After directing a little World War II movie called Saving Private Ryan in 1998, Steven Spielberg returned three years later as an executive producer of a 10-part miniseries, Band of Brothers. After starring in Saving Private Ryan, Tom Hanks served as an executive producer for the miniseries as well.

When I prepared to watch Band of Brothers, I told my husband something to the effect of, “So Spielberg and Hanks went back to making more World War II stuff and telling the same story. Cool stuff.” I believed this even more when I learned that they teamed up for another World War II miniseries, The Pacific, in 2010.

My husband told me that what I had said simply wasn’t true. Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan didn’t tell the same story at all. He was right.

I could tell immediately from the start of the first episode of the series, which is entitled “Currahee”. Saving Private Ryan is one of my favorite war movies and one of the best movies of all time. The movie begins by throwing us right into the action of D-Day. It’s a harrowing scene that builds a knot in your stomach and then rips it out with that much disorientation and violence.

“Currahee” starts with an elderly man sitting against a pitch-black background. He’s wearing a blue, collared shirt. No information is given about him, not even his name. He tells the story of how he heard about the U.S. entering World War II, and it becomes clear that he’s a veteran of the war and being interviewed. But he isn’t the only one. Four other men are interviewed in front of the same black background, each giving his account of how the U.S. was attacked, when they volunteered for service, and how, at the time, no one knew what the Airborne was. That’s when the screen fades to black and the heroic main theme plays.

Most of the episodes are prefaced with interviews of different men. It’s not until the series finale that the men are identified as members of Easy Company, part of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. These members of Easy Company are the ones that we follow for the duration of Band of Brothers, from their training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, to their time in Austria when the end of the war in Europe is declared. Most of the episodes end with several lines of text, serving as epilogues to each episode. Some of them deliver good news… others, bad.

Now if you don’t count the interviews as the true starting points for every episode, “Currahee” actually begins with a flash-forward to June 4, 1944, in which Easy Company prepares for D-Day. We get shots of the men we come to know and love in later episodes. Eventually, the men are told that their jump into Normandy is being delayed. In reality, Easy Company doesn’t reach Normandy until the next episode, “Day of Days”. So for a first impression, this isn’t exactly the most exciting introduction to a series, especially compared to the assault of the senses that is the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan.

Yet that changes when “Currahee” jumps back two years earlier when Easy Company’s training is underway, and that’s where Band of Brothers really gets going. The series jumps forward in time again to return to D-Day in “Day of Days” and then continues in a fairly linear fashion for the remainder of its run.

Saving Private Ryan tells the story of the Army rangers who stormed the beaches of Normandy and went into enemy territory to bring one man home. The Pacific tells the story of three Marines who fought in the Pacific Theater during the war. Band of Brothers, however, tells the story of the men who jumped from airplanes and parachuted behind enemy lines, something that the U.S. military had never attempted in combat before and proved to be an instrumental and essential battle tactic used throughout the war.

Both Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan take place in the European Theater during World War II… and that’s where the similarities end.

I definitely liked Band of Brothers and enjoyed seeing it, even though it’s been so long since it was on air. I didn’t realize that the show premiered two days before the September 11th attacks. Over 16 years later, I’ve watched the series, and I’ll remember it fondly as a well-crafted ensemble piece with wonderful characters, great visuals, and its important testament to the men who fought and died in World War II.

One reason that I even heard about Band of Brothers—and one reason why I loved watching it—is because of how many recognizable actors are part of this show. It seemed like every young actor ever was cast as a member of Easy Company at the time. Damien Lewis, now of Homeland fame, plays the series’ main character, Richard Winters. Donnie Wahlberg, Marky Mark’s older brother, plays Carwood Lipton, a character that appears in all 10 episodes along with Winters. There’s a smattering of people whose faces you probably recognize from other works and who you most likely can’t name off the top of your head, but you’ll swear that you’ve seen them somewhere.

Then, there are the heavy hitters, once young boys on Band of Brothers and now A-list kings of the box office. I’m talking about the likes of Michael Fassbender, Tom Hardy, and James McAvoy. There are other big names such as David Schwimmer, Simon Pegg, Andrew Scott, and Colin Hanks. Even Jimmy Fallon shows up in one episode! That’s 10 actors total who are quite well known nowadays, whether it’s more for movies or TV.

These guys, particularly Lewis and Wahlberg, played characters that I easily rallied behind and rooted for. Lewis gives the best performance of the entire show. He exemplifies the real Richard Winters in leadership, compassion, and with just the right amount of humor. His verbal delivery as well as his nonverbal communication and his overall actions are amazing. I totally bought the idea that he was a young man in World War II working his way up through the ranks of Easy Company and earning the respect and acceptance of his men. Winters knows when it’s time to go and also when enough is enough; he’s a man of integrity, courage, and vision. Lewis is simply perfect not only in the role, but in representing the actual Winters.

Wahlberg gives a strong performance as Lipton, too, with his character certainly shining through in the seventh episode, “The Breaking Point”. Ron Livingston has a great performance as Winters’ best friend and confidant Lewis Nixon. Livingston’s finest moments occur when he and Lewis share scenes, and they portray Nixon and Winters, respectively, as having a genuine connection and true friendship, which goes well beyond that of just being war buddies. Two other characters that I really liked were Denver “Bull” Randleman (played by Michael Cudlitz, who I honestly mistook for Sean Astin at first) and Eugene “Doc” Roe (played by Shane Taylor). Honorable mentions go to Lynn “Buck” Compton (played by Neal McDonough), Donald Malarkey (portrayed by Scott Grimes), George Luz (played by Rick Gomez, often with hilarious results), and John “Johnny” Martin (portrayed by Dexter Fletcher). I’ll explore all of these characters in more depth when I discuss my favorite episodes here shortly.

But before we get to that, I have to talk about a few other reasons that I heard about and watched Band of Brothers: the visuals, cinematography, and musical score. Most scenes in the show seem washed out. Gray, brown, and green are the colors used to the greatest effect in putting the audience in various settings, whether it’s the barracks at Camp Toccoa or the lakes and mountains of Austria. Other scenes are in astoundingly stark contrast, with blinding, white light used in daytime scenes and black shadows at their darkest in nighttime scenes. It’s an appropriate balance for different scenes, and these colors enhance every moment. The cinematography is jarring during the battle scenes, understandably, and the shaky camera is warranted in capturing the chaos that erupts in each fight. It’s not overused at all. The camera is then smooth and slow for scenes of downtime, only making the battle scenes even more hectic. Slow motion is also used fittingly and sparingly.

I mentioned the heroic main theme of the show earlier with good reason because it’s a piece of music as iconic as the war it represents. The other songs used to score Band of Brothers are pretty great; however, nothing hit me as hard as that opening song. The show succeeds in not using music during key moments, too. Silence is its strength in the most awful way. There are many scenes in which music is replaced with the sounds of gunfire and artillery and shouts of “Medic!” from numerous points on the line. It’s exactly what the true soldiers of Easy Company would have heard as they were fighting.

Now, let’s move on to my favorite episodes of Band of Brothers. I can’t even begin to rank all 10 episodes of the show from best to worse in my mind, since there are pros and cons to all of them. Yet if I had to rank my top three favorites, this would be my list:

Episode 6 – “Bastogne”
Episode 7 – “The Breaking Point”
Episode 4 – “Replacements”

“Bastogne” takes place during Christmas of 1944 in, you guessed it, Bastogne, Belgium. This particular engagement is known today as the Siege of Bastogne and was part of the larger Battle of the Bulge (which, in the timeline of the show, began in the previous episode, “Crossroads”). “Bastogne” is one of two episodes that has, arguably, the biggest and most devastating battle scenes as well as injuries and casualties among Easy Company. Each episode of Band of Brothers has a central character that is the main focus and sometimes narrates the events of the episode in voice-over. The central character of “Bastogne” is Doc Roe, and it’s so interesting to see such a critical and huge fight from the point of view of a medic as opposed to a higher officer like Winters or Nixon.

Easy Company is low on everything in Bastogne, from winter clothing to ammunition, and Doc is desperately trying to help every soldier that he can and search for medical supplies at the same time. Doc goes back and forth from the front lines in the forest to the town of Bastogne, where he witnesses the wounded in a makeshift hospital. He does what he can with what little he has in the forest, and he lends a hand to the doctors and nurses in town, including a Belgian nurse named Renee. Doc is shown as an outsider for most of the episode, which is of course relatable to just about everybody. He doesn’t call any of the soldiers by the nicknames that they’ve been given, prompting Edward “Babe” Heffron to react happily when Doc finally calls him Babe. Doc usually sits in a foxhole by himself or at the base of a tree on his own; he doesn’t join a circle of men as they huddle around and eat, laugh, and smoke. A common theme of Band of Brothers is how the war changed every man in Easy Company in some way, even if they weren’t wounded, and Doc is no exception. In its quiet moments and climatic battle, “Bastogne” leaves Doc forever changed, even in the smallest of ways.

The epilogue text following the episode explains how General Patton came to the Airborne’s rescue on December 26, 1944. The last sentence is, “No member of the 101st has ever agreed that the division needed to be rescued.” That’s how hardcore the men of Easy Company and the men of the entire Airborne division really are.

“The Breaking Point” takes place shortly after “Bastogne”, with Easy Company in the Ardennes forest and the Germans being pushed back to the town of Foy, Belgium. “The Breaking Point” comes from the point of view of Lipton, who also narrates the episode rather effectively. This is one of the more heavily narrated episodes in Band of Brothers, yet Lipton serves as a good narrator. It gives his character more depth, and we get to hear his motivations and thoughts in a way that we don’t get with any other character, except for Winters. Lipton seriously won me over during this episode because of how he endures alongside his men and keeps their morale up when Easy Company’s commander, Norman Dike, fails. Lipton, as well as Buck Compton, play gifted and smart leaders in “The Breaking Point”. By no means does Lipton make it out of this fight completely unscathed, but Compton is unfortunately affected by the losses of two of his men. In reality, these men both survive; however, their grave—and ironically, almost matching—injuries send Compton spiraling. It’s simply more proof that the war altered the men who fought in it, even if they themselves weren’t hurt physically. The epilogue text for this episode hammers that point home with a quote from Stephen E. Ambrose, who wrote the book on which the series was based. The quote reads, “Beyond the wounded and killed, every man at Bastogne suffered. Men unhit by shrapnel or bullets were nevertheless casualties.”

Winters, who has achieved the rank of captain by the time of “The Breaking Point”, can only observe the battle, unable to lead his old company. With him being my favorite character, this was pretty hard to watch, especially when he nearly abandons his post and makes an attempt to rush into battle. When he’s stopped by his superior, Winters is forced to send in Ronald Speirs, who then has probably the most badass moment in the entire series.

Last but not least, “Replacements” finds Easy Company in England, where it is preparing for Operation Market Garden. The title of the episode comes from the replacement soldiers who arrive to substitute the wounded and killed members of the company. The replacements struggle to fit in among the veteran soldiers who fought in Normandy during D-Day. Bull Randleman is their immediate superior, and he’s the focus of this episode. Operation Market Garden takes Easy Company to Eindhoven and Nuenen, both cities in Netherlands. Eindhoven is liberated, yet during combat in Nuenen, the company is forced to retreat, and Randleman is cut off from his unit and wounded by shrapnel on top of that. He has to spend the entire night avoiding capture by German soldiers and hiding out in a barn with a Dutch father and daughter until morning. He has to keep both of them and himself alive and safe. This episode changed my entire perception of Randleman. He’s a big man, hence the nickname of Bull, and he’s a no-nonsense, cigar-chomping member of Easy Company. To see him weakened by his injury and so protective of the father and daughter was totally surprising and satisfying. Randleman remained strong, even when his sensitive side is subtly alluded to both physically and emotionally. This is another great episode for Compton and a good time to get to know Johnny Martin, the latter being a close friend of Randleman’s.

The replacements even get a chance to prove themselves when they decide to go and find Randleman, even when the veterans tell them that he’s fine. In the words of Bill Guarnere, “If there ain’t no body, then there ain’t nobody fuckin’ dead.” The replacements insist on bringing him back anyway. It’s a wonderful moment to see the inexperience and the sheer heart of these guys simultaneously. It makes the veterans, including Randleman, accept them just a tad bit more.

I brought up Malarkey and Luz because they are the two characters who offer up the most comic relief in Band of Brothers. If you look up funniest moments of the series on YouTube, scenes with Luz will make up over half of every video. Malarkey is genuinely hilarious, while Luz often provides sarcastic commentary and imitates Airborne officers and other Easy Company soldiers. Both of them are responsible for the most laugh-out-loud moments, even when you wouldn’t expect many from a World War II series.

Band of Brothers was an engaging, engrossing depiction of Easy Company and the overall war that its members fought in. It had more heartbreaking moments than heartwarming ones. With the members of Easy Company the showrunners consulted and the research that undoubtedly went into Ambrose’s novel, I’m willing to bet that most of the series is historically accurate. One of the sources was the memoir of an Easy Company soldier named David Webster. The actors were also in contact with the veterans they’d be playing. However, there were only so many Easy Company soldiers still alive in 2001, and the ones interviewed for the show as well as the book could have conflicting viewpoints. For example, in the epilogue for the third episode, “Carentan”, Albert Blithe is said to have died from his wounds in 1948, when really, he recovered and didn’t die until 1967. Even Tom Hanks admitted that characters had to be condensed and experiences had to be narrowed down. That’s show business, though, right?

Band of Brothers is one of the best TV series I’ve ever seen. It’s just 10 episodes and more than worthy of your time!