The Pacific · Season 1 · Episode 1 · 14 March 2010
S1E1 Guadalcanal/Leckie
THE MOMENT Basilone's machine gun position holding through wave after wave of night attack - the sequence that introduced audiences to the Pacific Theater's particular horror.
The premiere introduces Leckie and Basilone's parallel paths into the Pacific: one a writer turned rifleman, the other already a decorated veteran of Guadalcanal's early defensive fighting. The production design and Hans Zimmer's score immediately signal a different emotional register to Band of Brothers - less triumphant, more unsettled. The jungle combat sequences are deliberately disorienting.
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The Pacific Season 1 Episode 1 'Guadalcanal/Leckie' aired March 14, 2010 on HBO as the series premiere. Rotten Tomatoes holds Season 1 at 89 percent from 46 critics; the miniseries won the Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries. Time called it a series that shows 'how character and sheer, unfair randomness combine to produce cruelty or decency.' The premiere introduces Leckie and Basilone through parallel entry points into the Pacific Theater: Leckie as a writer turned Marine rifleman on Guadalcanal, Basilone already mid-defensive operation with the machine guns. The production design is immediately distinguishable from Band of Brothers - the jungle replaces European farmland, the aesthetic is sweat and mud over cold and rubble, and Hans Zimmer's score is less triumphant and more dissonant. The Basilone machine gun sequence holding through successive night attacks establishes the Pacific Theater's specific horror in its first hour.