So before discussing the episode, I should mention why I came to watch the show at all. I was curious about the fact that it seemed to have an active fandom despite being almost 20 years old now, and is a prestige show based on actual wartime events. Generally speaking those things don't tend to combine to create a big fandom.
Out of curiosity I looked at Dunkirk (same general topic + very popular actor) at AO3 and it has only 400 odd fics, a fifth of them being crossovers. Granted, BoB has had a lot more time to accumulate its almost 3000 works there, but then Saving Private Ryan has a mere 35 despite also being similar in topic and having an extra few years for fanwork totals to grow.
Of course, the recent Chernobyl also has 419 works, and that seems even less likely a series to inspire a lot of fanworks, though it is also an excellent quality limited series.
So yes, I was curious enough to watch yet another WWII focused story which I grew weary of some years ago now, since it is a historical period that has been deeply mined compared to others, even more so stories focusing on the D-Day period.
And speaking of that, I was puzzled by why the flashback structure was used for Ep 1, since it seemed to me that it could just as easily be told in a more linear fashion and really gained nothing from jumping around. In fact, I thought it rather decreased tension because you know that Dick Winters is going to be the central character because he's there in England on the eve of the invasion. Especially since the central clash in Ep 1 is between Dick as a leader and Captain Sobel as a detriment to morale, knowing that he's still with the company later on detracts from our concern that Sobel will head up the group. We also don't wonder as much if a lot of the Company ends up dropping out.
My guess was that it was because the writers assumed viewers wanted to get to the war action faster, and since there isn't actually any war action in Ep 1, they began it focused on the flight across the Channel to keep people thinking that the story would get to that part quickly while actually being an episode all about the backstory.
I did like though that the story started by focusing on incompetence in leadership. There has been some exploration of that in regards to England in WWI due to its rigid class structure, but not really on the American side that I recall. So that was a plus since there has to be so much of it in wartime efforts.
There's certainly a lot of build up around Winters even before we get to the big "O Captain, My Captain" moment with the NCO protest. I think it could have used a bit more with the wider Company, which is another reason why I think it would have been better to tell the story linearly since it makes it easier to keep track of people as there is a large cast.
There's definitely a sense of relief that the challenges to Sobel end up paying off, even if the Airborne has to CIA in getting him back into recruit training. The final shot of the episode is also very impressive, as we move from the first time from the focus on this one group to seeing the scale of the effort.
Re: Part One: Currahee [SPOILER-FREE]
Out of curiosity I looked at Dunkirk (same general topic + very popular actor) at AO3 and it has only 400 odd fics, a fifth of them being crossovers. Granted, BoB has had a lot more time to accumulate its almost 3000 works there, but then Saving Private Ryan has a mere 35 despite also being similar in topic and having an extra few years for fanwork totals to grow.
Of course, the recent Chernobyl also has 419 works, and that seems even less likely a series to inspire a lot of fanworks, though it is also an excellent quality limited series.
So yes, I was curious enough to watch yet another WWII focused story which I grew weary of some years ago now, since it is a historical period that has been deeply mined compared to others, even more so stories focusing on the D-Day period.
And speaking of that, I was puzzled by why the flashback structure was used for Ep 1, since it seemed to me that it could just as easily be told in a more linear fashion and really gained nothing from jumping around. In fact, I thought it rather decreased tension because you know that Dick Winters is going to be the central character because he's there in England on the eve of the invasion. Especially since the central clash in Ep 1 is between Dick as a leader and Captain Sobel as a detriment to morale, knowing that he's still with the company later on detracts from our concern that Sobel will head up the group. We also don't wonder as much if a lot of the Company ends up dropping out.
My guess was that it was because the writers assumed viewers wanted to get to the war action faster, and since there isn't actually any war action in Ep 1, they began it focused on the flight across the Channel to keep people thinking that the story would get to that part quickly while actually being an episode all about the backstory.
I did like though that the story started by focusing on incompetence in leadership. There has been some exploration of that in regards to England in WWI due to its rigid class structure, but not really on the American side that I recall. So that was a plus since there has to be so much of it in wartime efforts.
There's certainly a lot of build up around Winters even before we get to the big "O Captain, My Captain" moment with the NCO protest. I think it could have used a bit more with the wider Company, which is another reason why I think it would have been better to tell the story linearly since it makes it easier to keep track of people as there is a large cast.
There's definitely a sense of relief that the challenges to Sobel end up paying off, even if the Airborne has to CIA in getting him back into recruit training. The final shot of the episode is also very impressive, as we move from the first time from the focus on this one group to seeing the scale of the effort.