Band of Brothers

Parents need to know that Band of Brothers is an intense, realistic look at a company of WWII paratroopers and is based on true stories. The miniseries was intended to be a sort of fleshed-out Saving Private Ryan, and the battlefield footage is similar, with merciless death coming suddenly and graphically to characters we've gotten to know and love over the course of the 10-hour series. There are shootings and soldiers set afire; hails of bullets with paratroopers floating through them; planes getting shot, losing their wings, and careening thunderously to the ground. Soldiers are suddenly shot in the head or in the butt, crawl on their bellies through muck and gunfire, collapse into pools of blood in disturbingly realistic scenes, while those left behind grieve and fear for their own safety. Off the battlefield, soldiers train in brutal sequences and blow off steam on weekend passes where they sometimes get up to mischief like consensual sex with European locals in which breasts and buttocks are shown. Soldiers are often shown drinking and smoking, particularly one character, who is a functioning alcoholic shown drinking from a flask almost constantly. Some families may also not appreciate scenes in which leadership is shown to be capricious and cruel, particularly as in the first episode, "Currahee." Young kids would likely be traumatized by the violence, while older ones may be a bit confused unless they know their WWII history.