Masters of the Air 2023

tangey said:
Reading you post I'm not suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of being hookwinked or short changed by lack of historical accuracy. It was after-all a dramatisation.
Click to expand...

Yeah, i was with a few people who were amazed if the bit about repairing the plane on the runway was real, then we've got him complaining because they dared place the plane out of formation!
 
Overall I did enjoy this. It's not a patch on BoB though, that much is evident from the first episode. It's always good to see a WW2 series though.

Considering the budget and the fact it's 2024 some of the CGI was really rather awful. Red Tails had better CGI and that movie is pushing 12 years old.

Characters were not developed enough but the various different supporting roles were a welcome addition.
 
Last edited:
Felt rather rushed but I still enjoyed it, could have easily done about 15-20 episodes covering all that they went through.

I couldnt help but think at the end what them pilots must have felt to be flying home and to have lost so many, very brave people that is for sure.

Good to see they went on to live long life after, sad to see Gale lose his wife though 8 years after marriage.

I thought Austin Butler was brilliant loved him in Elvis and done well here, also Callum Turner was good.
 
rodders said:
No point me taking an apple trial and smashing it then, from what I'm reading on here.....shame.
Click to expand...
You may as well ignore what you're reading here and try it for yourself. I thought it was mostly excellent. Lots of hurt fee fees here for some reason.

Watched this over the last two days and I'd give it at least 8/10, there's not much else that's being made on the same sort of scale these days. Maybe it was watching it all together but I didn't have any problems identifying the characters and there certainly was character development over the series, although it was fairly subtle. Rosie certainly had a lot of character development over the series.

There were downsides of course. Like many people mentioned the CGI was very sub-par in a lot of places. When you saw the explosions and bomb hits on the ground (from the air) it just didn't look realistic at all. Also agree with what other people said about the "unrealistic" look of the planes when shown against the scenery.

It was a shame with the two airmen in Belgium who looked like they were going to get a decent storyline and were in a lot of, IIRC, two episodes but then they were suddenly home.

I think they probably should have left the Tuskegee Airmen out apart from when they showed up in the Stalag. Their story is great and I'd even like to see a separate series about them but it felt like they were shoehorned in and given most of one episode just so the last episode would make a bit more sense.

Don't really get the criticism about "everyone" being too good looking. Austin Butler is a handsome man ( :D ) but he also seems to be a really good actor, there were other more average looking people in there like Pappy.
 
Last edited:
rodders said:
No point me taking an apple trial and smashing it then, from what I'm reading on here.....shame.
Click to expand...

There is every point in taking a free trial. Even if you find you don't like it, i would be gobsmacked if you don't like Slow Horses. My free trial comes to an end next month, but i fully intend to renew when the next series of Slow Horses starts.
 
Just finished watching this last night. I thought it was very well done on the whole. The intensity and tension of those daylight raids came across well, the flak and strafing had me flinching. It's hard to imagine the reality.

I see lots of people saying there was no character development. Well most of them died or went MIA. About 75% losses in the first 4 months. Hard to tell their stories that well. So, the writers were left with picking up the stories of those who did actually make it through to the end of the war and could record their stories for posterity. Perhaps with a couple more episodes they could have filled out the stories a bit more, especially about how pilots were making it back, I think the 'teleportation' criticism is fair, it was rather jarring at times.

The British portrayal was a rather blunt instrument, the standard Hollywood treatment really. But, it's true there were differences of approach, such as daylight vs night, precision vs carpet bombing etc. There's been lots of films made from the British point of view, so it was good too see the American experience. The 'late to the war' thing is such a tired old cliche. Sure, but once they committed they did so hugely and unflinchingly.

There were some loose ends, like what actually happened to Sandra Westgate when she went off on her Special Ops mission? Again, a couple of extra episodes to fill out the stories would have helped.
 
As an aviation fan I really wanted this to excel.

Unfortunately I think it falls way short of band of brothers and even the pacific.

I wish they’d concentrated on the bomber force than branching out.

It’s a bit like the pacific I guess, that everyone is dropping like flies so you don’t really get the character feels.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom