Band of Brothers question

[kindkit]

Having been told by many people that I'd like it, I've finally surrendered and watched the first two episodes of Band of Brothers, the HBO series about a paratroop company during the Second World War.

So far it's not doing much for me. The problem is, it's been two episodes and I still can't even tell most of the characters apart, let alone give a damn about them. Virtually the entire cast is white men under thirty, who are wearing uniforms and helmets and who half the time have their faces blacked up with camouflage paint. I spent most of the second episode wondering where the hell Lieutenant Winters was, only to realize at the end that he'd been there all along leading the damn attack.

So, yeah, some of this is my problem with facial recognition, not helped by the casting issues mentioned above or the fact that this is one of those shows where characters are either not called by name at all, or called by name once in confusing and obscure circumstances (out of the corner of someone's mouth during a crowd scene, or when someone is half turned away). Or the shaky cam and the damn night shots. But more than that, I don't feel like anyone has been given enough of a personality that I have anything to latch on to. Some of them have characteristics--Winters is a quiet sober straitlaced sort of man and a Good Leader, Nixon is rich and vaguely "sophisticated," there's that one guy with the dead brother, and Malarkey . . . is Irish. But characteristics aren't personality. Seriously, the only one of them who has interested me at all is Captain Sobel from the first episode, whom I doubt we'll see again. (I would totally watch a show about Sobel the failed wannabe hero.) Well, and I feel a spark of interest in Nixon, because I think he's going to bring the slash. But, really, so far the show just feels like an extended version of a pretty typical modern US-ian war movie with aspirations to win an Oscar--a whole lot of Our Brave Heroes of the Greatest Generation with a little War Is Hell thrown in. And I worry that because all the characters were real people whose real names are being used, the characterization is never going to get deeper than that. Nor the show's ethos.

So, can anyone reassure me that this show isn't just going to be Saving Private Ryan: The Really Really Extended Cut? I want to believe it'll become more to my taste, because people whose taste I trust like it a lot. But judging by the first two hours, I'm worried that it's just not going to work for me. Do I keep watching or give up now?

Comments

[samskeyti]

I found the first couple of episodes underwhelming too, but was encouraged to continue and it gets good in the middle, as it begins to focus on individuals in depth. The episodes in the snow/forest are my favourites.

[kindkit]

That's good to know, thanks!

[the_rck]

I haven't watched this show, but Mark Oshiro did it for Mark Watches. He watched an episode at a time and wrote up his reactions. If you don't mind spoilers, you can find out more about what happens later in the series by reading his posts.

[kindkit]

Thanks!

[lilliburlero]

I watched it many years ago and remember thinking it does improve after an unimpressive first few episodes, but it takes some turns into sentimentality as well. Overall, it was a bit more uncritical of the military than I like my war stories to be.

[kindkit]

Overall, it was a bit more uncritical of the military than I like my war stories to be.

I'm braced for that, given that it's an American production. Though I was a trifle surprised that our reaction to the shooting of German POWs was apparently supposed to be "that's sad, especially because one of them was really an American!" and not "that was a war crime."