Masters of the Air

[Qcumber]

Thoughts so far? 

[golani79]

Having read the book I think it progresses a bit too fast.

Otherwise I like it so far and I think it will probably end up on par with BoB and Pacific for me.

CGI is quite ok as well although there are a few scenes where the quality lacks a bit but nothing too dramatic.

If you haven't read the book I strongly recommend it in addition to the show!

Looking forward to the next episodes.

[Beirut]

Made it through most of the first episode. Couldn't handle Pacific at all.

 

I think Generation Kill and Band of Brothers ruined me. They were so good with the characters I find everything else a bit weak. But I'll try to watch some more and see if it grabs me.

[Kang]

Seen an ad for it and thought: «Hey, that looks interesting.» but then the ad closed with 'exclusively on Apple TV' so I forgot about it again. (Availability might depend on your region)

[golani79]

1 hour ago, Beirut said:

Made it through most of the first episode. Couldn't handle Pacific at all.

 

I think Generation Kill and Band of Brothers ruined me. They were so good with the characters I find everything else a bit weak. But I'll try to watch some more and see if it grabs me.

You should give the Pacific another go then - some interesting character development going on. It shows how war changes people .. it is a bit different than BoB but real good on its own when you dont look at it as "BoB 2".

[LuseKofte]

Second time I watched Pacific , I think it was on par with band of brothers. But I watched BOb annually. 
Masters of the air is something different. And I like it

[golani79]

4 hours ago, LuseKofte said:

Second time I watched Pacific , I think it was on par with band of brothers. But I watched BOb annually. 
Masters of the air is something different. And I like it

I think BoB is the show I rewatched the most so far as it excellent!

The first time I watched Pacific I didnt like it as much as BoB but that changed after watching it again. It is excellent as well and since I've also rewatched it countless times same as BoB

I guess Masters of the Air will be the third show which will be rewatched again and again

Edited February 4 by golani79

[Qcumber]

Pretty much in agreement here. I rewatch BoB regularly. I have watched The Pacific once and found that a slog. It felt much more Hollywood than BoB. Many people tell me to rewatch so I will try to do that.

Masters of the Air is very good so far. I must read the book. I found that BoB book was like a user manual for the TV series. I imagine that it is the same for MotA!? 

[LuseKofte]

28 minutes ago, Qcumber said:

The Pacific once and found that a slog

I sort of did it first time too. Did not like Pacific first time.  I expected Band of brothers.  Then after watching Band of brothers some month ago I just continued with Pacific. And this time I really liked it. I do not know why. 
Masters of the sky impress me with the volume of air war stuff compared to non flying scenes. I expected a lot more non flying non combat focus. Somehow they pull this off better than twelve O’clock high

[Beirut]

5 hours ago, golani79 said:

I think BoB is the show I rewatched the most so far as it excellent!

The first time I watched Pacific I didnt like it as much as BoB but that changed after watching it again. It is excellent as well and since I've also rewatched it countless times same as BoB

I guess Masters of the Air will be the third show which will be rewatched again and again

 

 

I'll give Master of the Air another go. Pacific too later on. For the moment, burning through "Chernobyl" again, pardon the pun. An easy 9/10.

[LuseKofte]

Chernobyl is a good one, very good. But yet not tempted to watch it again. 
 

[Nealius]

Band of Brothers set the gold standard in my opinion. Pacific was good but couldn't measure up. I feel the same about Masters of the Air. 

There's a lot of nitpicks that take me out of "immersion," so to speak. The AN/M2 Brownings chugging at a Hollywood-slow rate of fire instead of the 850rpm they should be zippering at, crew opening their chutes at 20,000ft where they would go hypoxic, UFO physics, etc., but the story itself is enjoyable.

Edited February 5 by Nealius

[MAXsenna]

Seen an ad for it and thought: «Hey, that looks interesting.» but then the ad closed with 'exclusively on Apple TV' so I forgot about it again. (Availability might depend on your region)

Same here. But now I'm got reminded again, and first three eps are in da house. Might watch the first ep, but I guess I'll kinda wait until all eps are released.

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

[Rick50]

On 2/5/2024 at 2:07 AM, Nealius said:

There's a lot of nitpicks that take me out of "immersion," so to speak. The AN/M2 Brownings chugging at a Hollywood-slow rate of fire instead of the 850rpm they should be zippering at, ...

....., but the story itself is enjoyable.

 

True... that took me out of it a bit in the first and third eps. It's odd, because their set props are the aircraft 50's, with the barrel shrouds... but the sound has them using the cadence of an Army ground-use .50cal, which is deliberately much slower than the aircraft variants. Ground use has an extremely heavy steel barrel, to help with barrel stiffness when overheated, and slow to conserve rounds expended. Aircraft types had so much air cooling that the barrels were not in as much danger of overheating even when fired with high rates of fire, but also the air forces always needed high rates of fire for the one second the enemy was actually within distance and position to actually get a hit. This is something that their technical advisers ought to have caught, but ah well, lost information, and so few remaining who were in that era. 

Still, the AN/M2 apparently is listed as between 600-800 rpm, which is quite a spread... and a very cold unit, after hours at high altitude, might not cycle as quick as it would at sea level... so maybe these scenes are not as unrealistic as I first imagined them to be?

It's worth noting that by the Korean war, the AN/M3, a close evolution of the AN/M2, upped the rate of fire to around 1100 rpm, apparently partly by adding an electrical motor to help move the belt quick enough to keep up with the Browning. This was needed badly during this time, as the fighter jets meant there was much less exposure time to hit the enemy at such dramatically higher speeds. These are still used today as helicopter armaments on so many different units, mostly those for hauling troops and sailors, SF and Coasties. The latest versions have a soft recoil cradle, that makes it easier for gunners to get effective even during a burst.

As for Masters, it's pretty decent... I was not aware of some of these missions they took on. And Butler has a very different presence in this show compared to Dune -Too: The Harkonen Strikes Back... worth seeing IMO.

[golani79]

Finished the last episode on friday which honestly felt a bit long.

Overall the show was quite ok but for my taste had too many ups and downs in terms of quality. In the end it didnt really "feel like the book" but more of just stringing together multiple single events of different characters without really getting to know the characters. Some things I could not even remember from the book - maybe it has just been too long since I've read it or they took some creative liberty from time to time (If I had to guess I'd say the latter).

My rating of the single episodes goes all over the place from 6-9 .. overall I'd rate the show a 6.5/10 which in the end is quite disappointing after waiting for such a long time. Even if the average rating of the single episodes combined would give a higher score but somehow the "bigger picture" just wasnt there -.-

In the beginning I thought that it might be on par with BoB and The Pacific for me but sadly I was mistaken. Most certainly this show wont get a rewatch from me.

But I'll read the book again and I recommend the book to anyone interested over the show!

[Qcumber]

On 3/19/2024 at 8:04 PM, golani79 said:

Finished the last episode on friday which honestly felt a bit long.

Overall the show was quite ok but for my taste had too many ups and downs in terms of quality. In the end it didnt really "feel like the book" but more of just stringing together multiple single events of different characters without really getting to know the characters. Some things I could not even remember from the book - maybe it has just been too long since I've read it or they took some creative liberty from time to time (If I had to guess I'd say the latter).

My rating of the single episodes goes all over the place from 6-9 .. overall I'd rate the show a 6.5/10 which in the end is quite disappointing after waiting for such a long time. Even if the average rating of the single episodes combined would give a higher score but somehow the "bigger picture" just wasnt there -.-

In the beginning I thought that it might be on par with BoB and The Pacific for me but sadly I was mistaken. Most certainly this show wont get a rewatch from me.

But I'll read the book again and I recommend the book to anyone interested over the show!

I would agree with you there. A good summary.

BoB hooked me throughout because of the characters. MotA did not do that. A bit too much "Hollywood" and fragmented story. 

[beachkind]

Masters of the Air was good overall as an aerial warfare drama, but it lacked that essential character-driven element that made Band of Brothers so compelling.

Edited March 25 by beachkind

[Tomcatter87]

I really liked Masters of the Air - but yes, I kinda related to the characters a bit more in Band of Brothers, too. I think it's time to watch that one again...

 

[dali]

Masters of the Air is utter bull***. Bad, unconvincing CGI, american flag waving, the fact, that it is impossible to attach to any (totaly bland and unconvincing) character....after few episodes and fast forwarding the rest, I re-watched whole BoB in one night, just to wash that bollocks out of my system. And I was so looking forward this one...