him. It was pretty damn brutal. I especially like right at the end when Sledge walked up to the Nurse's table and stood there looking at the nurse. Then the boot 2LT told him to move on and Sledge just stared him down for a good 30 seconds. Fucking bad ass.
This is why I really like Sledge's character. In the face of all the horrors of battles he is truly effected but still soldiers on during the heat of the battle. He experiences the fear and terror but still has it in him to get the job done. The one thing this show really did right was casting actors that looked like kids. Most of the BoB cast looked like they were all in their thirties (of coarse it focused on the company leaders a little more). Sledge and Snafu don't look old enough to buy a beer.
I may have to change my user name to "Snafu" as well as my avatar. I think he is just an amazing character, one minuet he's creepy, the next he's valiant, the next he's flat out fucking nuts. I guess that's what you get with a name like "Snafu."
I firmly believe that he knows he is a little bit crazy and that Sledgehammer is the only thing keeping him from being completely crazy. Thus he had to stop Sledge from slinking to the level of mining Jap gold. One of my absolute favorite parts of all the episodes.
R.I.P. John Basilone, I was getting a little annoyed at the "love" episode. Then I looked up our boy: <a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Basilone" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Basilone</a> The metal of honor and the navy cross, what a true soldier. This is the type of guy that makes me ashamed to not be in the military.
I find it odd but necessary that they're killing off these major "characters". It's completely maddening that some of these combat missions were a complete waste of time. Spend a month trying to capture a little pile of rock, losing thousands of soldiers, and then they never use the fucking island for anything. Is Lucky still alive? I think I missed about half an episode somewhere.
1. It's Leckie. 2. Leckie is still alive. His autobiography of his time in the Pacific was a major basis for the show. <a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmet_for_My_Pillow" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmet_for_My_Pillow</a> The guy we don't know about right now is Husker (aka That Guy from Eurotrip). I am thinking he didn't make it, but I am guessing we find out soon.
Im finding the pacing of some of these episodes to be off. From the short love story to marriage then jumped directly to the day he died. I don't know it just didn't seem well rounded. I guess it's history and not a fictitious story but I read his wikipedia last week and I knew that he was going to die on the day of the invasion of Iwo Jima. Hopefully they spend most of next episode focusing on the battle of Iwo Jima since it was one of the biggest battles of the war.
Hey Beefy, how did Basilone get the Navy Cross?? I know it was for Iwo Jima but isn't that award specifically for men in the Navy?? Remember I'm a citizen so I don't know shit................
Indeed. I'm not quite sure why they are presenting the story in this fashion, it makes it a little difficult to follow. Also when you find yourself beginning to like a character he get's killed or shipped away. I really liked Capt. Ak-Ak, but he was dead in three episodes. They have done a great job in showing the brutality and gruesomeness of this war, of showing how incredibly desensitized the soldiers had gotten, however they are leaving us a little lost in character development. I still am waiting to find out if the guy from road trip made it (when he got blown up he very calmly said to Leckie "I dropped my weapon" I thought that was great
Nearly all medals are shared between the two as they both roll up under the Department of the Navy and have a shared history. Whenever the USMC has needed to go somewhere to fight the Navy has given a lift.
Episode 9 was what I've been expecting ever since I heard about this show. Wow is all I can say- that matches up against any Bob episode.
One of the big problems of this series is that it's hard to track the progression of the characters or get a feel for the timeline of the War. In BoB you had Winters getting promoted as well as numerous scenery changes in addition to the characters themselves looking different. Because the story stayed with one company it was easy to track the campaign in Europe because The Pacific jumps around so much it get's a little confusing as to how long the Pacific campaign actually lasted. In the Pacific you see an obvious change in the mentality of the characters but other than that it's hard to tell how long they have been anywhere. Last night I realized Sledge and Snafu were together for over a year! It's crazy to me that the next episode is the conclusion. All in all I enjoyed it, BoB is obviously much, much better but I still enjoyed watching The Pacific.
I enjoyed episode nine, but it was pretty much what I expected from every episode and didn't get. Also, it may just be me, but I've seen every episode and I have no idea of any of the character names. I'm not even sure if the characters have been in every episode or if I'm watching a new guy who's just been introduced. Not sure why this is, I think the episodes are far too short and there were too many mini-dramas focusing on one character in each episode.
Just basically what Mike said, the story jumped around a lot between three main character's stories too. Though they don't need to copy BoB's structure for it to be a quality series the execution hasn't been nearly as good. Still I grew to really like the story of Sledge and Snafu's unit.
That sucks. I just assumed there would be a BoB style final episode, although I guess would be hard given the majority of the cast are dead.
Snafu needs his own spin off mini-series. "You see that line of stars up there, thats Snafu's pecker."