Masters of the Air

I've been counting down the days to Masters of the Air ever since I saw the first trailer. Well, it's finally here and it definitely lives up to all the hype. This limited series will definitely be nominated for every major award there is. You can tell this was expensive to make. Like many have already pointed out it's brought to you by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. While it's not quite as good as their other World War II series, Band of Brothers, it's still pretty darn good. The way this series shows all the struggles and humanity of war is brilliant. I've used the word a few times now because that's what this series is...brilliant. I can't say enough about the cast either. They do a great job pulling you into their world and make you really care for these characters. Don't miss this series.

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.

This series takes the viewer from the B-17's flying from the US to Greenland and then on to England. BoB started with the training of Easy Co in GA. Pacific was similar to BoB. I felt like we missed out on knowing the characters here because they were just dumped on us and two of them were majors. I felt like I missed a couple of episodes and couldn't get caught up. I never got past the knowledge of the three or four main characters. The others all seemed alike and I couldn't differentiate them. The Tuskegee Airman seemed like an afterthought, but I'm glad they included them even though they weren't in the Eighth AF. Some people complain about CGI. I thought it was remarkable and I can't think of any other way it could have been done. Some reviewers have a problem with how the Brits were portrayed. I thought they were shown to be brave and resilient. Still, movies like this are a national treasure. The Eighth AF represents all our heroes who fought in the skies over Germany and Japan. The movie made sure the viewers knew Germany was pure evil in its intentions to conquer and subjugate the world. I would give BoB a 10, Pacific a 9, and this a solid 8.

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.

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.