When The Pacific aired on HBO last Sunday, I went to work Monday morning and told my coworker I needed another week before I could decide how I felt about it. Well, after another week, I’m still not sure — and I’m worried that this is not a good sign.

Band of Brothers is something that still comes up around the office from time to time. We often talk about how many times we’ve seen it, our favorite scenes and how fantastic of a miniseries it really was. I also knew from the first episode that I was watching something really great.

But I haven’t gotten that feeling from The Pacific yet. It obviously has nothing to do with the story. The first two episodes about the First Marine division’s fight on Guadalcanal tell an incredibile story of bravery. I was blown away by their feats, which were captured well on the TV.

So after the second episode I wondered why I wasn’t connecting the way I was with Band of Brothers, and I think came up with a few reasons.

1. The acting – I’m a little underwhelemed with some of the acting. I think it’s because I can tell their acting. In Band of Brothers, I really felt like I was watching Dick Winters lead troops in Europe, not Damian Lewis playing Maj. Richard Winters.

2. The writing – I think this may be a large part of the problem I just mentioned above. The dialogue has a very wisenheimer feel to it. It’s pretty cliche, actually. I’m just waiting for someone to drop “Why I oughtaaaa!” at some point. The only part I recall being like this from Band of Brothers was the scene with Jimmy Fallon — the worst casting ever for a war genre production. Wait, did Jimmy Fallon write the script for The Pacific?

3. The characters – I don’t know one character’s name yet. I know there’s the one guy who writes home to the girl he met outside of the church for 15 seconds during episode one. There’s the guy who amazingly thwarted the Japanese attack on two different fronts with his machine gun in Episode 2. There’s the real WASP-y commander. There’s the hotheaded guy who got steamed while they were waiting for food. I can recall one or two more faces, but I don’t even have much of a description for them. Think about all the characters in Band of Brothers — we connected with a lot of people.

That being said, I’m definitely going to watch the whole series and likely enjoy it as a whole. The story is pretty incredible. The battle scenes are real intense and I think the war in the Pacific is a story that needs to be told again. Ben Affleck didn’t quite get it done in Pearl Harbor.

I’m curious to see what the coworkers will say this morning. But for anyone who watched, do you agree with any of the above?

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