Masters of the Air

I generally always watch the intro credits for big budget TV series - they are enjoyable - but this was the exception. Think I managed a couple and then had to skip them each time. They kind of sum of the series really, visually impressive but horribly Americanised over-schmaltz to the point the series is almost ruined. It's trying waaay too hard.

What could have been a gritty realistic document turns into more of an advert : perfectly framed good looking film stars posing in a stylised way. It never felt realistic.

It got better as it went on, but was initially repetitive, the pacing is odd as they whip through history, the characters struggle to remain memorable, the depiction of the RAF unforgivable. It's confused, is it trying to be historically accurate or just trot out comic book tropes to keep the US audience happy ?

On the plus side, the story is good (obviously) the visuals are great (CGI grates a little sometimes) and the aerial combat sequences are great.

Worth a watch if you are interested in the subject matter, but the schmaltz and delusion of grandeur are ultimately big flaws to overcome.

First of all let me start by saying that from a cinematic perspective this serie was beautifully made. The color grading was very nicely done. The actors however stayed a bit on the surface. I felt a bit of a lack of depth in the characters. I think It might be due to the many storylines.

The thing that annoyed me most though was the inaccuracy of facts. It made it appear that the RAF only had posh airmen while most of them came from working class families. And the dates and timing during the cours of the war was a little "played" with.

As a born and raised European the history of World War Two is embedded in our (school)system by our parents and grandparents who lived through the war and got in some ways traumatized by it.

Therefore doing a series about an important part of our past should be mindful of the few still alive by being accurate.

I was quite excited by this new series with Spielberg and co at the helm. But after a few episodes the script took a turn for the worse, why belittle the RAF making out they are some toff graduates from Oxford or Cambridge, quite embarrassing really. Of course the Americans are the only heros in this, utter BS. Spielberg is a f?@king numpty. There were many brave men from all sides but as always the yanks saved the day single handedly where the RAF were buffoons. We all know the British have the best armed services in the world and between me and you the yanks are somewhat jealous, so they try and make themselves look better. Spielberg yawn off.

He didn't think too much of the Hollywood "Memphis Belle". The B-17 movies he regarded the best are:

Memphis Belle (1944) 12 O'Clock High The War Lover

It's pretty sad that living memories of B-17 crews are gone now.

Some comments I can make based on long conversations with my dad about his combat experience:

1. The strain on the crews was terrible. They knew the odds against living through their tour were heavily against them. The airmen dealt with their fear in different ways, and it broke some of them. My dad just expected to die. The actors in MotA looked like they were having fun.

2. The odds of surviving the first 5 missions were about the same as surviving the rest of the tour, i.e. The crews learned. The series presented it as simply randomness in a shooting gallery. I'd like to have seen some bits about how the crews handled it and learned.

3. The show didn't really show much of any airmanship. Nor any of the variety of techniques the Luftwaffe used to penetrate their defenses. Such as the Luftwaffe pilots would aim for the B-17 cockpit. Nor anything about the aircrews fighting to bring home their damaged airplane and wounded crew.

4. Nothing much was said about how the crew coped with 60 degrees below zero and the lack of oxygen.

Some things are just lost knowledge. My dad would bring along two flak jackets. He didn't wear them, he put them on the floor and squatted on them. This is because the flak was designed to explode below the aircraft and shred it from below. I expect other crews did that, too, they weren't stupid.

He summed it up saying he wouldn't trade that experience for anything, and would not do it again for anything.

But still, the detail of the aircraft and beautiful photography made this a worthwhile series. Well recommended.

Let me start off by saying I really enjoyed the series, it was really quite good. The acting is good, the sets and costumes and characters are phenomenal. I feel like they really show you the horrors of war. Certainly some of the best depiction of aerial Combat I've seen (I can't test to its accuracy but it certainly kept me at the edge of my seat). But it should have been better and ultimately it's nothing I haven't seen before in other World War II films and series. That being said this is top caliber.

The main con being that so many characters come in and come out of the series that it's hard to get attached to many of the newer ones, even though large parts of the stories are built around them. I understand that they were trying to be somewhat historically accurate and that's why they kept bringing a new characters, but it just got hard to tell who was who and even when I couldn't remember peoples names, I didn't feel too much for them because I only know them for a few episodes. Also, this is really nitpicky, but the opening tile sequence is a little much. I always say Apple TV has some of the coolest tile sequences for their shows, this one was boring and cliché, and it really shows just how highly the show thought of itself.

All in all, if someone told me then you very about World War II and wanted to watch a good movie/series about it I would recommend this one. However, if you're a war film buff, it's nothing you haven't already seen.