Masters of the Air: Episode 9

 

            Well, it’s finally over. The series we waited for years to see. Did it finish strong? Let’s see.

It opens with a mission to Berlin on Feb. 3, 1945. It takes a while for us to know that the bomber that is being focused on is Rosenthal’s. Again the series has a problem with identifying the characters with their masks on. His bomber is crippled and Rosie bails out behind Russian lines and lands in a battle. This is the first of several developments that challenge credulity. The episode follows the template of the last few episodes. It jumps around following Rosenthal, Crosby, and Bucky and Buck. Spoiler alert, I can’t do this review without pointing out some of the ridiculous scenes.

            Let’s take each at a turn. Rosie is rescued by Russians and has a long road home. Along the way, the series manages to force a Holocaust scene to match “Band of Brothers”. But in BoB, it made sense that they would run into a labor camp. In Masters, Rosie is riding in a car with a Soviet general. They stop right in front of the camp and Rosie is kicked out of the car by an officer. This gives Rosie (who is Jewish, of course) the chance to walk into the camp and see all the corpses.  Box checked. Suddenly, Rosie is back and we only get his description of his travels. He tells this to Crosby who responds with another whine about war being hell. That’s right, the character with the desk job has PTSD and the character who has flown over 40 missions, been shot down twice, survived a battle, saw a concentration camp, and made several stops on the way back to England is seemingly unaffected!  The series has done a terrible job developing its characters.

            Crosby’s arc has him still moping. When the equipment room is left locked, he busts open the door to dole out some parachutes. He then goes to confront the man responsible and after the officer says what we all are thinking – dude, I haven’t seen you on any missions, Crosby proves he’s not a whiny milquestoast by shoving the guy’s face into his meal. Hey screenwriter, it’s too late for this. By the way, Crosby is going to be a daddy, but we don’t see Jean in the episode. Apparently, her spy escapades are no longer worthy of coverage.

            Buck and Bucky start the episode in Stalag III with the trio of Red Tails. They have spent all that time with no attempt to tunnel out. The Americans are nearing, so they are moved at night during a snow storm. It’s not horrific, just miserable. At one point, a P-51 strafes the column. At night. Bucky complains to the German officer about marching them at night as though it is more dangerous than moving in the daytime! Like strafing is less likely in daylight! This episode is the P-51 episode because later we get another lone Mustang strafing their new camp, but don’t worry, it only strafes the Germans.  USA! USA! USA!  Eventually, B & B decide to escape, but Bucky is caught. Buck has a run in with some Nazi Youths, so we get an action scene. B&B get reunited in a sappy way. The war is winding down and they go on one last mission together, holding hands the whole way. Just kidding. The series decided to cover this raid where they drop parcels to Dutch civilians. That’s right. The series that avoided showing bombing raids, leaves us with a milk run so we can see the lovely Dutch windmills! I don’t know if it was a CGI windmill. We finish with the 100^th flying off into the sunset taking our expectations with them. You may notice I have said nothing about the Red Tails. They are simply there, with nothing to do.

            I always wonder why movies and series that are bad and will be compared to previous movies or films, choose to remind viewers of them.  In this case, we get a scene with a pirate mug ala “Twelve O’Clock High”. And there is a shot of a man bicycling and some cows in a field to remind of “Band of Brothers”. It was just sad to see that. What might have been. I have said from the start that the screenwriters made poor decisions. The series should have concentrated on B&B with Egan playing the Dick Winters leadership role. He was a great leader, but you don’t get that from the series.  The series did not develop a leader. It should have concentrated on one crew reaching the 25 mark with other crews going down. And then switched to Rosenthal for his second tour. And nothing else! I got to the point where I hated Crosby. His character arc was a waste of time. He came off as though the series had to balance all the heroes with a lame-ass. The sad thing is that I checked out a biography of him and he flew 32 missions and was lauded by Curtis LeMay as one of the best leaders in the 8^th Air Force. Did anyone get that impression from the series?  The man’s memoir was a key source for the screenwriters and this is the way they treated him? Give me a break.

            Obviously, I was tremendously disappointed with the series. I would compare my mood to when I watched the “Catch-22” series. In that case, the problem was the screenwriters threw the book in the trash can and decided to go their own way. MOA went a different route. As far as I can tell at this point, it stuck to the characters’ actual stories, but with some enhancement. It’s flaw was the decision on what subplots to pursue and having too many subplots. But it’s biggest flaw was giving us some incredible combat scenes and then no more.  What a tease! Compare THAT to “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific”. Two series that made little use of CGI, but got the human elements right. Well, two out of three ain’t bad. Maybe we should think of “Generation War” as the third in the trilogy and just forget about MOA.

GRADE =  D

OVERALL = D

 

Masters of the Air – Episode 7

 

            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 100^th is still dealing with heavy losses.  Morale is low as many crews don’t think they will make it to the magic 25^th 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 24^th. 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

 

Masters of the Air (2024)

 

            It has only taken eleven years, but we finally have the last part of the Spielberg / Hanks WWII trilogy.  It was 2012 when HBO first announced the project.  In 2019, HBO dropped and Apple + took over.  Filming began in 2021, but the Covid pandemic set the project back.  The series is based mainly on the book “Masters of the Air:  America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany” by Donald Miller.  It concentrates on the 100^th Bomber Group, which was known as the “Bloody Hundredth”.  First, that would have been a better title.  Second, don’t get too invested in any of the characters.  The first three episodes were directed by Cary Fukunaga (“Beasts of No Nation”).  The series cost about $250 million, which might explain the nine episodes, instead of ten.

            The series gets started by immediately explaining why the two main characters are named Buck (Austin Butler) and Bucky (Callum Turner).  This is our first clue that the teleplays will adhere to historical accuracy.  Major Gale “Buck” Cleven and Major John “Bucky” Egan are best friends in the 100^th Bomber Group.  It is headed for Great Britain.  Bucky goes on ahead so we can have a stricken bomber scene in the first episode.  This will not be “Band of Brothers” which introduced the characters by way of boot camp.  The group follows along via Greenland.  Buck has to make a landing in gale force winds, proving he is a very talented pilot who is perpetually cool.  The first mission is to bomb u-boat pens.  The mission is aborted.  Another clue that the series will be fact-based. 

            By the second episode, the group has a new commanding officer.  This episode gives props to the ground crews.  Our first successful mission is to Norway.  It completes the redemption arc for sad sack navigator Lt. Harry Crosby (Anthony Boyle).  The other focus is on the bomber piloted by Lt. Curtis Biddick (Barry Keoghan).  Bucky has to decide whether to slow the group down to protect Biddick’s ship.  We get our second crash landing.  It’s not the “Bloody Hundredth” yet, but is already apparent that getting to 25 missions will be very difficult. 

            The cast can be underwhelming, but so were the casts of BoB and The Pacific.  Austin Butler is the only major star and he is perfect as Buck.  Those who haven’t seen “Elvis” are going to be exposed to a heavy dose of his charisma and good looks.  If the project wanted to draw female viewers, he was an outstanding choice.  It is probable that years from now, the rest of the main actors will be familiar faces.  And Maj. Gale Cleven will be famous, like Dick Winters.  I have not read the book yet, so I cannot affirm whether the other characters are actual people.  As of now, only Harry Crosby (who wrote a book entitled “Wing and a Prayer”) and Harold Huglin (the first commanding officer) have Wikipedia pages.  That will be changing.  I double checked on Cleven and he is based on a real B-17 pilot, but I did not read when he died.  One of the suspenseful factors in the series will be seeing who will survive.  It could be brutal.  And should be brutal.  As the air war was.

            Truthfully, after Cleven, the biggest star in the movie is the B-17 Flying Fortress.  It was the third most produced bomber in history after the B-24 Liberator and the Ju-88 (which is mentioned as attacking the “Bloody Hundredth”).  I pray B-24 veterans can tap into the homage to all bomber crews.  The B-17 is the third most famous plane from WWII (first and second being the Spitfire and the Mustang), but I doubt most viewers are familiar with it.  Everyone that watches the series will learn that it carried 10 crewmen.  That makes doing the math (or maths) is easy.  60 downed bombers meant 600 Americans either killed or captured (I think one of the threads will be covering a captured crew).  And viewers will learn that the bomber could take a beating.  Despite this, many will be going down.  There is a scene where the Yanks get into a discussion with some Brits about daylight bombing versus night bombing.  The snooty Limeys warn that the losses will be untenable.  Our boys accuse the Brits of trading safety for terrible bombing results.  This discussion was much too brief.  Hopefully, the series will return to it after some of the characters have died flying in broad daylight to bomb heavily defended targets.  It’s an issue that needs discussion. 

            Besides the actors and their characters, the other big question is how good the special effects are.  It is clearly apparent from the first two episodes that a lot of the $250 million went into visual effects.  They are amazing.  So good, that you will wonder whether they used actual B-17s for some taxiing and flight scenes.  They did create three replicas, one oversized model for interior filming (which is authentic).  The CGI is flawless.  That includes the belly landing.  We no longer need to pay a very  brave stunt pilot (Paul Mantz did it for $4,500) to crash land a Flying Fortress, like in “Twelve O'Clock High”.   The flak effects stand out.  It is those scenes that will make you wonder how anyone survived those missions.  And then you add in the fighters, which realistically whiz by in a blur.  How the heck did they ever manage to shoot any down?  And how did the gunners avoid hitting other bombers?  

            It’s too early to compare the series to the others in the trilogy.  The first two episodes set the hook.  The effects don’t disappoint.  The cast looks comfortable in their roles.  They went through a two-week boot camp with Dale Dye.  The dialogue gets the banter right.  Although there are some cliches, like the redemption for the navigator, the drinking scenes, and countingthe bombers when they return,  the series looks like it will be grounded in reality.  I saw nothing that caused me to shake my head.  I just hope viewers don’t find the series boring because it sticks to what actually happened to men like Cleven and Egan.  And I hope the series does not sugar-coat the losses.  Only one of four bomber crews reached 25 missions in 1943.  The series should be as brutal as “The Pacific”.  Here’s hoping I shed some tears.

GRADE  =  B+