After the first couple episodes I was pretty hesitant to continue with the series. It felt like a poorly hashed out, over dramatized Band of Brothers, which is one of the best shows of all time. So, the bar was high, sure, but not so that you couldn't tell a similar, respectable story about the American airmen of WWII, but it didn't really feel too much like that, not until the final half of the show. The pacing of the entire series does feel a bit odd, however, as the Americans were only in the war for a few years (and, yes, much to the point of a lot of these reviews, slandered the Brits who were fighting much longer, in an unnecessary exchange that was meant to develop characters which felt like getting soggy wet bread thrown in your face) so, we jump through time quite a bit (around 3 years in 9 episodes) with little indication that time has progressed by months at a time, until we end up in late 1944/early 1945 in the final episode, at which point the timeline becomes less convoluted but also less consistent with the rest of the show's pacing. Which is important, and which its predecessor succeeded at marvelously, because this is a historical drama with real events and real people that can't be conflated with nonsensical fictional musings else it completely removes the media from any sincerity it might have had. Which was the case in some of the earlier episodes, but as the story progressed and the notion that quite a few of these characters that are being played up as important suddenly vanish for perhaps good, lends itself to the reality of war. Which is where war films are at their inherent best, because war is bad and playing it up as some sort of glamorous and heroic endeavor is abjectly antithetical to the reality these types of shows and movies aim to capture. This is simple stuff, so it shouldn't even be mentioned, especially over 20 years after Band of Brothers and over 50 years (90 since the original original) after All Quiet on the Western Front demonstrated what it means to tell these stories honestly. Ultimately, I feel this show did accomplish that feat, but it wasn't until the latter half that it really honed in on the realism and avoided the tedious, fabricated melodrama that riddle Apple TV shows. I feel like this series is worth the watch, it definitely takes its time getting there, but it succeeds, and succeeds well when it does. 7.5/10.
Review of Masters of the Air
