HBO's The Pacific official trailer (follow up to Band of Brothers)

[EagleFan]

Just a few more days...

[Sun Tzu]

Sooo.....Spielberg and Hanks co-produced this one too right?

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Sun Tzu

Sooo.....Spielberg and Hanks co-produced this one too right?

Yep.

Been awhile since I looked forward to a series this much.

[Scoobz0202]

I think I am going to watch a different trailer at every hour until nine o'clock lol

[Logan]

The Pacific now...Treme in April (seems like it times up to start when Pacific ends)...wow is HBO looking awesome.

[MizzouRah]

I can't wait either!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

SO exicited to watch this. Gonna be awesome.

[Doug5984]

Originally Posted by Logan

The Pacific now...Treme in April (seems like it times up to start when Pacific ends)...wow is HBO looking awesome.

Yup, I just switched my cable providers and even though HBO is $12 / month, I had to get it... The Pacific & Treme, I can't miss those..

[JS19]

Haven't heard a thing about this Treme... gonna have to check it out. Can't freaking wait for 9 pm to come.

[DaddyTorgo]

I haven't watched any trailers just so i'll be fresh going into it. What's this Treme thing?

[Scoobz0202]

Creator of The Wire, David Simon, is making a show based in New Orleans. Here is what Wikipedia says,

"The series takes place three months after Hurricane Katrina where the residents of New Orleans, including musicians, chefs, Mardi Gras Indians and ordinary New Orleanian try to rebuild their lives, their homes and their unique culture in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane.^[1][2][3] The series is scheduled to premiere April 11, 2010, on HBO.^[4][5] The first season will consist of 10 episodes, including an 80-minute pilot episode."

[Logan]

It's also going to have Lester and Bunk from The Wire among the cast. I'm sure others will show up.

I'm wondering what would be the most boring source material for David Simon to turn into a show that would still have me watching.

[DeToxRox]

Fucking awesome first episode.

[Dr. Sak]

This definitely has a different feel than Band of Brothers. I liked it.

[Scoobz0202]

This is going to be something special.

[Doug5984]

That was a nice first episode, I had some people over who kept talking so I'll probably have to re-watch it before next Sunday to catch everything.

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by Doug5984

That was a nice first episode, I had some people over who kept talking so I'll probably have to re-watch it before next Sunday to catch everything.

Yea, I have it DVR'ed. I am about to do the same. I was in the room with a couple other people and between one of them constantly playing with the dog and throwing dog toys at me and the other making his uneducated military tactics quips I feel a rewatch is definitely in order.

[JPhillips]

The only thing I didn't like was the Hanks VO at the beginning. The Japanese were never going to hold their empire regardless of what happened initially in Guadalcanal. It doesn't take away from the heroics of the Marines, but we whipped the Japanese with one hand tied behind our back. Once they decided to start the war it was only a matter of time until they lost.

[Drake]

I stayed up to catch the late showing on one of the HBO alt channels. It was worth losing some sleep over. Definitely a show I'll be watching.

Spoiler

One of the things I really appreciated was their nod to the sorts of expectations viewers of Band of Brothers would have -- that is, after the D-Day beachhead carnage of BoB, the contrast with the marines walking out of the boats onto an empty beach was a nice bit of writing, especially since it just ratcheted up the tension for later. Just an excellent way to drive home the point that the Pacific Theater was a different sort of war.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Doug5984

That was a nice first episode, I had some people over who kept talking so I'll probably have to re-watch it before next Sunday to catch everything.

I refused to watch the episode with outside interference. I told my wife that if she had anything for me, speak now or wait an hour.

[Icy]

Downloading it now as no way i'm going to wait a full year for it to come to Spanish TV (plus i prefer the Original language, not dubbed).

[MizzouRah]

I concur.. excellent first episode.

[Bad-example]

Oh man did that first episode suck balls!



Yes, of course I am kidding.

[Icy]

Just finished to watch it and i loved it.

Fully agree with Drake's spoiler, one of the best moments in the chapter.

Damn can't wait for next week.

[bob]

For anyone without HBO, they have it streaming on the HBO website. You have to register to watch though.

[Celeval]

Are they going to do that for all episodes, or just the first?

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Celeval

Are they going to do that for all episodes, or just the first?

Just the first.

[stevew]

Agreed that the opening was awesome. I was wondering if they would go to the well for a third beach landing scene. Appreciated the contrast and homage to the other projects.

[bob]

The first episode is also being shown on the Direct TV 101 network. I know its on tonight at 10 PM, probably available at other times as well.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Just 'cause I noticed it in another article, 3.1 million viewers for the debut episode (out of roughly 40 million subscribing households).

That's better than the 2.5 million for their last epic John Adams but less than 1/3rd of the over 10 million the Band of Brothers debuted to.

As the linked article notes, there's probably some damage done to the initial rating by DVR since they got about 900k more on the first replay but it's still not even beating the numbers for shows like Entourage and True Blood. Of course that's probably fine with HBO since they'll make their money on the eventual DVD's, not on the viewers that are already paying them anyway.
Ratings: 'The Pacific' Campaign Opens With 3.1 Million Viewers | The Wrap

[DaddyTorgo]

the first episodes of these series are always the...slowest too i feel.

[rowech]

I always feel sorry for the guys who fought in the Pacific. So many people blow it off. The Pacific was Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. End war. It's not focused on in high schools, movies, tv, etc. Finally getting some credit but sadly, the TV numbers probably say it all

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I'm personally more interested in the Pacific because my family members were involved in that theater of WWII. My great uncle was killed when he was 19 over on one of these small rocks in the middle of the Pacific. My grandfather signed up in 1944 and was training over 8 weeks for the invasion of Japan. He's obviously personally thankful to our hometown president (Harry S. Truman) for ending the war before he was forced to storm the shores of Japan where there would have been heavy casulties.

Adding on to that, I'm very interested to see how they handle the nuclear bomb issue. My guess is that we'll generally see the troop response as positive, with some remorse if they end up going ashore and seeing the devestation in Japan. The Harry S. Truman Presidental Museum has a great exhibit covering the bombing and the difficulty of that decision. It also has an area where visitors are able to post their personal opinions on the subject. Great place to visit (along with the WWI National Museum) if you ever wander through KC.

[Dr. Sak]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

My grandfather signed up in 1944 and was training over 8 weeks for the invasion of Japan. He's obviously personally thankful to our hometown president (Harry S. Truman) for ending the war before he was forced to storm the shores of Japan where there would have been heavy casulties.

My great uncle stills says to this day that his hero is Truman for dropping the bomb because he too was training to invade Japan and knew he probably wouldn't have made it out of the war alive if the invasion had gone through.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Dr. Sak

My great uncle stills says to this day that his hero is Truman for dropping the bomb because he too was training to invade Japan and knew he probably wouldn't have made it out of the war alive if the invasion had gone through.

My grandfather was going to be a radio man. While everyone else was carrying rifles with quite a bit of ammo along with a good supply of grenades, he was going to run up that Japanese beach with an 80 lb. radio on his back, a pistol, and one grenade. He said he didn't like his chances, especially facing an enemy that wasn't afraid to die.

[Kodos]

I never watched Band of Brothers, but watched the pilot for this last night. Good episode. Definitely tense waiting for the enemy to show up.

[Senator]

[EagleFan]

Cool thing today. We had a training session today for giving presentations to clients. One of the exercizes was not only in talking but in listening. We formed groups and one person would talk about something for three minutes (a topic given out by the instructor) while the other would listen. After the three minutes the listener would have to summarize what was said and another person would watch and give feedback on how each person did.

We were in several groups throughout the room and when it happened to be my turn to be the speaker the topic was "famous person past or present that you would like to have dinner with". I chose Dick Winters and discussed what I learned from him not only in the series but through reading several books about the war and some about him.

While the other person was summarizing back to me I happened to hear someone from another group doing their summary as well. The person in that group had also chosen Dick Winters to discuss.

[Senator]

Cool thing about this series, recognized a name from an interview I did for the book I wrote in 2000. In all the 600 interviews I did; the ones that kept me up at night were some of the things I heard about the Pacific theater.

[Scoobz0202]

Reminder: Part Two in five minutes.

[Scoobz0202]

Oh man, that was just fucking epic.

Jesus H. Christ.

[PraetorianX]

Very good episode.

[JS19]

Freaking awesome. I'd venture to say every Marine, former and current, knows the names of John Basilone and Chesty Puller, the battles of Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and pretty much the whole Marines Pacific Theater of Operations. It's really cool to actually watch these stories play out.

[MacroGuru]

I was at Barnes and Noble today and I was reading through 2 books. Brought about by me watching the entire series of Band of Brothers again before the launch of The Pacific.

1. Biggest Brother: Story of Major Richard Winters

2. I'm Staying With My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC

Both were amazing reads (Granted I read the first couple of chapters each). I bought them both and will begin in earnest this trip out.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by JS19

Freaking awesome. I'd venture to say every Marine, former and current, knows the names of John Basilone and Chesty Puller, the battles of Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and pretty much the whole Marines Pacific Theater of Operations. It's really cool to actually watch these stories play out.

We used to sing a song when running that started, Chesty Puller was a son of a b*..

Yes, every Marine knows of John Basilone and Chesty Puller!

[stevew]

I'll admit to being incredibly shallow or whatever. But it honestly did almost nothing for me last night. I'm 2 hours in, I have no idea who these people are. Yes, they kill a lot of Japs, but how about some story or something?

I'm going to give it another episode or two, but right now I'm not really feeling it at all.

[JPhillips]

I wouldn't go that far, but I do think they're having a problem figuring out who to frame the story around. I understand the problem in that Basilone spent most of the war selling war bonds, but it seems a little scattershot to me right now.

[stevew]

I suppose I would have a better understanding if I knew about any of these people before hand. But I had never heard of this Basilone guy and apparently he's quite important

[Mustang]

I enjoyed the 2nd episode much more than the first. For me, they took the episode down to a more personal level in the 2nd episode. The first just seemed like one hour long action movie. So far I give the edge to Band of Brothers, but that was a pretty lofty goal to try to match or exceed that series.

[JS19]

Originally Posted by stevew

I'll admit to being incredibly shallow or whatever. But it honestly did almost nothing for me last night. I'm 2 hours in, I have no idea who these people are. Yes, they kill a lot of Japs, but how about some story or something?

I'm going to give it another episode or two, but right now I'm not really feeling it at all.

I can see how the casual viewer can watch these and not really see what's going on, yet. Having prior knowledge of who these people were and the stories (I'm sure exaggerated at at times) we've heard, gives us a better understanding and appreciation. The 2nd episode pretty much established Basilone's character and showed where his mystique and legend came from. Maybe they didn't portray it effectively enough, but Baslione almost single handedly held the Marines lines during that battle, not only mowing down the Japanese, but by repairing other machine guns, realizing other machine gun posts were knocked out by the Japanese and moving his weapon over to those areas to continue the assault, using his pistol to race through the broken lines to get more ammo for his men.