Image Credit: Apple TV+
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, where I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Austin Butler and Callum Turner take to the skies. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite and Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite
When you’ve already produced such shows as Band of Brothers and The Pacific, you could be forgiven for crumbling under the pressure to follow those two (particularly the former). But when you’re Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, I suppose you’re used to a certain amount of pressure on the entertainment front.
In reality, they’re just the big names getting this sort of show off the tarmac. The actual showrunner of Masters Of The Air is John Orloff, who adapts Donald L. Miller’s non-fiction book of the same name.
A return to the World War II theatre of conflict that the previous two series mined so much drama from, Masters Of The Air follows the men of the 100th Bomb Group (the “Bloody Hundredth”) as they conduct perilous bombing raids over Nazi Germany and grapple with the frigid conditions, lack of oxygen and sheer terror of combat conducted at 25,000 feet in the air. Some were shot down and captured; some were wounded or killed. And some were lucky enough to make it home. You can imagine the psychological and physical toll.
The series can be a little scattershot, and the storylines don’t always hit their targets. You may find yourself wondering if you’re in a time loop in the early going as the initial missions all follow a similar pattern of crews heading out on bombing sorties and running into heavy anti-aircraft fire and attacks from the Luftwaffe.
But as the story starts to jump elsewhere –– some crews are sent on retreats to help them recover, others are forced to survive behind enemy lines after being shot down –– that feeling goes away, replaced by a slight frustration at the lack of focus beyond Turner and Butler’s characters (though there is an excellent late-turn run by Anthony Boyle as Lt. Harry Crosby, who also serves as the show’s narrator.
Performance-wise, the cast is mostly pretty spot-on. Boyle, as mentioned, is fantastic, Barry Keoghan has a relatively small role as one of the airmen, and is naturally good. Butler and Turner both bring what they need to the roles, and they’re compelling enough. The biggest crime of the show is the tiny amount of time given to the Tuskegee Airmen, including Ncuti Gatwa as, 2nd Lt. Robert H. Daniels. They’re all but wasted in a small chunk of the show, and chances are you’ll wish the creative team instead gave them their own spin-off series and a chance to be properly realised. And, as you might expect, there aren’t a lot of gratifying roles for women, though Bel Powley brings typical charm and power to British intelligence officer Alexandra Wingate.
That said, there is plenty to recommend about the show, which brings the same spectacular production value and solid ensemble you’d expect from the team behind Band Of Brothers and The Pacific (though this Apple production never quite reaches the highs of either of the HBO shows). And don’t write it off as “Dad TV” (i.e., the sort of show your dad might love to watch); it’s got much wider appeal than that.
The first two episodes of Masters Of The Air are on Apple TV+ now. Episodes will launch weekly on Fridays through 15 March. I’ve seen the whole season.