Let me just start out this review by saying that “Band of Brothers” is a fantastic miniseries. That is a fact that cannot be disputed by anyone, and if you’re looking for a more realistic portrayal of what WWII was for the American Airborne, then you’d better get to working on that time machine of yours so that you can take a personal gander at the 1940’s. But is it flawless, though? Is it the best TV-series ever made, like a lot of people claim?

Well, in one word: No. But it may very well be the best miniseries I’ve ever seen.

In episode 1 we’re introduced to Easy Company while they’re training to get ready for the war that’s raging across the world. Easy Company is a part of the 101th Airborne Division, i.e. paratroopers that are trained to jump down behind enemy lines. So naturally they’re trained to be the meanest, toughest, sons-of-bitches in the entire army (who isn’t, really?), and this training knits the group of young men into what’s going to become a legendary company of men; a band of brothers whose main hobbies include dodging flack and killing Nazis.

Which makes for fantastically heartbreaking television, really, if not very original…

“Band of Brothers” was produced by two guys you’ve probably heard of: Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, so the sheer quality of the scenes and the way they were cut can’t be critiqued. Some episodes are obviously not as good as others because they all have their own themes and “main characters” (and different directors, but so does every show), which makes it feel more like a series of films rather than an all out TV-series. I probably would’ve preferred it if they had picked five-six characters that got the better part of the attention in every episode. It would’ve given the series more depth and chance for showing off the way war affects people one closer level than what they achieved here. As it was, I only felt a bond with “Dick Winters” (played spectacularly by the vastly underrated genius named Damian Lewis), who always got his share of screentime.

That being said, though, when they decided to it this way, they did it very well indeed. A couple of episodes fell flat due to uninteresting main characters, but the themes were always relevant and transfers nicely back to current war situations. The cast is purely b-list (even Damian Lewis is a b-list actor, though the reason behind that remains one of God’s Greatest Mysteries), but they do a good job out of it, save for Neal McDonough who always seems to overstate his lines and gestures.

“Band of Brothers” is without doubt a truly terrific miniseries that I whole heartedly recommend to anyone interested in the era, or if you’re simply a fan of war themed stuff. I’m not particularly inclined either way, but I liked it none the less, and could easily see myself doing a re-watch of this some time in the future.

9.0 /10 (strong)