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Masters of the Air [Apple]

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  • Registered Users, Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators Posts: 2,209 Mod ✭✭✭✭Nigel Fairservice


    The Masters of the Air book doesn't really focus too much on the individuals we come across in the series. They are mentioned here and there but it would be hard to build a character driven drama series from the coverage. I think the show is doing a good job of filling in the blanks.



  • Registered Users Posts: 25,291 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    Given that its promoted as being made by the same team as Band of Brothers I suppose people are expecting something similar to that highly character driven show with very memorable characters.

    One historically accurate problem this show has is the insane death rate for bombers. Making it hard to develop characters.



  • Registered Users Posts: 15,815 ✭✭✭✭AMKC
    Ms


    Exactly. They knew theit lives could end any day and they lived as best they could because their changes of surviving were slim.

    Live long and Prosper

    Peace and long life.



  • Registered Users Posts: 15,815 ✭✭✭✭AMKC
    Ms


    They were not even in the most dangerous bomber of time,

    The B-24 was faster with a longer range and had a bigger bomb load than the B-17 but is largely forgotten compared to the B-17s as it had a more bulky and blocky appearance and it was less survivable in a crash.

    Very good vide on it.

    Live long and Prosper

    Peace and long life.



  • Registered Users Posts: 28,836 ✭✭✭✭odyssey06


    it is like Star Trek Red Shirts...

    "To follow knowledge like a sinking star..." (Tennyson's Ulysses)



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  • Registered Users Posts: 818 ✭✭✭setanta1984


    Band of Brothers has been around over 20 years now, people who love it and its characters have probably watched it dozens of times if not more in that time (I watch it nearly annually) it stands to reason as viewers we have this vastly greater attachment to and familiarity with their characters - this show hasn't even fully aired yet. Easy Company had about 150 men total, with the show focusing on even fewer. The 100th bomb group was far larger, with every lost plane taking 10 men with it.

    Comparing any show to BoB becomes very difficult considering how close to perfect it is, nearly 25 years of rewatches and the embedding of Easy Company's story into popular WWII history. I think its easy to forget how powerful it is having the real men themselves speaking at the beginning of BoB episodes too, which obviously is not possible with this one.

    I'm holding judgement on the characters until I've had a chance to at least re-watch the series in its entirety, without week long gaps and trying to keep up with the overall story/action/props/sets/wardrobe at the same time. I will say though I've not really enjoyed Austin Butler's hollywood cheese, Callum Turner has been a bit more relatable.

    I have been impressed with how they have conveyed the sense of peril with being an airman - they obviously have much more comfortable lives 90% of the time being back in England, sleeping in a warm bed, decent food, parties etc, compared to ground soldiers on the front - yet your odds of death are as great if not greater when you get up in the sky.



  • Registered Users Posts: 6,907 ✭✭✭Sugarlumps


    First episode was a stinker, no likeable characters. Missing the theme tune from Team America. My moneys on the Nazis. 



  • Registered Users Posts: 117 ✭✭Danny Drier




  • Registered Users Posts: 19 SilentBee


    Conflicted on if I should start watching this. The trailer looks good but the reviews seem mixed.



  • Registered Users Posts: 11,894 ✭✭✭✭Flinty997


    Only one way to find out...



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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,321 ✭✭✭Acosta


    It's not getting any better. Watchable, but nothing special.



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 36,136 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    It's not the best but not the worst either. It's epic and looks expensive, some characters are better than others and if you enjoy ww2 stories will fulfill that itch. It's no Band of Brothers but what is?



  • Registered Users Posts: 25,291 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    For me it's good enough to continue with it because I have Apple anyway.

    I wouldn't buy apple or go through the hassle of nefarious means for it.



  • Registered Users Posts: 11,894 ✭✭✭✭Flinty997


    If you're a flying buff you'll want to watch it regardless.

    If you're hoping for the next breaking bad, maybe not.



  • Registered Users Posts: 10,127 ✭✭✭✭AbusesToilets


    Thought the last episode was incredibly dull. Kept waiting for something to happen, then the credits were rolling.

    I think they've missed a beat by not showing more of the impact caused by the bombing. The destruction wrought by the allied bombing woukd be a war crime nowadays. It's all too sterile in the show



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 18,362 CMod ✭✭✭✭The Black Oil


    First episode thoughts. A few niggles and strengths. Visually, I can hardly differentiate one character from another, and not because of their gear. The sodding way in which modern shows are lit. It does capture the speed and horror of conflict. It's made me curious about aerial combat, from the training, planning to execution.

    Bit of a love letter to the those mighty flying machines.



  • Registered Users, Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators Posts: 2,209 Mod ✭✭✭✭Nigel Fairservice


    More so the RAF who were mad into the indiscriminate carpet bombing. The USAAF at least tried to be more targeted in their approach. They refused to bomb Auschwitz in 1944 in case they killed civilians. Had they done so they may have saved countless lives. It was also feared if they bombed the site of Auschwitz the Nazis could have hidden what they had done there. It's an interesting morality question.



  • Registered Users Posts: 25,291 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    In fairness to the RAF though they had spent 4 years watching cities get leveled and had the Germans on the channel by the time the show is set. They also had 4 years of resource and manpower drain so had to do the safer less accurate night flights

    The USAF had the luxury of knowing the family were back home and safe.

    If I was the Brits I probably would have wanted Germany flattened too.



  • Registered Users Posts: 28,836 ✭✭✭✭odyssey06


    And as has been alluded to in the episodes, the US strategy in its current form is not sustainable.

    "To follow knowledge like a sinking star..." (Tennyson's Ulysses)



  • Registered Users Posts: 11,894 ✭✭✭✭Flinty997


    Bit misleading...

    The RAF had tried "accurate" bombing and got massacred at the start of the war. Took the US years to learn the same lessons, by having heavy loss rates. The norden bomb sight wasn't any where near as accurate as they thought. They missed a lot even bombing Switzerland quite a few times. That was just the heavy bombers. They tried with medium bombers in Europe and also had heavy losses.

    The RAF had raids like Dambusters and Tripiz and obviously pathfinder units and mosquito missions. So the RAF obviously knew what it took, and the cost. Obviously lived through the blitz and V1 and V2.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 11,894 ✭✭✭✭Flinty997


    MotA is following a specific unit . It's not meant to be critique of the strategy.



  • Registered Users Posts: 818 ✭✭✭setanta1984


    https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/masters-of-the-air/id1457552694?i=1000642849103

    Recommend this episode of Al Murray and James Holland's (excellent) second world war podcast, speaking to John Orloff - who wrote Masters of the Air, and 2 of the big episodes of Band of Brothers (the D-Day and Concentration camp liberation episodes). Very insightful. They've spoken to him a few other times on this podcast over the years too. Excellent podcast in general if youre interested in the second world war.

    Post edited by setanta1984 on


  • Registered Users Posts: 25,291 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    Well the fact that the specific unit is getting ripped to shreds every episode is a pretty strong critique.



  • Registered Users Posts: 3,984 ✭✭✭Theboinkmaster


    Latest episode (5) was brilliant



  • Registered Users Posts: 117 ✭✭Danny Drier


    Nope. It’s nonsensical gibberish. Completely unrealistic



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,388 ✭✭✭Homelander


    Though episode 5 was decent myself.

    Still think some of the CGI for planes taking off and landing is very off, looks like good CGI from 15 years ago. Actual aerial scenes are very good though.

    Also seems they've taken quite a lot of license with how many planes it shows gunners shooting down, though maybe can be interpreted as a play on the crazy number of planes gunners claimed to have shot down versus how many were actually shot down.



  • Registered Users Posts: 25,291 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    Episode 5 was very good. First time in the show that the ground stuff felt some way real and its very hard to pull off a show that is emotional while everyone is wearing a mask (just look at the Halo and The Last of Us productions). Agree with the above that the CGI looks cheap and ropey. It's almost like a computer game cut scene and sadly that seems common in most shows now.

    Also don't want to belittle a true story by comparing it to sci-fi but the episode reminds me an awful lot of the Battlestar Galactica episode "33"



  • Registered Users Posts: 60 ✭✭Rossie4ever


    Have only watched the first three episodes and it's good enough in my opinion.



  • Registered Users Posts: 24,022 ✭✭✭✭ejmaztec


    I don't know why you're even watching it as you seem to hate it with a vengeance. What would you expect to see that would make it more realistic for you?



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  • Registered Users Posts: 25,291 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    Really hope

    Austin Butlers character is actually dead and we never find out what happened. Would be a very interesting way to tell the story in a truthful way.



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