In a great series, every word and frame is essential

Part 6 of "The Pacific" plays to the strength of the series - most of it consumed by a battle scene, a group of marines has to get across an airfield and take the high ground above a Japanese fortification on a desert Pacific Island. Absolutely terrifying. I'm amazed that anyone could do it - the fear, the suffering (they have basically no water, limited supplies). And as with the best of this up-and-down series, you're right in there from the Marine combat point of view - everything's chaos, we have no idea of an overall battle plan, must less the politics of the war or the tactics of the Pacific theater. This series spares no expense of photography, editing, sound, art direction - all those so-called second-tier award categories. With the Spielberg-Hanks-HBO team behind it, you know it will have first-rate-plus production values, and it definitely does. Just don't expect any narrative, and don't expect much in the way of character development or for that matter dialogue other than blam, splat. This episode includes the new recruit, Private Sledge, on his first combat mission, so it's a way for us to feel the fear of a novice, and also the guy who's emerged as a main character, Leckie, who's bashed up again but survives - tho we learn nothing further about his life. It opens with a scene at Sledge's Alabama plantation-like home, where his Marine buddy, home on leave, visits his parents and says he's not worried about Sledge - an obvious white lie. This incident, typically, adds nothing to our understanding of the characters and their world. Compare with truly great serieses like David Simon's The Wire or the one about Iraq whose name I now recall as Generation Kill - and you'll see that every word, every frame of those is essential, whereas too many moments in The Pacific feel peripheral.