Masters of the Air (2024) (1 Viewer)

[Joe Wong]

Finished the series last night!

Pretty good show. Though the time jumps can make it feel a little "episodic".

Spoiler

For example, there are several instances (throughout the season) of characters behind enemy lines... they encounter some potentially dangerous situations... and then the next time the character shows up some time has passed and they're back at the base.

I understand the journey back may not be that interesting, and the creators don't want to inject unnecessary drama to stay true to what actually happened, but still... In any event, I got used to it after a while.

Other than that, great action scenes, great production values... just good stuff!

 

[Sean Bryan]

I thought the finale was great and loved the show.

Had this been a purely fictional story set in WW2, then I would have expected a different story structure and character arcs. But as this was putting together a story based on true events and real people the story structure was more inline with real life in that most things don’t play out like a movie.

I appreciated the information given at the end on how the rest of these people’s lives went. I was impressed by how old many of these people lived to be. And I was saddened to learn of one in particular dying so terribly young from natural causes after having lived through all of that.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Completed the series yesterday and enjoyed it quite a bit. I do agree with Joe that the time jumps do sort of feel 'strange' at times. I understand why they are present but it has the effect (for me) of interrupting the narrative flow. It also made me suspect that there were segments left on the cutting room floor and some of the story elements felt like they were left dangling. What the heck happened to Meatball?

In terms of other criticisms; I understand that the stars have to look good in these types of programs, but I thought that the appearance of the leads while in the Stalag didn't really look appropriately 'weathered'. They simply looked too good for months of captivity in a WWII prison camp. A minor point I admit, but it kind of jumped out at me in the last few episodes.

I appreciated the finale giving us glimpses into the real lives of the individuals upon whom the series was based. I share Sean's reaction to learning of the untimely demise of one of the aviators who endured so much during the war.

It was a fine program, but I feel like Band of Brothers still sets the standard for these types of series. It certainly felt more cohesive, for me anyway.

- Walter.

 

[Robert Saccone]

The documentary that Apple also has using real footage from WWII about the pilots shown in the series is also excellent.

 

[MartinP.]

I finished the series and watched the documentary (The Bloody 100th). My complaint right from the beginning about how it was filmed (the look of it) is born out in contrast, if one watches the documentary, of the 'real life look" of that time and place and how it was filmed. (Both in color and b&w in the doc.) I wish those who make films and TV now would just shoot things the way they naturally look for the most part and stop trying to control the color for some theoretical mood. It doesn't look natural. People complain about colorizing things, but because of computers filmmakers are consantly fooling around with the color, or lack of color, in the things they're shooting.

The documentary had a participant talking about how the stress and strain of these airmen caused a lot of them to, as was stated, "crack up." What these people had to endure is actually pretty unfathomable if one considers it closely. It's not really portrayed in most of these kinds of films because, I suppose, it really is unfathomable. Those who survive it obviously don't want to dwell on it or talk about it. I wonder about those who had to deal with it. In the TV series 12 O'Clock High you only saw anyone who couldn't deal with these things taken away quickly. The closest this series got to it was twice, once when Rosie is at the "Flak House" and starts to go into a park or garden area where he notices an airmen by himself on a bench and he's sobbing. The other is after the mission where only one plane returns and on the way back to debriefing, one of the airmen keeps saying he's not going back. Not going again.

Because it's not dealt with, it seems like those who experienced it are somehow less than. Of course, you wouldn't want those men around the others to see what might happen to them. Someone in the series has a conversation where they say people aren't supposed to live like this. One of the men in the documentary says that before they went to England, someone told a group of the pilots to "look at the man to your left. Look at the man to your right. Only one of you three is going to survive." The man then said that's when he realized they were being sent over there to be killed. How does one deal with that? Why would someone tell them that?
___

"On occasion, the world must confront itself, answer what we are with who we are." --Harry Crosby

Something to think about in the present.

 

[MartinP.]

By the way, if you want to see more of Anthony Boyle, who played Harry Crosby in the series, he's starring as John Wilkes Booth in Apple TV's Manhunt, now streaming.

 

[Robert Saccone]

The documentary had a participant talking about how the stress and strain of these airmen caused a lot of them to, as was stated, "crack up." What these people had to endure is actually pretty unfathomable if one considers it closely. It's not really portrayed in most of these kinds of films because, I suppose, it really is unfathomable. Those who survive it obviously don't want to dwell on it or talk about it. I wonder about those who had to deal with it. In the TV series 12 O'Clock High you only saw anyone who couldn't deal with these things taken away quickly. The closest this series got to it was twice, once when Rosie is at the "Flak House" and starts to go into a park or garden area where he notices an airmen by himself on a bench and he's sobbing. The other is after the mission where only one plane returns and on the way back to debriefing, one of the airmen keeps saying he's not going back. Not going again.

It really crystalized for me in the first couple of episodes that the expectation was very high that you would end up not coming back from your mission and that it was an exercise of sending waves of planes and men in order to accomplish the objectives of the air campaign. This high casualty rate was something that I really wasn't aware of before. My son who is a collector of military uniforms from WWII and very knowledgable about WWII military history confirmed for me that the high casualty rate was expected and they were all aware. It would have become obvious to them very quickly even if no one told them once they got there when they saw it first hand. It leaves me in awe that these people knew about the odds and still went knowing what they were facing.

 

[MartinP.]

It leaves me in awe that these people knew about the odds and still went knowing what they were facing.

In another documentary I'd watched in the last year...I'll quote one of the men in it who had participated in these campaigns and others in it said much the same thing, "There's a reason they send the youngest men into war; we were young and dumb and thought we could survive anything."

 

[Robert Saccone]

In another documentary I'd watched in the last year...I'll quote one of the men in it who had participated in these campaigns and others in it said much the same thing, "There's a reason they send the youngest men into war; we were young and dumb and thought we could survive anything."

I can accept that but I think going on the campaigns over and over again, seeing their buddies not come back must have been wearing on that feeling of invincibility. Thankfully they did it. I don’t know if I could have.