Few series have been as uneven as The Pacific

The concluding part 10 of HBO's "The Pacific" contains no combat at all - which is a handicap from the start, as the combat scenes have been the great strength of the series. Part 10 is a rather cumbersome wrap-up of the return to home of the 3 Marines whom we've followed most closely, or actually two of them and the war widow of the 3rd. In broad strokes, we get a picture of the difficulties of assimilating to life at home after years of brutal combat. What we don't get is any strong, or even surprising, drama - though there is a fairly good scene in which Sledge breaks down in tear, unable to go hunting with his father (amazing that his father, a sensitive and caring physician, didn't pick this up). The episode ends with quick updates on the later lives of each of the characters, including a montage in which the photo of the actor morphs into a picture of the real-life Marines. Oddly, after watching all 10 parts, I still wasn't able to identify most of the Marines, neither by name or image, which shows the difficulty of taking on a project this broad and how badly the writers/creators failed at establishing characters. Oddly, to me the most interesting character was "Snafu." We learn nothing about his home life, but we see from the closing sequence that he was actually a black man who, unlike the others, had no contact with his fellow Marines till much later in life; for some reason, the series portrays him as of indeterminate race - and there are no black or Hispanic Marines portrayed at all. Was that accurate? Few series have been so uneven as this one - great strengths, but grievous shortcomings.