Based on the historical legacy of the 100th Bomb Group during WWII, just a few months prior to D-Day, this series follows several air crews who partook in some dangerous, and many times deadly, missions to bomb sites against the Germans. At the beginning of the heavy bombing campaigns, thousands of young pilots and their crews were given missions that offered very little safety, air cover, and a plethora of personnel who were ill trained to prepare themselves for capture and eventual imprisonment by hostile forces that didn't have any honor in treating prisoners. By the end of the war, many pilots who were considered killed are found to be alive and instant heroes of the war.
THE GOOD - Incredible details in production bringing back the 1940's with stunning wardrobe, air planes, and locations. The air battle sequences were intense, again showing just how bad some of those brave young men had to deal with being attacked by enemy forces. The CGI was pristine and the movie production did an outstanding job in presenting flight operations that looked very real, capturing the essence of being in tight spaces, and the aftermath of returning home in a damaged plane, only to seeing the plane and the crews, patch up the aluminum aircraft and head out again on another dangerous bombing run. There were some epic bomber fly-by scenes that screamed for attention by the viewer of the magnificence of those huge military planes.
THE BAD - There is a LOT of bad acting and mumbling by the actors in this film. Butler does an okay job in his role of Major Gale "Buck" Cleven, but his overall delivery in the series is anything but that of a glorified extra. Most of the film is narrated by Boyle's character Major Crosby, but it isn't made quite clear until the latter episodes. The air battles were short and could have been extended. There's bad character development and the names of all of the other characters, and believe me there were many, aren't even memorable. The series seems to just touch the surface of a good story arc and then toss you in another direction without any explanation. With the exception of the narrator some events, there is no continuity of time and some of the main characters in the beginning of the series just disappear until mid way through the series; there's no flashback story, which would have been a big part of explaining what happened in the series.
POST MORTEM - Masters of the Air is an okay series, but honestly there's nothing to brag about and I feel that more effort was put into the production of "Band of Brothers." I understand that this series was based on a book, but the underlying truth is that a lot happened in-between episodes that surely should have been presented, at least in flash backs, to give a better understanding of what happened to many of the air crews after they were shot down. I think that more time could have been expended on clearing up all of the mumbling dialog and clearing up the sound from other scenes. I wouldn't spend too much time trying to watch all of the episodes in just one day, you might be disappointed in what you experience.
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫[3.5 of 5 Stars]
