Masters of the Air - from the makers of Band of Brothers and The Pacific

[khaine]

Masters of the Air is a 2024 American war drama streaming television miniseries on Apple TV. It is based on the 2007 book Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany by Donald L. Miller and follows the actions of the 100th Bomb Group, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber unit in the Eighth Air Force in eastern England during World War II.

The first 3 episodes are out. Has anyone watched it? How does it compare to Band of Brothers and The Pacific?

 

[WULULULULU]

14 fucking years after the Pacific's failure, I doubt it will rekindle the same magic of those two given that Band of Brothers and the Pacific had extremely different themes (BoB is more heroic and optimistic whilst the Pacific was more depressing and gritty). The people that waited for such to exit development hell are probably dead, and the audience will be very little, probably worse than the latter and may be a bigger failure.

If what I said is wrong in a few months, I will declare myself a mega-retard.

 

[CAPTAIN HAPPY]

Literally watched Part Three 10 seconds ago.
It's awesome so far.
Rewatched Band and Pacific the last few weeks. Kinda bizarre how cozy the airforce had it when Easy Company and everyone in Asia were shoveling in shit.

 

[Mongo0o]

Band of Brothers is still the greatest series I've ever seen on TV. Happy to hear that this show is living up to expectation. It's getting fucked on user reviews though because of supposed nationalist themes.

 

[Your Starter for 10]

How many anachronistic and out of place niggers and stronk women are shoehorned into it.

 

[khaine]

Great question. I've watched the first 2 episodes and so far there hasn't been any wokeness. It started a bit slow, and I think apart from Buck and Croz most of the others are either bait anonymous or not likeable characters. This is where Band of Brothers really shined. Winters and Nix were great together, and the broader supporting cast was full of likeable characters. The Pacific suffered that the characters weren't that likeable.

In terms of a modern TV show, it's above average just because it hasn't shoe-horned in bullshit, but it hasn't reached the highest of Band of Brothers.

 

[Mojo Thief]

Watched the first three episodes because I'm a colossal BoB/The Pacific fanboy, and while I was bracing for possible anachronistic DEI/Woke shit, I was pleasantly surprised to find none so far. No snarky millennial speak, everyone talks like you'd expect folks in the '40s to converse. The Air Force is accurately depicted as lily-white, and the show does a great job showing just how nerve-wracking it was to fly into enemy territory in a bomber of the period whose frequent mechanical and electrical breakdowns would threaten your life even when you aren't being shot at by the Luftwaffe. Honestly, out of all of the TV shows I've seen this year, this one feels like it came right out in 2013, before the woke mind-rot began infecting historical dramas.

There are trailers teasing black aviators, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be about the Tuskegee Airmen. I expect to hear some (admittedly justified) commentary about discrimination and racism, but if it's written as well as the rest of the show is then they could present this in a way that doesn't come off as preachy or woke. Wouldn't bet money on it, though. There are also trailers showing the airmen taken captive in Nazi concentration camps after being shot down, but Band of Brothers also featured concentration camps.

Say what you will about Spielberg, he's been at this a very long time and he's respectful of historical settings.

Great question. I've watched the first 2 episodes and so far there hasn't been any wokeness. It started a bit slow, and I think apart from Buck and Croz most of the others are either bait anonymous or not likeable characters. This is where Band of Brothers really shined. Winters and Nix were great together, and the broader supporting cast was full of likeable characters. The Pacific suffered that the characters weren't that likeable.

Agreed, the show needs to do a better job with making the supporting cast more memorable. I get it, there's a high chance they'll just randomly die during a flight, but the way you make me care if a character dies is if you make me care about the character in question.

 

[WonderWino]

I've seen the first three episodes. To be honest i'm not particularly impressed. Its decent on a technical level but its really disjointed in how things are happening, which isn't surprising given the nature of air warfare. Its come off as very meh to me so far. Its a story that really doesn't go anywhere and we're already a third of the way through the series

That said, give it another decade or so and we'll probably be seeing a final series involving the navy in some way. Either that or it'll go an entirely different direction and do an army series from the soviet perspective

 

[khaine]

That said, give it another decade or so and we'll probably be seeing a final series involving the navy in some way.

They did make the movie Greyhound a couple of years ago, which was about a Destroyer protecting a convoy in The Atlantic.

 

[khaine]

Its decent on a technical level but its really disjointed in how things are happening, which isn't surprising given the nature of air warfare.

I think when they got to England they needed a briefing from like a General or something on their approach, and the go home when you've done 10 tours thing (or was that later?)

Something like this to give some overview to people who aren't aware and then a bit of structure around you do 10 missions and can go home: "Gentlemen, as you know our goal is to cripple the Nazi's war machine. Your bombers are equipped with the Norden Bombsight which can pinpoint drop a bomb into a barrel from 20,000 feet. But to achieve that accuracy we have to fly during the day. Therefore it is imperative that you stay in formation to protect yourselves from the Luftwaffe.

...

Once you have completed your 10 missions, you will return to the US to promote the war effort by selling War Bonds"

 

[TheHarbinger]

How many anachronistic and out of place niggers and stronk women are shoehorned into it.

Band of Brothers was loaded with it but cucks for jews ate it up no problem. They even had a complete fake and made up scene with Easy Company rescuing a bunch of starving kikes from a holohoax 'death camp' that never happened in real life. Complete with revenge fantasies on local German citizens and grovelling Americans over the suffering of random jews instead of the soldiers who were mutilated and died invading Europe.

Imagine knowing that the holocaust never happened and still watching WWII propaganda goyslop shows.

 

[Screamer_2]

I'm enjoying it and it just keeps getting better.

Loved Band of Brothers. I was so meH on The Pacific I never actually finished it. I will definitely revisit them after this is done airing.

 

[Breadbassket]

Haven't watched it all yet but the effect work seems nice.

Reception on the CGI itself seems mixed though.

Air to air combat always seemed particularly perilous. On the land you can run, in the ocean you can swim, but in the sky once outside of your metal box all you can do is fall.

 

[Your Starter for 10]

I'm just jumping back in to say that it's a terrible name for a show. It sounds gay and fantasy-oriented, and there's a thousand better names I could've come up with in an hour.

 

[guidmaker]

Band of Brothers was loaded with it but cucks for jews ate it up no problem. They even had a complete fake and made up scene with Easy Company rescuing a bunch of starving kikes from a holohoax 'death camp' that never happened in real life. Complete with revenge fantasies on local German citizens and grovelling Americans over the suffering of random jews instead of the soldiers who were mutilated and died invading Europe.

The concentration camp event actually happened and it was even worse than in the show, i.e. all the prisoners were dead. Also they did actually force the local population to dig graves. The only inaccuracy is some of the prisoners still being alive and being another company of the 101st, not Easy Company. A who gives a shit detail.

You think all those non-Jewish soldiers in the entire company would lie about the camps as part of some grand conspiracy? lol

I'm just jumping back in to say that it's a terrible name for a show. It sounds gay and fantasy-oriented, and there's a thousand better names I could've come up with in an hour.

It's just named after the book. I don't think it's normal to have homoerotic thoughts from it.

 

[khaine]

Episode 4 was kind of slow, and I think it shows again that this show has a problem with unlikable characters.

In a previous episode, one of the characters while their plane was crashing tried to save a colleague who was stuck in the ball gun. Couldn't and made the decision to bail, not long after the plane exploded. He meets the underground who are helping him to escape. In this episode they are moving through France, and all the other American can do is repeatedly ask about the guy who was in the ball gun. Although, at least he consoles him that he would have done the same thing. Surely, however the repeated evasion about talking about Babyface would have been a sign to drop it?

The Colonel of the 100th seems like a Dick. The bucky character who goes to London is a dick. There is not that many characters to root for. This is also the issue with The Pacific.

Also, I've always wondered why is it that the American's join the war late, have no real interactions with Germans, and have this immense hated of them. Like I get hating japs after Pearl Harbour, but Germany didn't do much to America, why the visceral hatred.

 

[millais]

Also, I've always wondered why is it that the American's join the war late, have no real interactions with Germans, and have this immense hated of them. Like I get hating japs after Pearl Harbour, but Germany didn't do much to America, why the visceral hatred.

Residual anti_german sentiment from WW1 and the constant barrage of anti-german propaganda from the pro-intervention, pro-jew, and anti-fascist lobbies beginning in the early '30s.

Also, even before Dec 7, '41, American navy and merchant marine were taking casualties in the Battle of the North Atlantic.

 

[always-deciduous-tree]

I am not surprised that audience reviewers are panning MOTA. The visual effects are nice, but my praise stops there. The characters are so underdeveloped that keeping track of them is hard and each episode feels like a new introduction, especially after Barry Keoghan's character died. I'm certain they are introducing new characters for two-minute monologues, such as the aforementioned colonel of the 100th, and then moving on. The producers' inclusion of tired clichés, such as the coded letter from home to say "hi" to the character's friend and "a pilot will tell you he's a pilot" are sure to please the redditors watching. Given the above complaints, I speculate that the scenes and characters teased in the title sequence will be horrific.

Perhaps Apple TV simply doesn't have it, as I stopped watching For All Mankind for similar reasons. However, it is sad to realize that we will likely never have another Band of Brothers.

 

[WonderWino]

I am not surprised that audience reviewers are panning MOTA. The visual effects are nice, but my praise stops there. The characters are so underdeveloped that keeping track of them is hard and each episode feels like a new introduction, especially after Barry Keoghan's character died. I'm certain they are introducing new characters for two-minute monologues, such as the aforementioned colonel of the 100th, and then moving on. The producers' inclusion of tired clichés, such as the coded letter from home to say "hi" to the character's friend and "a pilot will tell you he's a pilot" are sure to please the redditors watching. Given the above complaints, I speculate that the scenes and characters teased in the title sequence will be horrific.

Perhaps Apple TV simply doesn't have it, as I stopped watching For All Mankind for similar reasons. However, it is sad to realize that we will likely never have another Band of Brothers.

Yeah you definitely made some good points there. Fundamentally I just don't think the shows concept works. Partly cause of the design of the story doesn't really do much for the characters, they are just kind of there....until they're not and it gets really disjointed to say the least. and partly because the nature of the air war just doesn't really lend itself well to the kind of story or development expected of this kind of series. It works as a memoir sure because of how memoirs are written, but a series is a different thing entirely, even if it is based on said memoir.

Band of brothers worked fundamentally because it was a cohesive story with a linear plot. It started literally from basic training, introduced everybody and followed one group of people in one unit throughout the course of the war and in a manner that fit with the overall events of the war and their involvement in those events. It had a cohesive start, progression and end and it built up as the story progressed as you'd expected. The pacific didn't do most of that. Sure it supposedly followed a marine unit. At least in theory, but in practice it kept jumping around randomly, trying to cover multiple storylines involving different people and places at different times in ways that were fairly difficult to follow. It skipped over most of the war and just hit the biggest highlights. If you didn't have some understanding of the history of the pacific theater you'd likely be lost after the first couple episodes, or at the very least not have a particularly good idea of what was going on and why it was important to the story. It also just kind of started in the middle of everything for some of the characters and before others even enlisted so it was very weird pacing wise and none of it really fit together particularly well. It was like they were trying to condense multiple stories from multiple sources into something that fit into a miniseries but weren't able to do it in a way that didn't come off as confusing and half assed.

Now you have the new series that doesn't do any of what band of brothers did. Everything just kind of starts in the middle of the war, vaguely following a group where half the time its difficult to really figure out who is supposed to be a significant character and who's the redshirt of the week. You don't really know who any of these people are or why you should give a shit, and to try to solve that they throw in pointless exposition in ways that are unnecessary and don't really make sense half the time. Dumbass did stupid shit with a whale tusk and broke it that was never shown and random person shows up acting like it was something important? Random shit about random people flying in their underwear? Random kids fucking around on an airbase for some unexplained reason? Random people get killed and its suddenly a big deal? Its just not well put together and isn't a cohesive story. Plus its repeating the mistake the pacific did (and got called out for as an issue for years since) in splitting up the story between the pilots in england and downed pilots trying to get to spain (which doesn't really make sense anyway as spain was pro axis, hand a long history of passing intelligence, among other things to the germans on the dl and at best would have arrested the pilots if they managed to get there for the duration of the war just like they did with germans cause of their official neutrality stance. Not entirely unlikely they'd have turned them over either. Switzerland would have been a better choice and wouldn't have allowed them to leave either but they would have been able to have some actual freedom there for the duration of the war as it was legit neutral ground with everybodies intelligence services operating out of there. They were a bit of a weird situation during the war but its a better choice than spain. Not that any of it makes sense anyway as they'd have been better off surrendering. Don't even get me started about the idiocy on the train that would have made it blatantly obvious something was up. Just how stupid was that french conductor to not figure out something was seriously off with that situation

The only good thing I can say for the series so far is the special effects stuff done in the air. At least they did that part right and didn't go over the top obvious with it like star wars does

 

[khaine]

Agree, You've hit the nail on the head with why The Pacific wasn't as good as BoB, and the problem with MOTA.

I think you could make the story work. Heck, it's been done in films before, but you either need a clearer narrative or make it more character driven and how the war changed them. Maybe just focus on one plane and that crew.

Also, you are wrong about Spain, that was a common destination for flyers. It was called the comet line.