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HBO does have some good original programming. Over the past few weeks I have taken the time to watch two miniseries that I had never gotten a chance to see: Band of Brothers and From the Earth to the Moon.

Band of Brothers is a 10-part series that details the World War II experiences of an American group of soldiers called Easy Company. The series is based on real events and all of the characters are based on real people. You see brief interviews with actual members of Easy Company before each episode. The battles scenes were pretty intense and some reminded me of playing Call of Duty. I don’t remember being bored or thinking that I was tired of watching at any point.

From the Earth to the Moon is a 12-part series that chronicles the space race of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Their goal was to show the events in a way that they had never been shown before, so they don’t focus only on the astronauts. Instead of detailing the Apollo 13 disaster from the astronauts’ perspectives, they showed it from the perspectives of journalists that covered the story. One episode focuses on the wives of the astronauts and another focuses on the people that designed the lunar module. I learning a lot of things about the space program that I never knew before. There were a couple of episodes that seemed to drag on a little bit, but I was probably just a little distracted at the time.

Tom Hanks was a producer on both series and you’ll see plenty of recognizable faces. I definitely recommend them both if you have the time.