"Masters Of The Air" - from the Band of Brothers team

[Crossroads]

Episode 9 and so it ends. If I had any doubt until now whether MotA had what it takes to meet the legacy that BoB and Pacific are, this episode alone nails it. That was some powerful television there.

[ArizonaTank]

Episode 9 and so it ends. If I had any doubt until now whether MotA had what it takes to meet the legacy that BoB and Pacific are, this episode alone nails it. That was some powerful television there.

+1 The series got its 'MoJo' back in Ep9.  Overall a great series.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I enjoyed the series overall and will happily watch it again but I feel that they tried to cover too much in too few episodes and the narrative suffered for it.

It could have done with 3-4 more episodes, a 2nd season, or a tighter focus on core characters and the omission of some storylines.  Jamming the Tuskegees into 2 episodes felt a bit cheap.  That should be its own series.  Same with Windgate/Westlake.  An entire series about the SOE and the Jedburgh teams would be cool.

At any rate, i hope this series generates some interest in WWII air warfare.  I'd love to see a series about the RAF Bomber Command and the tech EW arms race that developed. I also hope this will finally let Peter Jackson get the Dambusters remake funded.

[Destraex]

Having now seen the whole series I can finally read this thread. Already impressed by silent robot's post and agree for the most part.
This one seemed a little more soul less than the precious two, however it's certainly better than most anything else around these days.
I did find the cgi a little jarring at times and the aircraft movement a little un-natural. I almost wish they had gone with memphis bell style model aircraft with cgi effects on top. Star wars style.
I hated the diversions from the air war story and did not find the later episodes especially had enough air war action. I know some will say that would have got stale but I disagree if they did it properly. Aftet all band of brothers managed to do it well enough. Memphis Bell is still a better b17 show to watch imho.
They just needed to focus properly and show and explain tactics in the air.

What was frustrating for me was that they shoehorned a lot of stories I assume that most who watched this have already seen in much better and more focused shows.

The great eacape = the prison episodes
Schindlers list, the piano etc = the holocaust scenes (even band of brothers did this in more depth than masters of the air).
Love scenes = almost any other movie, boring and also does not help parents watch with kids.
Tuskegee airmen and red tails = tuskegee airmen scenes

I would have preferred to see B24 stories or lancaster ones or even a fighter squadron that actually escorted the 8th air force and had a relationship with them if they were going to muddle around so much especially in the later episodes. Just felt that we missed an opportunity to learn about the air war the way we did in memphis bell. I think that the air war scenes were so short that almost everything done was almost a throw away comment, short and disjointed without much explanation for the audience about anything. I was waiting for deep conversations about that stuff and it never really came. Broad strokes was the name of the game.

I liked the theme song and took what I could get from this show as we have very little any good from hollywood these days. But am afraid spielburg and hanks did less than they did with previous shows in the series. I liked greyhound a lot more.

What's more. Like Greyhound, I am assuming I cannot get a physical copy because apple tv. I'd still love to collect both Greyhound and Masters of the Air. A second watch might improve things a bit. But I hate owning things digitally as a thing on a server somewhere when it comes to movies. Especially when they love to tinker with the things we love and change them, but mainly because I don't want to rely on the internet to give me reliable high quality viewing.

[Windigo]

I hated the diversions from the air war story and did not find the later episodes especially had enough air war action. I know some will say that would have got stale but I disagree if they did it properly. Aftet all band of brothers managed to do it well enough. Memphis Bell is still a better b17 show to watch imho.
They just needed to focus properly and show and explain tactics in the air.

Maybe because it's cheaper than cgi? I don't know.

Imagine if Halo had not been an angst filled mellow drama - and instead put more action into it?

[ArizonaTank]

I hated the diversions from the air war story and did not find the later episodes especially had enough air war action. I know some will say that would have got stale but I disagree if they did it properly. Aftet all band of brothers managed to do it well enough. Memphis Bell is still a better b17 show to watch imho.
They just needed to focus properly and show and explain tactics in the air.

Maybe because it's cheaper than cgi? I don't know.

Imagine if Halo had not been an angst filled mellow drama - and instead put more action into it?

I suspect it had more to do with just providing what they thought was variety in the story line. I think for most of us on this forum, that was probably not a good choice. Most of us could easily baste happily in a dozen episodes of just bomb runs. However, for the more general, less interested in military history audience (like my wife), the variety in the story may have been welcome. Just a thought...

[Windigo]

Heresy!

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Sadly, that seems to be correct.  I watched a half dozen normie reactions to the series and most (the chicks especially) said they were lukewarm to the early episodes but really got engaged once the story shifted to the POW camps.  My reaction was the complete opposite.

[Redwolf]

I hate POW movies/series. Not looking forward to the episodes I didn't see yet now.