Category Archives: Sunday Morning Sidewalk

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #11

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“Sleep of the Just”

Sunday Morning Sidewalk started a new series this week, The Sandman, from Netflix. Based on a classic DC Comics comic book from Neil Gaiman, The Sandman was a show that I had always intended to watch, but just never got around to doing. It has eleven episodes on Netflix so it will be our new Sunday Morning Sidewalk into early June.

At least, that is the current schedule. I do hope that the remainder of The Sandman is an improvement over this first episode, because I was not very impressed with it.

Before I go into the negatives, the show looked absolutely amazing. The visuals were stunning and it was clear that this show did not skimp on a budget for it.

However, there was so much exposition that I had a difficult time keeping my focus on the story the show was telling. It bounced around at first and did not establish the feel well. Then, the story moved on to Charles Dance, a well known character actor playing a man named Roderick Burgess, who was able to capture Morpheus in some contraption. He then holds him for ten years.

The problem with this was that Burgess’s motivation was very muddy. Did he want his deceased son back from the dead or did he want immortality and wealth? It seemed as if he wanted all of that in order to free Morpheus. Poor Morpheus had to lay inside this glass container naked for such a long time. Get the man a blanket at least.

Then there was another son, Alex, who was ignored and verbally abused by Burgess. Alex accidentally killed his father and then he held on to Morpheus for an undetermined amount of time. The world suffered from some kind of sleep sickness, but the show really did not go into any specifics on that.

Oh, Boyd Holbrook is here too, as some kind of figure that opposes Morpheus. IMDB tells me his name is The Corinthian. I was not a Sandman comics reader so I do not know whom that was. He seemed to be a potential future antagonist. Not sure why.

The story of this episode was a mess and I was very disappointed in the show. The main story of the Burgess family did not grasp my attention and did not seem to be a worth story to kick off this series with. Again, I do not know if this is a vital comic storyline adapted or if this was completely new for the series, but I did not enjoy it much.

I do hope this gets better as it moves along or else I might have to looking into the possibility of adjusting the Sunday Morning Sidewalk schedule.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #10

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“Points”

Episode ten of the Band of Brothers brought the season to an end.

This episode dealt with the end of the war in Germany, dealing with the Easy Company having to handle the fact that they were still active without any enemies to fight.

There are some lovely spots that they recorded this episode at in Austria, creating a beauty that has not been seen much during the gritty, violent series.

This episode did feel like a lot of falling actions. It had a couple of powerful moments, in particular surrounding the shooting of Sergeant Grant.

Episode nine felt like the real emotional conclusion to this series as the trip to the concentration camp showed what they were fighting for.

This made sense as a concluding episode because of the situation. I did like the ending voice over from Winters that gave us the insights on the surviving members and the words from the real men that these characters were based on. This was so much better than the boxed text that sometimes pops on the screen at the end of films based on true events. This was much more active and kinetic.

This brings the first arc of Sunday Morning Sidewalk to an end. Next week, post #11 will start off with a new series. Starting next week on April 6, I will begin the watch of the Netflix series The Sandman, which has eleven episodes and will run into June.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #9

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“Why We Fight”

I was wondering if this was an episode we were going to get.

When the soldiers of Easy Company were sounding like they were questioning the reason they were fighting this war in the first place, I knew we were getting the scenes we would get.

Concentration Camps.

It was tough to watch the horror of the soldiers as they walked into the camp and realized what the people who were there were going through at the hands of the Nazis. The imagery the show provided in this time was heartbreaking.

The soldiers brought the German town folk to the camp to help clean up and bury the bodies of the Jews that were dead. The shock of what the people saw was powerful. I can’t imagine the idea that they realized that they were the bad guys the whole time.

The episode focused on Nixon, who received bad news from home… his wife is divorcing him and taking his dog. Nixon spent much of the episode drinking, a specific whiskey only. He spends much of the episode searching for it.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #8

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“The Last Patrol”

I enjoyed this episode because it felt a little different than some of the others.

One of the biggest reasons I liked this one so much is that there was less of the war time action involved. Don’t misunderstand me. I think the war action has been great in the series so far, but a little less in this episode fits with the narrative and allows for character growth for several characters. Would I have wanted the same amount of action in the previous episodes? No, I would not, but this gives a bit of a different look.

The POV of this episode was heavily featured by Private Webster, who had been with Easy Company during D-Day and other early offensives, but had missed Bastogne since he was recovering in the hospital. However, when he returned, Easy Company had been through the ringer in Bastogne and Webster found them considerably different than he remembered.

The company did not accept Webster’s return easily either. Since he missed Bastogne, they saw him now as nothing more than a replacement and they shunned him.

We also met a new character named Lt. Jones, fresh out of West Point. He was another character the hardened soldiers had a difficult time connecting to and Jones was desperate for experience in battle as the war did seem to be slowly coming to an end.

A dangerous patrol was sent out across the rover to attempt to capture some German prisoners that they could gather info from. The mission was not well received by Easy Company since the soldiers were beginning to believe that they might make it out of the war alive.

The character development included Sgt. Malarky, who had lost most of his friends at Bastogne and was extremely burned out. Webster was able to convince the brass to give Malarky this mission off because he needed the time.

After coming back from the mission with only one casualty, Lt. Col. Sink ordered the men to return for another patrol. This one would be more dangerous since they would have to go further into the city. Captain Winters met with the men and basically told them to get a good nights sleep and then report to him in the morning that they had completed the mission but were unable to attain any more German prisoners. Winters took the unneeded order and made a judgment call about the viability and importance of it. He weighed the lives of his men ahead of any miniscule benefits that might come from executing the patrol.

The end of the episode indicated that Easy Company would be soon heading into Germany.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #7

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“The Breaking Point”

This was one of my favorite episodes of Band of Brothers so far. I’m not ready to anoint it as my favorite, but it is certainly in the argument.

There was so much character development throughout the entire episode, narrated by Lipton, that it provided me with more feeling toward some of these characters that, to be honest, blend together for me at times. Lipton. Speirs. Dyke. Compton. Malarky.

I have to say, there were two visceral moments for me in the episode. The first was when Joe Toye lost his leg in the shelling. It was such a shocking moment and the shell that then shredded Bill Guarnere, who had rushed out to help Joe, was unthinkable.

And the second moment was during this entire barrage, the soldiers kept jumping into their foxholes and I kept thinking how are these foxholes supposed to help against these shells? I mean, I understand how it can provide shelter to gunfire, but these shells were coming down from above, right? Then the show proved me right when it showed Corporal Penkala and Sgt. Skip Muck getting blown to bits while they were inside their foxhole, begging for George Lutz to get in it with them. I literally cried out when that happened.

The show dealt with the incompetent leadership provided by Dyke and continued to enhance the legend of Speirs. Buck Compton was not injured during this episode, but it showed that he had reached his own “breaking point” after seeing so many of the people he had been close with over his time with Easy Company dying. Part of the theme of this episode was that wounds were not all physical injuries and that the path of war took a toll on the soldiers’ minds as well.

The mood of the show was downtrodden, depressed. The cold weather played right into that as well. There was little joy in this episode. Even when the company felt safe and were singing, they were interrupted by a sniper.

There are three more episodes remaining in the first series of the Sunday Morning Sidewalk.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #6

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“Bastogne”

As we start the second half of the season, the soldiers of Easy Company are in bad shape. The defense of the Belgium city of Bastogne was part of the Battle of the Bulge and was one of the most important moments of the war.

One of the key parts to this episode was the focus on the character Eugene Roe, the medic with the group. The horrors he had to endure in an attempt to keep the soldiers of his company in one piece was devastating. I was always a fan of the TV show MASH, but this took the realism to an all new level with the injuries and the blood. It truly gave a portrait of a man trying to hold his own self together to do what he could for the wounded.

Eugene met up with a nurse in the town of Bastogne, Renee. They connected over their efforts to save people and their wartime moments were the sole peace in this episode. Sadly, I knew what was destined to happen here, as Renee appeared to have died in a German bombing run on Bastogne (although no body was found).

Eugene went through the mental wringer in this episode, but the final moments with him seemed to indicate that he was going to make it through. He had slowly been starting to become like a zombie, but the final moment in a foxhole with Heffron, who he calls by his nickname “Babe” which was significant because Eugene did not use the nicknames before.

One of the more haunting moments of the episode came when there was a lull in fighting and the Germans could be heard singing “Silent Night” in German from out of their locations in the woods. Since it was Christmastime, this little bit of singing humanized the Germans, reminding us that they were just people fighting for their side, even if the Nazi Party was completely evil.

Another brutally powerful episode of this mini-series. Just four more weeks to go for this series in the Sunday Morning Sidewalk.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #5

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February 23

“Crossroads”

This episode of Band of Brothers moved through time, showing us different moments in the life of Captain Winters, from his last command in the field in Holland to his promotion to Executive Officer (XO) of 2nd Battalion. This would mean that he was no longer in command of Easy Company.

We see his response to all the paperwork that his new position entailed and how he returned mentally to the front lines. This is juxtaposed with a memory of his final shots of his command when he shot a young German soldier. The moment when the young German, who was kneeling, smiled, only to have the smile leave his face in realization, was haunting and stuck with Winters moving forward.

Fredrick “Moose” Heyliger is the person that Winters suggested to take his place, but Moose is shot by a twitchy Army sentry. Moose does survive, but he does not return to Easy Company after his injuries. What a scene this was with the young Army sentry actually shooting someone on his side.

We saw a cameo with Jimmy Fallon as Lt. George Rice. This was an episode that was directed by Tom Hanks, and he does a great job with the non-linear storytelling.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #4

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February 16

“Replacements”

“Replacements” details the events for Easy Company undergoing Operation Market Garden in Holland, which was a failure. The high-risk operation saw Easy Company retreat from the fight with the Krauts and showed how dangerous this situation could be.

It also featured a group of replacements to the company and how they were accepted (or hazed as the case may be) into a group of men who had been together for going on two years.

We had a return from David Schwimmer’s Captain Sobel, now as the newly appointed Regimental S-4. His facial expressions told more than any lines of dialogue could have from this returning character.

The story was told from the perspective of Sgt. Denver “Bull” Randleman. He gets wounded by some tank shrapnel and winds up spending the night in a barn with Germans all around him. He received help from a Dutch farmer and his daughter in a tense moment. Bull had to fight a German soldier hand-to-hand to keep his presence hidden.

There was also a cool scene where Private Webster gave a Dutch child a chocolate bar. The child had been with his father in an air raid shelter and came out when the Americans went past. The father had said the boy had never had chocolate before and the joy on the boy’s face after tasting the chocolate was a wonderful bit of life included within the horrors surrounding everything.

Horrors such as the Dutch people, who were greeting Easy Company as “liberators,” taking women and cutting their hair and drawing swastikas on their faces. These were women who had slept with German soldiers and were now facing consequences from an angry mob. This was a disturbing scene and you could tell that the soldiers were bothered by it as well.

This show does a really good job of these smaller moments tucked inside the overall dramatics and violence of the war scenes.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #3

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February 9

“Carentan”

Week three of the Sunday Morning Sidewalk was the third episode of Band of Brothers, which showed that it continued to be one of the most realistic and stunning displays of wartime battles ever put together.

This episode featured Private Albert Blithe, a solider who was struggling with the war and its trappings. He went through a bout of “hysterical blindness” and ended up being wounded on a scouting mission. This was an amazing story of self-doubt and fear. 1st Lt. Speirs was a key piece to this story, as his brutal nature became legend among the men, but it was his wisdom that helped keep Private Blithe going. Speirs’s death was totally foreshadowed when he told Blithe that he was scared because he still had hope, and had not accepted the fact that they were all already dead.

There was a great scene at the end of the episode where Sgt. Malarky went to pick up his laundry that he had dropped off before the mission. Mrs. Lamb had done the laundry and he paid her. She asked if Lieutenant Meehan had forgotten about his laundry and she hoped he would come and pick it up. She had not realized that he had been killed. Malarky paid for his laundry as well, not telling her that he had been killed. She then asked about 1stSgt. Evans, Pvt. Moya, Pvt. Bloser, Pvt. Gray, PFC. Miller, Sgt. Owen, T-5 Collins, and Pvt. Elliot and Blithe, all of whom were dead. The show used this as a way to indicate that the Easy Company had lost 65 men during this offensive and that Blithe did not recover from his wound and died in 1948.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #2

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February #2

“Day of Days”

The second week of the Sunday Morning Sidewalk brought me back to HBO MAX for the second episode of the classic series, Band of Brothers. This episode followed the men of Easy Company on the jump out of the airplane and to the land of Normandy, France. The jump scattered the battalions across the area and they had to scurry around hostile territory in order to survive and complete their mission.

Lt. Winters is seemingly left in charge as the superior office is one of the missing in action. He spent some time in this episode gaining the trust and respect of his men, in particular one who seemed to be more interested in “killing Krauts” than following orders.

One of the more powerful moments of the episode was when Easy Company captured a group of German soldiers and it was discovered that one of them was born in Oregon. Malarkey discovered this piece of information and he bonded with the solider since he, too, was from Oregon. As he left the Germans, they were executed, including the born American. The look on Malarkey’s face told the story.

The realism of the battle scenes really stood out. The brutality and fear came through with every gunshot or grenade toss.

The end quote of the episode featured names of men who were awarded for their success and bravery.

“For destroying the German guns at Brécourt Manor the following awards were awarded

Bronze Stars

Walter Hendrix, Donald Malarkey, John Plesha, Joe Toye, Carwood Lipton, Cleveland Petty, Myron Ranney, “Popeye” Wynn

Silver Stars

“Buck” Compton, Bill Guarnere, Gerald Lorraine

The Distinguished Service Cross is awarded to

Lt. Richard Winters”

“Easy Company’s capture of the German Battery became a textbook case of an assault on a fixed position, and is still demonstrated at the United States Military Academy at West Point, today.”

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #1

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January 26

Episode One: “Currahee“

Starting a stroll down the Sunday Morning Sidewalk here at EYG. The idea is to pick out a season of TV, ideally a short season, perhaps a show that only had one season, and watch an episode every Sunday morning.

While there are a ton of series that could have been our first series, I chose a series that has been on my to-watch list for quite awhile. It is over at HBO MAX, and it is Tom Hanks and Stephen Spielberg produced 2002 mini series, Band of Brothers.

I was not sure exactly what this first episode held for me. I have historically not been a huge fan of war movies, which was why I had not watched this before now.

When the episode began, it felt like a documentary style show, partially because of the initial interviews with members of the Easy Company of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division and I was suddenly confused. I saw the episode underway and I thought, “Could this be actual footage?” It took me a few moments to figure out that this was not real footage, which speaks very highly of the show itself.

It was more than just a reenactment too. This was a show written from interviews and journals of the men involved in the company and it seemed as if accuracy was a major goal of this series.

If I had any question, the moment David Schwimmer walked onto screen, I knew what was going on. Schwimmer was playing a captain who pushed the men in their training, but turned out to be a lackluster field leader. It became so bad that men under his command staged a rebellion to draw attention to their concerns.

The acting is on par with some of the best acting you are going to see on any size screen. The first episode truly showed the skills of Damian Lewis, as Richard D. Winters.

Episode one does a great job of setting up what we are going to be seeing and provide us with an accurate view of the situation these men were in.

Next-February 2nd. Episode Two: “Days of Days“