I’m a HUGE fan of the ‘Band of Brothers’ miniseries.  To me, it is THE best show made about World War II.  I was both excited and skeptical about this new addition to the Spielberg/Hanks WWII epic. 

My knowledge of the Pacific front is minimal, to say the least.  In school, it is mentioned that Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese and then the textbooks tend to just skip over the rest and the next thing you know, the bomb is falling on Hiroshima. 

Clearly, Mr Hanks knew that I was ignorant though, because the first episode of The Pacific (which aired last Sunday on HBO, part II airs tonight) begins with a voice-over, trying to sum up the United States involvement on the Pacific front. 

The writers of this series were very careful to make sure it wasn’t just Band of Brothers Remixed – from the start was can see the main story will focus on a select few Marines and the people they left behind. 

As the boats filled with soldiers head towards Guadalcanal, a sense of dread begins to build in the viewer – we’ve all seen ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and we know what a death trap those transports turned out to be.  But we quickly learn that the way the war was waged in the Pacific is nothing like the war that Easy company faced in Europe.  It’s not fought on open fields, the rules of war are different, and after the first battle sequence, the Marines and the audience realize this will never be easy.

Within the hour, I went from skeptical to impressed to completely sucked in to this program.  The love and care that Spielberg/Hanks & Co. put into this program is obvious.  It’s going to be another story that stays with me.