Masters of the Air: Is the Apple TV+ War Series Worth Watching? Watch it or Skip It
The story of Masters of the Air takes place during World War II and follows a group of pilots who confront the German army from a “flying fortress”. This is not a documentary or a simple story of wars and battles, it is also a story of camaraderie, of how war marks the lives of those who participate in it and are its witnesses, about the errors that are seen on the battlefield and the conditions that soldiers face while carrying out their missions. The series is a production of Apple TV+. This platform has just received several Oscar nominations thanks to Killers of the Flower Moon and is characterized by a relatively small, but powerful catalog. In addition, the series is part of a larger universe, which includes one of the best war series of all time, and has a cast full of familiar faces and popular actors, those are some reasons why you have to give it a chance.
Masters of the Air: Is the Apple TV+ War Series Worth Watching?
It’s not easy to impress me, but I’m impressed. The quality of Masters of the Air, even just from the point of view of staging and special effects, is impressive. Already in the first air battle, you can see the machine gun shells jumping away when hit by the light. More unique than rare details. But there is also more. If you’ve seen Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, and The Pacific, you already know what I’m talking about war. The real war. War with all its horror. For the first time, we see what happens inside the cabins of B-17s when enemy machine guns strike. We see the blood. We see the flesh torn away. We see the pain. We see the fire and hear the screams. All the monstrosity of war, and in particular of the Second World War in the air combat against Nazi Germany, emerges from the first episode of this extraordinary series.
It Is a True Story
Masters of the Air tells a true story of World War II, the series is based on the book by Donald L. Miller and tells the story of the 100th Bomb Group, better known as Bloody Hundreth, which was a group of pilots who had the task of bombing the Nazis from the sky to try to stop their advance. The group was made up of hundreds of pilots who faced terrible conditions, fear, high altitude, loss of teammates, and much more during their time in the war. Masters of the Air focuses on a few men and shows some of the most important things they experienced during their time in the Bloody Hundredth. The series also seeks to show the psychological weight that the war had on these men and how their lives were transformed by what they experienced, turning them into battle brothers and leaving physical and emotional wounds in each one.
A Great Cast
The series features some of the most important actors of the moment. The story is led by Austin Butler (Elvis, The Dead Don’t Die, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), who plays Buck Cleven, Callum Turner (Emma., Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore), who plays Bucky Egan, and Barry Keoghan (Saltburn, The Banshees of Inisherin, The Batman), who plays Curtis Biddick. The cast also includes Anthony Boyle, Rafferty Law, Elliot Warren, and David Shields, who are part of the bomber group.
The Team Behind the Series?
In addition to having great actors, the series has a great team of creatives who helped bring the project to life and make it a reality. Its directors include Cary Joji Fukunaga, director of No Time to Die, True Detective, and Maniac, while Band of Brothers’ John Orloff is one of its writers. Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg are the producers, and True Detective’s Adam Arkapaw was one of the cinematographers, so this is a huge production.
It is Part of a Trilogy
Masters of the Air is a miniseries you can watch on your own, but it’s part of a trilogy. The series comes from the same creators and takes place in the same universe and is parallel to the stories of Band of Brothers, which is one of the best HBO series and one of the best war stories of all time, and The Pacific, which was the continuation. Each series tells a different story, but they all have something in common, which is the fact that they seek to demonstrate the human cost of war, the destruction, chaos, fear, and losses that occurred in the different battles of the Second World War.
A Great Production
This is a series made with care, the photography is brutal, the costumes are impressive, the music is extraordinary, and the scenarios leave you speechless and show you what life was like aboard the flying fortresses that flew over the battlefield in search of Nazis who were to be bombed. There is great attention to detail, and everything is there to give an epic and grandiose tone to the story. There is a lot to see and analyze in this series and it could certainly take home some awards for its cinematography, costumes, and performances.
The Brotherhood of Band of Brothers, The Realism of The Pacific, The Horror of Saving Private Ryan
The award-winning Spielberg-Hanks company, drawing on its previous experience, combines these three elements: the feeling of the brotherhood of Band of Brothers, the series that set the tone not only on TV but also in cinema; realism, with the accuracy in the reconstruction of environments, costumes and above all equipment that we have already seen in The Pacific, another excellent product; and the horror of the war that Saving Private Ryan put before our eyes on D-Day, the day of the Normandy landings, and in the battles that followed, without sparing us details. War is all this, the Second World War – thanks to testimonies such as that of the aviator author of the Masters of the Air book – was this, and much more.
We will see it in Masters of the Air, a production that reconstructs true stories, real battles, and truly applied war strategies – like the American and English ones, opposed, which make us reflect on which is the most effective approach but also which costs the least. lives of those who lead it. The B-17 heavy bombers flown by the protagonists, with their entire crew, were called “the fortresses” due to the presence of machine guns on each side. They were massive planes, but after each flight, they returned to base having escaped a battle at 8000 meters above sea level, and were put back together to the best of their ability by those who worked all night to make them fit to fly again. The Fortresses whose pilots, despite the dangers, couldn’t wait to get back into the air.
In war there is everything, fear but also heroism. The spirit of sacrifice and nightmares, anger and pain. Masters of the Air makes its mark for this, as well as for the most realistic and impressive aerial combat seen so far. With a budget of over 250 million dollars, it is one of the most expensive TV series of all time, but it is clear from the first moment that the money was spent in the best way. Whether you’re a fan of war movies or history, watch Masters of the Air. Or you will miss something unique, extraordinary, and unmissable.
