What I'm Watching - Band of Brothers

[swampofboredom]

Each summer Alan Sepinwal, the New Jersey Ledger's media critic, fills the summer doldrums with re-watches and reviews of past television series. Last year, he reviewed the short lived and brilliant ABC show, Cupid (not to be confused with the muddied re-boot that ABC subjected us to this spring) and the first season of the HBO drama The Wire. This year, he's recapping season 2 of The Wire and HBO's 2001 war drama miniseries, Band of Brothers.

We've never subscribed to HBO, unless we've gotten it on a free trial, so I've missed quite a bit of their programming, such as the aforementioned series, The Wire and Band of Brothers, along with The Sopranos (although I've never had a desire to watch the mob drama), Angels in America and John Adams, to name a few. I have caught snippets of Band of Brothers on the History Channel over the years but have never taken the time to find the DVD and watch the series. Until now.

I'm four episodes in and finally getting a handle on who's who and the army hierarchy. Luckily, neither is necessary to be moved by the story. The characters may seem stock or stereotypical, but cliches are cliches because they are based on reality. The hard ass commander with a inferiority complex, the silent but strong and well respected leader, the loudmouth that questions authority, the dirty fighter, the All American, the stoic sergeant are all there. But, the difference between this and other Hollywood productions is that these are real people and the experiences protrayed in the miniseries are based on their accounts of what they went through. Knowing that makes everything you see on the screen that much more moving. Hell, I get choked up during the opening credits.

This is definitely a mini-series that will improve on repeat viewings. In fact, it's one of very few series that I can see myself watching over and over. If you have the time, I recommend watching along with Alan and reading his recaps and the comments of his readers. Unlike some blog commenting sections, Sepinwal's readers are routinely polite and extremely intelligent.