HBO's "The Pacific" is an excellent show in it's own right. While many fans of the previous HBO war series "Band of Brothers" may have high hopes and anticipations that The Pacific will follow suit of its wonderful predecessor, sadly they will be disappointed. The first few episodes are story driven but by the midpoint of the show, all the action begins to come through and some, if not all the action sequences are stellar. In the end, the story itself is driven at a much slower rate and is more dramatic and the visuals of the war in the Pacific are both beautiful and chilling. This is where the show shines the most.
The biggest drawback is that The Pacific certainly lacks the depth of characters on-screen that Band of Brothers delivered but it's focus is kept mostly on a small group of soldiers. There may be less focus on the characters altogether thus it's not clear exactly who the main characters are at this point but the objective, the missions, make up for that. After Part I, I wasn't blown away by it the way I was with Band of Brothers. However, after seeing Part II, I started to fall in love with the show.
Arguably, some say that the real glory of the United States military in World War II was fought in Europe and I somewhat harken to that belief. HBO's The Pacific may even justify that notion for some because it obviously is no Band of Brothers but, it is a solid show in it's own right quite possibly depicting what may have been both the most beautiful side of World War II and the loneliest side of it. HBO's The Pacific really shows the WWII nut the dark side of the war.
