Masters Of The Air - Apple TV

[Greshamst]

It’s ok so far. No band of brothers but it’s a good watch.

I know this is the tale of the US airforce’s involvement, not the British, but it does somewhat bruise the ego to so far overlook all the British escapades and sacrifice. Reduced to a losing bar fight and unlikeable characters.

[DeejRC]

Not really. It’s a Yank production for a Yank audience mainly about the 8th AF.
It also a touch harder to do something similar set on board an aircraft in the dark. With no lights. And less action. For a tv audience.

[coppice]

I gave up after two episodes . God it is terrible- single dimensional characters , amateur hour CGI, cardboard cut out Brits with dodgy accents and the sort of hackneyed score that used to be compulsory in war films. And the dialogue is so bloody trite , full of comic book cliches - and studded with anachronisms - nobody said 'prioritise' in 1943. And I very much doubt , in the heat of WW2 , in the face of flak and fighter attack, that our moralistic hero would soberly announce that there's no way he is dropping bombs if he can't see what they will hit .

Who knew that US airbases were apparently exempt from blackout regulations ? And did cheering groundcrew really follow B17s down the runway ? Every time or just when the camera rolled ?

Not quite as bad as Warhorse (great play , dire film ) but close

But I will confess to smiling at the reference to Podington - now Santa Pod of course .

Edited by coppice on Thursday 1st February 09:20

[popeyewhite]

Second episode in. Do American doctors really use 'piss' instead of 'urine'? It seems the lad from Saltburn has also had some training in pugilism.

[Castrol for a knave]

coppice said:

I gave up after two episodes . God it is terrible- single dimensional characters , amateur hour CGI, cardboard cut out Brits with dodgy accents and the sort of hackneyed score that used to be compulsory in war films. And the dialogue is so bloody trite , full of comic book cliches - and studded with anachronisms - nobody said 'prioritise' in 1943. And I very much doubt , in the heat of WW2 , in the face of flak and fighter attack, that our moralistic hero would soberly announce that there's no way he is dropping bombs if he can't see what they will hit .

Who knew that US airbases were apparently exempt from blackout regulations ? And did cheering groundcrew really follow B17s down the runway ? Every time or just when the camera rolled ?

Not quite as bad as Warhorse (great play , dire film ) but close

But I will confess to smiling at the reference to Podington - now Santa Pod of course .

Edited by coppice on Thursday 1st February 09:20

I thought the same. It's all good hokuum and Boy's Own but it is not BoB or The Pacific. The latter was very much overlooked - it was an excellent and emotionally grinding piece of work,

The characters are paint by numbers. Catch 22 was probably closer to the futility of daylight raids, which unless this comes into play later in the series, seems to be rather overlooked by the producers.

Dumping bombs over the Channel is unlikely - any pilot would want to get rid of them ASAP, so his aircraft was lighter, he had more range and more agility. I know they did dump over the Channel, but not on raids into Germany in 1943 (though i am happy to be corrected).

I guess it is all building up the Black Thursday and the realisation that the RAF lads were right all along.

I did not no Little Friends, I don't think they really got that into place until later in the war.


Also, I did wonder if the Scottish crash landing was a reference to Lucky Schnapps, which landed similarly, though in Kent (I think).

[Kev_Mk3]

I've not watched it yet but I've seen a clip where they race bikes indoors and got a professional rider matt jones to do it - why? anyone could have done it

[williamp]

DeejRC said:

Not really. It’s a Yank production for a Yank audience mainly about the 8th AF.
It also a touch harder to do something similar set on board an aircraft in the dark. With no lights. And less action. For a tv audience.

Well Ahhhh think its swell. Episode 3 shows the B17's daring raid into France with a "skipping bomb" which breaks the Damn walls and recovers the enigma machine for those sweet English folks

Their luck really changes when some bright spark in the 'ole US rips the propeller off and hey! We got ourselves a jet engine plane.

(I cant spoil the last episode, but lets say after the hero rams the V2 Rocket to save the Limeys, the ejector seat doesnt work. He bails out... into the arms of an English woman with perfect teeth whose never seen a man before)

[OMITN]

coppice said:

I gave up after two episodes . God it is terrible- single dimensional characters , amateur hour CGI, cardboard cut out Brits with dodgy accents and the sort of hackneyed score that used to be compulsory in war films. And the dialogue is so bloody trite , full of comic book cliches - and studded with anachronisms - nobody said 'prioritise' in 1943. And I very much doubt , in the heat of WW2 , in the face of flak and fighter attack, that our moralistic hero would soberly announce that there's no way he is dropping bombs if he can't see what they will hit .

Who knew that US airbases were apparently exempt from blackout regulations ? And did cheering groundcrew really follow B17s down the runway ? Every time or just when the camera rolled ?

Not quite as bad as Warhorse (great play , dire film ) but close

But I will confess to smiling at the reference to Podington - now Santa Pod of course .

Edited by coppice on Thursday 1st February 09:20

Pretty much word for word what I'd have written. It's lazy, goes all in for American exceptionalism, trivlalises the British experience (and ignores all other nations participating in that period of WW2).

I think either go to the effort of making it well and placing it in historical context (rather than the good ol' boys ride to the rescue of the idiot Brits...again) or go a bit nuts as the BBC did with SAS Rogue Heroes.

Spielberg and Hanks could have done so much better.

PS I have never watched Band of Brothers or The Pacific. In fact I'm not mad keen on the obsession with the WW2 machinery of war. This is just poor TV and, at best, something to have on in the background while doing something else.

[MesoForm]

coppice said:

I gave up after two episodes . God it is terrible- single dimensional characters , amateur hour CGI, cardboard cut out Brits with dodgy accents and the sort of hackneyed score that used to be compulsory in war films. And the dialogue is so bloody trite , full of comic book cliches - and studded with anachronisms - nobody said 'prioritise' in 1943. And I very much doubt , in the heat of WW2 , in the face of flak and fighter attack, that our moralistic hero would soberly announce that there's no way he is dropping bombs if he can't see what they will hit .

Who knew that US airbases were apparently exempt from blackout regulations ? And did cheering groundcrew really follow B17s down the runway ? Every time or just when the camera rolled ?

Not quite as bad as Warhorse (great play , dire film ) but close

But I will confess to smiling at the reference to Podington - now Santa Pod of course .

Agree with this, plus for me it was all a bit dramatic when it didn't need to be which for me lessened the effect of when something dramatic did happen. For example there's a nice little scene where they're navigating to Greenland, they line up to land and then the dramatic music starts and we have lots of drama and shouting, boys. Then the same thing happens when they arrive in the UK; it's all nice and relaxed until we get something dramatic happen, the music starts and we get drama and shouting, boys. All feels a bit "MTV generation" where something dramatic has to keep happening to keep the viewer's interest.

The scene with the Brits was just odd.

I didn't mind the battle CGI of what I've seen so far with the flak, fighters, etc. but what stuck out to me was the bits where they really should know what it looks like and just need to recreate it in CGI. I can go on YouTube and see what a B-17 looks like when it's taxiing or taking off so why does it look so fake in the show?

Nice to see Norwich get a mention, even if it was getting bombed.

[Greshamst]

OMITN said:

PS I have never watched Band of Brothers or The Pacific. In fact I'm not mad keen on the obsession with the WW2 machinery of war. This is just poor TV and, at best, something to have on in the background while doing something else.

You really should, they are one of the best series ever made in my opinion. Band of Brothers more so.

In fact I reckon I’ve got the feeling of a heroin addict who wishes they could experience that first time again, by suggesting it to you.

[OMITN]

Greshamst said:

You really should, they are one of the best series ever made in my opinion. Band of Brothers more so.

In fact I reckon I’ve got the feeling of a heroin addict who wishes they could experience that first time again, by suggesting it to you.

I’ve had the same - minus the heroin..! - recommendations from Reddit as well. I know my BIL (who isn’t into war/WW2) regards BOB as the best thing he’s ever seen. It’s on the list!

[Kev_Mk3]

OMITN said:

coppice said:

I gave up after two episodes . God it is terrible- single dimensional characters , amateur hour CGI, cardboard cut out Brits with dodgy accents and the sort of hackneyed score that used to be compulsory in war films. And the dialogue is so bloody trite , full of comic book cliches - and studded with anachronisms - nobody said 'prioritise' in 1943. And I very much doubt , in the heat of WW2 , in the face of flak and fighter attack, that our moralistic hero would soberly announce that there's no way he is dropping bombs if he can't see what they will hit .

Who knew that US airbases were apparently exempt from blackout regulations ? And did cheering groundcrew really follow B17s down the runway ? Every time or just when the camera rolled ?

Not quite as bad as Warhorse (great play , dire film ) but close

But I will confess to smiling at the reference to Podington - now Santa Pod of course .

Edited by coppice on Thursday 1st February 09:20

Pretty much word for word what I'd have written. It's lazy, goes all in for American exceptionalism, trivlalises the British experience (and ignores all other nations participating in that period of WW2).

I think either go to the effort of making it well and placing it in historical context (rather than the good ol' boys ride to the rescue of the idiot Brits...again) or go a bit nuts as the BBC did with SAS Rogue Heroes.

Spielberg and Hanks could have done so much better.

PS I have never watched Band of Brothers or The Pacific. In fact I'm not mad keen on the obsession with the WW2 machinery of war. This is just poor TV and, at best, something to have on in the background while doing something else.

Watch Band of Brothers, I highly recommend it and you will see this is worse than it is from what your saying

[JagLover]

Kev_Mk3 said:

Watch Band of Brothers, I highly recommend it and you will see this is worse than it is from what your saying

In terms of a war TV series only Generation Kill matches it IMO and no surprise that the latter series is also based on actual events in one real life company rather than a fictional one.

[coppice]

Kev_Mk3 said:

Watch Band of Brothers, I highly recommend it and you will see this is worse than it is from what your saying

.
It is very good , and far better than this tosh. But both war films which both enthralled and horrified me are German - Das Boot and All Quiet on the Western Front (old and new). Most of the rest are jingoistic garbage - can anyone take the likes of Where Eagles Dare seriously ? A Bridge too Far was not too bad and Catch 22 and Apocalypse Now (different war) were outstanding .

[Daz68]

Just finished watching the first 2 episodes and won't be watching anymore. Thought it was very poor to be honest.

[stuarthat]

It was ok as mentioned not BOB but time may tell to cheesy in places,on another note catch 22 latest version was excellent.

[unrepentant]

I've now watched the first two and enjoyed it. I don't care that it's a telling a story from an American perspective, that's what the story is about. The book was excellent and harrowing and I'm sure that as the series develops the appalling attrition rate (71%) among US bomber crews will become a major factor.

[heisthegaffer]

Band of Brothers is absolutely amazing, really Moving.

Nothing like this overdone, massive disappointment.

[vtgts300kw]

MesoForm said:

I didn't mind the battle CGI of what I've seen so far with the flak, fighters, etc. but what stuck out to me was the bits where they really should know what it looks like and just need to recreate it in CGI. I can go on YouTube and see what a B-17 looks like when it's taxiing or taking off so why does it look so fake in the show?

What made me scratch my head was there just seemed to be so much redundant, ground based CGI. Why even show the taxiing and initial take off (especially when the cgi is this bad)? Just show the crew in the cockpit, doing their final checks, dialogue etc. The Quality of some of the non battle cgi is so galling, it takes you out of the story.

[Smollet]

Ep3 better than the first 2. Concentrated more on the actual combat.