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heavyartillery
Welcome to the Band of Brothers rewatch discussion post for
PART ONE: CURRAHEE & PART TWO: DAY OF DAYS
You are welcome to discuss any and all aspects of the episodes in the comments on this post. Please recognize that others may hold different opinions than you and continue to abide by our #1 rule: don't be a dick. Additionally, I ask that y'all take care to keep spoiler content off of spoiler-free threads. Otherwise, have fun!
Spoiler-free thread.
Spoiler-friendly thread.
Part Two: Day of Days
Spoiler-free thread.
Spoiler-friendly thread.
If you'd like to chat about the episode in real time, join us over on Discord:
Part One: Currahee [SPOILER-FREE]
Date: 26/10/2019 14:57 (UTC)Please keep all spoilers for further episodes contained to the spoiler-friendly thread below.
Re: Part One: Currahee [SPOILER-FREE]
Date: 26/10/2019 15:21 (UTC)Re: Part One: Currahee [SPOILER-FREE]
Date: 26/10/2019 15:35 (UTC)Re: Part One: Currahee [SPOILER-FREE]
Date: 26/10/2019 17:12 (UTC)"I. will not. follow that man. into combat."
Re: Part One: Currahee [SPOILER-FREE]
Date: 29/10/2019 01:50 (UTC)It helps that Frank John Hughes has like, a face carved from marble.Re: Part One: Currahee [SPOILER-FREE]
Date: 26/10/2019 19:38 (UTC)Re: Part One: Currahee [SPOILER-FREE]
Date: 29/10/2019 01:32 (UTC)(It does give me a lot of "reunited many years in the future" Webgott feels, though, ngl.)
Re: Part One: Currahee [SPOILER-FREE]
Date: 26/10/2019 17:13 (UTC)Re: Part One: Currahee [SPOILER-FREE]
Date: 29/10/2019 01:26 (UTC)Re: Part One: Currahee [SPOILER-FREE]
Date: 28/10/2019 20:41 (UTC)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]
Date: 29/10/2019 01:07 (UTC)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.
While it was the train scene in this episode in particular that originally got me interested enough to look—thank you Tumblr for sharing it—I will absolutely admit to being baffled to find as active a fandom as there is based on exactly these criteria.
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.
This is an excellent point and I completely agree. I'm not a big fan of flashbacks unless they're used to do something really cool or unusual or employed particularly well. (One of my personal favorites is in the first season of True Detective, which I won't go into to much, but suffice to say it was and absolutely chefkissingfingers.gif use of the trope.)
The decreased tension is definitely a bit of a bummer. If Hanks et. al. hadn't leaned into the flashback mechanic there would likely have been more room to introduce the "background" (by which I mean, non-Winters) characters, too, and build up a bit of emotional attachment and, exactly as you said, concern that they may not make it through. For a piece of media with limited room in which to tell a fairly comprehensive ensemble story, I agree that it maybe wasn't the best choice.
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.
Hear hear, I say!
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.
I was so thrilled when they managed to oust Sobel, even though it took some serious action. I'll admit, I felt a little bad for him, too. Schwimmer did a really excellent job of portraying a man who probably did care in his own deeply bizarre way—about his own reputation and capability if nothing else—and just couldn't hold up under the pressure of preparing to keep men alive in war.
The end scene is very humbling, as well, and does a pretty decent job of conveying the enormity of the invasion on the whole. A few of us were chatting in the Discord about how surprisingly well the effects in this series have held up over time, so far, too.
Re: Part One: Currahee [SPOILER-FREE]
Date: 29/10/2019 17:03 (UTC)But I think that perhaps the writers felt they had to set up Winters right away as our main character as well as rush us along to Normandy as a way of satisfying viewer expectations. So we have a behind-the-lines hero and villain set up even before we get to the battlefield where S2 points out that the lines there can get muddled.
Re: Part One: Currahee [SPOILER-FREE]
Date: 06/11/2019 15:45 (UTC)Hear hear! I studied comics in college and one of the most consistent pieces of advice we were given when crafting narratives was to write to the "dumbest person in the room" for lack of a better term. (It could also be the most distracted person, or the person with the least existing knowledge of some kind of core subject matter, but I digress.) And while I think there's value in not spoon-feeding an audience and trusting them to arrive to conclusions on their own, I also think that writers and creators, particularly nowadays, can easily crawl so far into their own cleverness that they don't realize they're failing to achieve their overarching goal, which is to craft a narrative that appeals in some way or another to an audience of at least a certain size.
But I think that perhaps the writers felt they had to set up Winters right away as our main character as well as rush us along to Normandy as a way of satisfying viewer expectations.
I definitely agree with this point, particularly the bit about rushing the audience into the action as a hook to carry us through to the next episode. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts about Winters as the main character, now that you've watched a couple of the next episodes, as well. (I'll drop a more coherent question re: that on the spoiler-friendly thread of the next rewatch eps when I have a moment, lol.)
Re: Part One: Currahee [SPOILER-FREE]
Date: 06/11/2019 22:58 (UTC)Re: Part One: Currahee [SPOILER-FREE]
Date: 07/11/2019 15:06 (UTC)Oh, yay! I'm glad you got to watch it before your access ended. :) Excited to see the thoughts you may have for the next few episodes, too, haha.
We're doing a rewatch of The Pacific starting in January, and while I don't have any current plans to stream it I can try and figure something out if yourself and others would be interested. (No need to commit now or anything, just to keep in mind as the new year starts.)
I wonder if Winters as leader isn't a relevant issue there.
Apologies if I've read this statement the wrong way, but The Pacific follows the USMC rather than the Airborne, so none of the characters from Band of Brothers are involved. It's basically three storylines following three different guys through the Pacific theatre, and there are things I think it does...not necessarily better than Band of Brothers, but things it expands upon that BoB doesn't get into that I appreciated from a narrative perspective.
It has its shortcomings, too, of course, and there are things that I prefer the BoB narrative for, but overall it's a great show. (And rapidly becoming my area of expertise, of the two, haha.)
Re: Part One: Currahee [SPOILER-FREE]
Date: 07/11/2019 16:31 (UTC)Sorry, what I meant was that I'd heard Pacific wasn't as good (or perhaps satisfying) as BoB, and given the importance of Winters' storyline to it, this made me wonder if it was a critical factor in the success of that series which Pacific would lack. But it sounds like it may be because it does things differently.
At any rate, yes I'd like to watch it but unfortunately it won't be until later next year. Other than Netflix and a live TV option we've been rotating through services for our third subscription and I don't expect to pick HBO up again until probably summer (by which time Max will be available). But I guess I can always pop back in here for the rewatch comments when I do :)