Band of Brothers

Now this was something worth watching. Wow. Recent HBO programs I've watched have left me partially impressed and slightly bored. But not this one. Band of Brothers is moving and captivating from start to finish. It's already eight or nine years old, but the production value is so impeccable that it could just as well be brand new. The ten-part miniseries tells the story of Easy Company, a group of some several dozen paratroopers who served in World War II. It's more or less entirely based on historical accounts and facts, so part of the wonder I felt when watching it was due to its being an entirely nonfictional account of several real men and their very real struggles and triumphs. Because it's about a group of men, and because men are constantly coming and going (well, dying) in war, there's an enormous ensemble cast. Some of the show's detractors like to point to this as a flaw, claiming that it was nearly impossible to feel for any one specific soldier at any given time. I, on the other hand, loved this. At first, yes, it was difficult to pick out and follow more than two or three key characters, but that was fine by me because he first few episodes were all about the men training as paratroopers, jumping into Normandy on D-Day, and partaking in some really fascinating missions in the Low Countries and Northern France. Only once winter set in, right around the midway point of the miniseries, did I really begin to connect with several characters, and I'm not sure this wasn't an intentional result by the showrunners. After all, I, like the men I was watching, was developing a sense of the camaraderie between the members of Easy Company as they fought tooth and nail for one another's backs. And by the end of the tenth and final episode, I was finally able to differentiate most of the characters, many of them even by name. So to the detractors who claimed to have been overwhelmed by the number of characters, I'd counter that every aspect of real life contains an ensemble cast, and connections are only made if you try to make them. To each his own, sure, but I'm shocked that some people are finding fault with the show for trying to be as all-encompassing and inclusive as possible. There were some breathtaking moments and powerful scenes throughout the series, from the terror of D-Day to the hopelessness of lying in a foxhole surrounded by screaming, dying friends during an artillery barrage to the morbidness of concentration camps to the beautiful serenity that accompanied victory. Part of what made so many special moments possible was the fact that each episode, for the most part, focused primarily on a different member of the company. A few were even narrated in the first person. We were with the group medic when the company was being barraged by German artillery in subzero conditions. We were with the alcoholic captain, who was losing his faith and morale for the war cause, when the company stumbled upon one of the many wretched concentration camps. We were with the shell-shocked and paranoid "new guy" who wasn't ready for the terror of war. We were with the noble soldier who kept everyone's morale up when all hope seemed lost. We were with all kinds of people filling all kinds of roles over the ten-hour miniseries, and as such, we really got a broad brushstroke of an experience. But above all else, we were always with the men of Easy Company, for better or for worse, and witnessed, truly, a band of brothers form from a group of total strangers. I give this collection a ten out of ten, hands down. It might even be my favorite HBO production to date. Never once did I feel bored or bogged down by the "task" of completing it to clear it from my backlog. In fact, every minute was a real treat. And that's an amazing feat. By all means, see Band of Brothers from beginning to end should the opportunity ever present itself. You won't regret it one bit.