What TV SHOWS are you watching?

THE PACIFIC suffered in that unlike BAND OF BROTHERS, there was no single unit they followed through the entire series. It was cobbled together from 3 different books so it had sort of 3 different story arcs to follow.

Msample wrote: THE PACIFIC suffered in that unlike BAND OF BROTHERS, there was no single unit they followed through the entire series. It was cobbled together from 3 different books so it had sort of 3 different story arcs to follow.

There are several layers of awful to the series. That is indeed one of them.

If you liked that Arnold Schwarzeneggar helmed FUBAR action-comedy show about bickering spies, but wished it had MORE sex, violence, drugs, nudity, and potty humor, then Obliterated is the show for you. It is SO similar to FUBAR, down to a sultry but uptight leading lady, chisled sexy but ultimately insecure leading man, rabid sex crazed lesbian, nerdy tech type just looking for a way out of autism, and gruff supervisor with no ability to see this team is VERY dysfunctional, even shares the nuclear bomb macguffin!

It's kinda cringe, but this is my kinda show in general so we'll see if it finds its footing. Lots of antiquated references (a Varsity Blues reference for gods sake!) which is what I'd expect from Cobra Kai affiliated folks. I expect to see Stallone at any moment, or at least Van Damm, Lundgren, Snipes, or maybe even Weathers as this show is reaching hard to capture that 80's cheese.

Regardless, the Pacific brings home the nature of the warfare. It’s so hard for me to watch, because of the brutality and suffering.

Sagrilarus wrote: I'm watching The Pacific, which is bloody awful. I tried to hate-watch my way through it but just gave up 15 minutes into episode 7.

Wallowing in mental illness.

I think it's incredible. A perfect counterpoint to the watchable hoo rah "we were all in it together!" underlying narrative of Band of Brothers that makes people feel better about war. Even the disjointed narrative and unlikeable characters play into it for me. It's definitely a harder watch.

To be clear, I love Band of Brothers as well.

I've just never been interested in the Pacific Theater. But I have been interested in Europe and European history. So I never got past episode 2 of The Pacific and not gonna give it a 4th attempt. But I am just starting a rewatch of Band of Brothers. And hoping the Air one, forget when its released, is an easy watch.

MASTERS OF THE AIR premieres on January 26th on APPLE TV.

Msample wrote: MASTERS OF THE AIR premieres on January 26th on APPLE TV.

Then apparently I won't be seeing it for a while.

Band of Brothers brought in the bigger picture very well, likely because of Ambrose's source material. There was a reveal of the purpose of the conflict, the bigger pieces that had an impact on the soldiers in the frame.

The Pacific didn't. It was like watching with your eyes two inches off the ground. It ignored the army, which was 3/4 of the combat and more or less ignored the air corp, which was what all the fighting was really about on the small islands. The five second map shot at the beginning of the episodes was insufficient. There was no insight into operations. The result was more emphasis on jock itch than on military goals, leaving one unsure of the point of doing anything other than carpet bombing from a safe altitude. One could come away thinking each battle's goal was simply to kill Japanese soldiers. It wasn't. The Godzilla movie I just saw provided more insight into the war.

The air war in Europe was first or second in strategic importance of the entire conflict. I'll be curious to see if any of that comes through. Modern historic analysis of the war has changed a lot of understanding. If it's just a dozen guys in a B-17 it's going to be a long ten episodes.

Sagrilarus wrote: The Pacific didn't. It was like watching with your eyes two inches off the ground. It ignored the army, which was 3/4 of the combat and more or less ignored the air corp, which was what all the fighting was really about on the small islands. The five second map shot at the beginning of the episodes was insufficient. There was no insight into operations. The result was more emphasis on jock itch than on military goals, leaving one unsure of the point of doing anything other than carpet bombing from a safe altitude. One could come away thinking each battle's goal was simply to kill Japanese soldiers. It wasn't. The Godzilla movie I just saw provided more insight into the war.

imo I think it's saying that the dominant experience of the war for regular people was jock itch and killing some Japanese soldiers with little insight into operations by those rank and file involved. The Pacific hits in the same places that are usually only reserved for Vietnam media, and I greatly admire the bravery of that given the way that WWII has been largely portrayed (the "good war"). With the Old Breed, which this is part based on ,goes all those places and many of the "horror" scenes from The Pacific are based straight out of that memoir. When I read it I was shocked at how literal some of the stuff was lifted out of it.

I'm not really arguing with you. I just think that The Pacific hits on a lot of important things and is a great work of war media. I've certaintly thought a lot more about it than the more easily watchable Band of Brothers.

Likely accurate, just not very compelling for me personally.

I will admit I'm uncomfortable watching dramas featuring mental illness.

jason10mm wrote: If you liked that Arnold Schwarzeneggar helmed FUBAR action-comedy show about bickering spies, but wished it had MORE sex, violence, drugs, nudity, and potty humor, then Obliterated is the show for you. It is SO similar to FUBAR, down to a sultry but uptight leading lady, chisled sexy but ultimately insecure leading man, rabid sex crazed lesbian, nerdy tech type just looking for a way out of autism, and gruff supervisor with no ability to see this team is VERY dysfunctional, even shares the nuclear bomb macguffin!

It's kinda cringe, but this is my kinda show in general so we'll see if it finds its footing. Lots of antiquated references (a Varsity Blues reference for gods sake!) which is what I'd expect from Cobra Kai affiliated folks. I expect to see Stallone at any moment, or at least Van Damm, Lundgren, Snipes, or maybe even Weathers as this show is reaching hard to capture that 80's cheese.

I read an interview with the creators of Obliterated, who said they were trying to make the sort of rated-R action/comedy that nobody makes anymore. Which is largely true, as action movies these days all seem to go for that PG-13 rating so they can get a wider audience. I was intrigued, so I watched the first episode. I did not laugh once. For an alleged action / comedy, I just did not think it was funny. All the jokes felt warmed-over and stale. As for the action, it looked cheap and low-budget. Sadly, I will not be watching any further.

On the bright side, Blue-eyed Samurai is incredible.

hotseatgames wrote: I also thought Blue Eye Samurai was decent. After that one I went right into Onimusha, another feudal Japan tale, this time with magic and demons. It's also passable. Neither show is a must see, but your time won't be wasted, either.

I thought this one was fine and well animated as well. It avoided my least favorite anime adjacent tropes while having decent anime style action. I watched it all, but I'm in covid jail so the bar isn't high.

Joebot wrote:

jason10mm wrote: If you liked that Arnold Schwarzeneggar helmed FUBAR action-comedy show about bickering spies, but wished it had MORE sex, violence, drugs, nudity, and potty humor, then Obliterated is the show for you. It is SO similar to FUBAR, down to a sultry but uptight leading lady, chisled sexy but ultimately insecure leading man, rabid sex crazed lesbian, nerdy tech type just looking for a way out of autism, and gruff supervisor with no ability to see this team is VERY dysfunctional, even shares the nuclear bomb macguffin!

It's kinda cringe, but this is my kinda show in general so we'll see if it finds its footing. Lots of antiquated references (a Varsity Blues reference for gods sake!) which is what I'd expect from Cobra Kai affiliated folks. I expect to see Stallone at any moment, or at least Van Damm, Lundgren, Snipes, or maybe even Weathers as this show is reaching hard to capture that 80's cheese.

I read an interview with the creators of Obliterated, who said they were trying to make the sort of rated-R action/comedy that nobody makes anymore. Which is largely true, as action movies these days all seem to go for that PG-13 rating so they can get a wider audience. I was intrigued, so I watched the first episode. I did not laugh once. For an alleged action / comedy, I just did not think it was funny. All the jokes felt warmed-over and stale. As for the action, it looked cheap and low-budget. Sadly, I will not be watching any further.

On the bright side, Blue-eyed Samurai is incredible.

Yeah, Obliterated ain't great, it's missing some mojo for sure. I think all the actors are trying too hard to be serious and let the situation be funny (the VERY prolonged "drag an unconscious body that is constantly farting and shitting everywhere" gag, for example) in lieu of actual comic delivery and punchline jokes. But it is growing on me, I'm pretty immature so the toilet humor and sex jokes work at a base level, and they had Virginia Madsen cameo for a nice discussion of which 80's action hero had the best ass (spoiler, Steven Segal lost) so that tickles me enough to keep watching. Will check out Onimusha as well.

What IS a slog is Monarch:Legacy of Monsters on apple. Good grief, how the hell they turned fricking Kaiju into a dull family drama is just beyond me. Kurt Russell deserves better, as does his son.

War Sailor - A Norwegian WWII drama mini-series. They also did Atlantic Crossing not long ago so I guess this is a thing now. Here, the actor from The Wave plays an everyman laborer who gets drafted into the Norwegian Merchant fleet. There's no action. Its more about the tension leading up to events and then dealing with the aftermath. He gets drafted with his shipmates so there are familiar faces throughout. But its definitely centered on the one characters life during and after the war. There are some harrowing scenes of men being left behind.

My great-uncle was a merchant mariner during the war, and he made runs carrying lend-lease to Russia. He had several ship tattoos on his arm. Each tattoo was a ship he was serving aboard that was sunk by enemy action.