The seventh episode bounces between the air base and Stalag Luft III. In the prison camp, Buck and Bucky are being treated fairly well, except the food sucks. They have a clandestine radio where they can follow the war news. We learn that it is March, 1944. Meanwhile, the 100th is still dealing with heavy losses. Morale is low as many crews don’t think they will make it to the magic 25th mission. Rosenthal and “Rosie’s Riveters” are sitting at 24. Crosby has started an affair with the British intelligence agent Sandra. He is over his trauma about sending men to their deaths, so apparently sex solved that problem.
This episode hops around a lot between the three threads. Most of the scenes are short and lacking in entertainment value. The show has jumped from Rosenthal’s crew being new and the only returnees of the raid on Breman to being on their 24th. The show has skipped over more than 20 missions. So much for developing the crew as a unit. We know almost nothing about them except a little about Rosenthal. We are told he is a great pilot, but there is no evidence of that. The character development has been lacking. I only care about Buck and Bucky. They are living a pretty uneventful life in prison. At one point, the Americans are informed that the Brits in another part of the camp have made a “great escape”, but Buck and Bucky’s mates have been doing nothing to escape. Making a new radio provides tepid suspense. The Crosby and Sandra thread is perfunctory as though the screenwriter had to get some romance in, but just to check off that box.
There is a raid on Berlin for the first time, but all we get is the standard counting of the returning bombers. There are casualties and some of them are graphic. That will have to serve for giving the impression of how bad it was. The screenwriter apparently has decided that we have episode two to refer back to and only need a reminder of what is like up there. When the group goes back to Berlin, we are with them briefly. Long enough to finally get the appearance of P-51s. There is a very brief dog fight.
This was another alarmingly disappointing episode. Nothing interesting happens. The three threads are advanced in boring fashion. One of them is concluded but with little payoff. The other two promise more in the next episode, but why are we having to wait. There are only two episodes left. We still have not gotten into the Red Tails subplot. Speaking of subplots, we see the return of the two men that were helped by the Resistance to get back to England. That thread was just dropped for no reason and we just see the return.
With just two episodes remaining, it is safe to say that “Masters of the Air” will end up being a distant third to “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific”. It also falls far short of “Generation War”, “Generation Kill”, “The long Road Home”, "Anzacs"and pretty much every other war miniseries. This episode suddenly ended after about 45 minutes. I subtracted the opening recap and credits and it clocked in at about 41 minutes! I am getting increasingly pissed about the missed opportunity to give us a good show about the American bombing effort. The series has failed to concentrate on one bomber to show how difficult it was to get to 25. And it has failed to use the amazing CGI to give us great combat scenes. I know the show should not spend all its time on missions, but 20% is way too low.
GRADE = F
I have to agree with you on this episode. 'Masters of the Air' should focus on the missions and not stuff depicted in multiple WW2 movies. Now I wish someone would make an actual movie about black Thursday. Unfortunately, I think the last 2 episodes are going to be worse because they are going to cram too many stories in one hour.
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