Masters of the Air [Apple]

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.

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.

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.

Only one way to find out...

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Latest episode (5) was brilliant

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.

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

Really hope