Masters of the Air

Nearly a decade later, executive producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks brought the companion series “The Pacific” to HBO, and now they present the spiritual sequel “Masters of the Air,” a nine-part series airing on Apple TV+ that proves to be a worthy third chapter in the trilogy. This is an epic, sprawling, pulse-pounding series.

Many will praise the series for offering up an ambitious spectacle, but we honestly believe that its success lies in its refusal to shy away from the humanity of war. Which is all to say: Watch this show.

Masters of the Air doesn’t stir the same sentiment that Brothers did so effectively. We are more in awe of the terrifying whole of the thing than invested in individual lives. That awe is enough to keep the series grimly compelling.

The series begins tentatively, builds up to a middle-episodes sag, and finishes well.

Apple TV+’s WWII epic Masters of the Air is gorgeously filmed but dull, with a distinct lack of narrative urgency.

“Masters of the Air” is often absorbing and irresistable, even if it is not as compelling as the first two series. Part of the problem, especially in the first few episodes, is that there are so many characters, and battle after battle, that gets a bit confusing and repetitive.

There is a lot to like – the acting is top notch, the world-building immersive and the storytelling (what little there is of it) is succinct. But it’s too old-fashioned to compete with today’s prestige TV. What’s more, it’s not even trying to.

The battles are riveting and the stories are real. It's hard to believe that these pilots went into the air with no heat, no cabin pressure, oxygen masks and barely any protection against flak with a low survivability rate. The only minor critique I had was the main cast of supermodel dudes constantly mugging for the camera who know how good looking they are. Probably only thing the brought down the realism.

Giving it a 6 for Band of brothers and The pacific's sake. Otherwise it is generally disappointing in terms of character depth,sense of urgency and nuances in the core struggle, which makes the show pale terribly in comparison to its two way superior predecesors.

Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg were behind the WWII shows Band of Brothers and The Pacific. They created this new series that looks at American bombers flying missions to destroy targets in German-occupied Europe. As expected, there's an enormous cast of young men, led by Callum Turner and Austin Butler. Sadly, so many characters mean that none of them get much focus. As a result, there's little real concern about the men and sometimes a question of who they are. The only exception would be the few who parachute behind enemy lines, but that's a small part of the story. The group scenes are often energetic, but cluttered without much narrative drive. What does stand out is the combat footage. Every episode revolves around a mission and the expected calamities, injuries and deaths that occur. The footage is often riveting, esp. with the speed of the aerial encounters. However, when this experience happens every episode, it loses some of the impact. Ultimately the whole thing becomes rather flat, lacking much depth in the characters and one blazing battle after another. (Review based on 6 of 9 one-hour eps)

I was a bit disappointed with this series as it could have had so much potential. The cinematography was a hit or miss, ofcourse the planes up in the air were wonderfully depicted but the rest was kind of flat. The script and actors were one dimensional not worked out well, which made you not care for them as much whether they survive the war or not. The squad leaders tried so hard, but they looked like teenage kids with moustaches sticked on and were told to act tough, if that was intended, then they did a good job. It didn't had that authentic comradery as in other shows like Band of Brothers. The show was too Hollywood coded with alot of cliches and wasn't heartfelt.

Band of Brothers it sure aint. The excessive aggrandisement, emulating movies with such things as extravagant intros and very long credits in some cases accounting for 10% of the show's run time is just off-putting. There is something about the show that just does not "click". It never feels like 1943 and the feelings displayed by the characters just seems like an act or unnatural. Seems more like a midday melodrama than a show depicting a unit at war in WW2.