Masters of the Air (Band of Brothers sequel)
- Thread starter The Terminator
- Start date
100% agree. I think narratively it was much sloppier then BoB. They could have easily filled the 10 episodes just on Sledge's account, and you would have had a much sharper, focused series.
I love the Pacific and its ambition, but I think it does suffer from some over-indulgence in regards to its writing and the areas it covered (scenes on home leave for example)
Great to see the Tuskegee flyers in there too
I've mentioned it before in other threads, but my grandfather was in the USAAF at the airfield at Foggia, Italy. They had some Tuskegee airmen land there while escorting a damaged bomber. My grandpa was on the fire/crash crews so they assisted the crew and he said they were saying stuff like "They were colored pilots! Can you believe that?" and he was like "Yeah that makes sense to me, why not." So he was the first person I had heard about them from when I got interested in WW2 and he said to go read about them as one suggestion.
joberg
Legendary Member
onderon
Sr Member
Wow this was so long in the making that the thread was made in 2014? I did not know. A really great show by the way. Maybe not as good as Band of Brothers was, but very close to it. Really good to see the new generation of actors having their time making this. I already see the new Sean Penn the new Val Kilmer the new Tommy Lee Jones. The new Jude Law!
The new Jude Law!
Lord Boron
Sr Member
Great first two episodes! I would put it on par with Band of Brothers so far But I’m probably more biased because of the aviation angle. We’ll see how the rest plays out but can’t wait for the next episode.
The only historical beef I have with this series is this question: where is the RAF? Anybody?
The American came in '43 and it seems that the series is showing them acting alone in Europe...sure
I forget which year, but the RAF generally stopped daylight bombing, so I don't think you'd ever see the bombers together. I'm not sure if RAF fighters ever escorted American bombers either. I'd love to see Spielberg/Hanks do a RAF or British paratrooper series! That's one reason I love The Longest Day because it skips around to different nations' units.
VanPersie
Well-Known Member
Haven’t you seen all the 100% historically accurate films/series over the years that show that nobody did anything before the USA showed up…..The only historical beef I have with this series is this question: where is the RAF? Anybody?
The American came in '43 and it seems that the series is showing them acting alone in Europe...sure
Joking aside, this to me is not a patch on B of B. It’s not bad per se, but it does suffer from the real men it portrays not really being around like they were before.
Metaluna mutant
Sr Member
Well…
I watched the first two episodes.
These actors look like kids putting on their fathers’ uniforms and “playing soldier”; I’m sorry…(Particularly Butler. As a tangent, I understand that he is an actor born in Anaheim, CA who has seemingly adopted what sounds like a meandering southern drawl that is equal parts Harry Connick, Jr.’s New Orleans sound and Matthew McConaughey’s South Texas sound. Strangely, he has brought this affectation into a role portraying a character from Wyoming. I can say with authority that people living in the larger Rocky Mountain Region don’t speak with a drawl and it’s a bit distracting.)
Legendary singing drunk “punch me in the face so that I know I can still feel something” Best Friend Guy, who is “too good at holding the stick to be stuck behind a desk” and highly disrespectful of authority…but grudgingly tolerated by those above him, of course…is the cliche of all cliches…
Will he be treating us all to a slurring, drunken version of “Oh Danny Boy…” followed by fisticuffs with an RAF pilot in a future episode? If I were a betting man…
A lot of cliches in the first few episodes and it hasn’t really pulled me in, yet.
I watched the first two episodes.
These actors look like kids putting on their fathers’ uniforms and “playing soldier”; I’m sorry…(Particularly Butler. As a tangent, I understand that he is an actor born in Anaheim, CA who has seemingly adopted what sounds like a meandering southern drawl that is equal parts Harry Connick, Jr.’s New Orleans sound and Matthew McConaughey’s South Texas sound. Strangely, he has brought this affectation into a role portraying a character from Wyoming. I can say with authority that people living in the larger Rocky Mountain Region don’t speak with a drawl and it’s a bit distracting.)
Legendary singing drunk “punch me in the face so that I know I can still feel something” Best Friend Guy, who is “too good at holding the stick to be stuck behind a desk” and highly disrespectful of authority…but grudgingly tolerated by those above him, of course…is the cliche of all cliches…
Will he be treating us all to a slurring, drunken version of “Oh Danny Boy…” followed by fisticuffs with an RAF pilot in a future episode? If I were a betting man…
A lot of cliches in the first few episodes and it hasn’t really pulled me in, yet.
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Pretty much right on-target (In particular, Glenn Miller is now the soundtrack of WWII films like Creedence Clearwater Revival is the soundtrack to Vietnam films.)
I would add, “loses lucky rabbit’s foot / lucky charm / lucky flask / picture of the ‘lucky dame’ before the big mission”…
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onderon
Sr Member
I
I am not sure what do you mean by they look like kids. Buck was 25 in 1943, Bucky was 28. If you Google them, you can find a lot of information. Just watch out because there will be spoilers My opinion is that they look exactly how they have to. Real Bucky even looks younger than the actor who plays him.
I am not sure what do you mean by they look like kids. Buck was 25 in 1943, Bucky was 28. If you Google them, you can find a lot of information. Just watch out because there will be spoilers
My opinion is that they look exactly how they have to. Real Bucky even looks younger than the actor who plays him.
Lord Boron
Sr Member
The average age of a B17 pilot in WW2 was between 20-25, and gunner crews usually younger, so I’m not sure what you were expecting.
joberg
Legendary Member
Exactly; those were young people going to war and doing what had to be done. Average age for a G.I. was 26 years old. Pilots were, on average younger: 20-22; 25 was considered "old".
Solo4114
Master Member
I've heard that the show is a little uneven getting off the ground. I suspect it'll be a better experience binged than watched one episode at a time. When Band of Brothers came out, I watched it weekly. When the Pacific came out...I skipped it and only ended up watching it this year, when I binged it. I'm glad I did, too. The narrative flow for that one was a lot more haphazard and uneven, but on a binge rather than week-to-week it was a lot more tolerable and allowed the piece to speak as a whole instead of as individual episodes. On the whole, I loved The Pacific. As individual episodes, far less so.
But the way I see it, with these shows, it's like reading a novel. Yeah, maybe this or that chapter is a little slow and unsatisfying, but when it's done you evaluate the work as a whole, not like "Well, the book was awesome, but Chapter 4 was a little wordy, and then Chapter 7 just wasn't as good as the rest."
But the way I see it, with these shows, it's like reading a novel. Yeah, maybe this or that chapter is a little slow and unsatisfying, but when it's done you evaluate the work as a whole, not like "Well, the book was awesome, but Chapter 4 was a little wordy, and then Chapter 7 just wasn't as good as the rest."
G W Zipper
Well-Known Member
The airplane stuff has been fantastic so far.
Flying - I imagine a lot of this is done with CGI. I'm just super impressed that they seem to have gotten all of the flight dynamics right. So often these things turn into video games, as real WW2 aircraft weren't maneuverable enough to be so-called "exciting" for modern viewers. These airplanes fly right for the era. In ep1, they even got the wheels-up landing correct, where the belly turret was ejected before landing. Superb.
On the ground, external - I am puzzled where the props end and where CGI begins. These things are spectacular. On the one hand, I'm totally convinced the bombers that these boys are crawling around and over are real, but on the other hand they're being treated far too roughly to be actual WW2 artifacts. The battle damage here is spectacular.
Internal - I know these are sets, but the sheet metal work on the aircraft interiors, for being reproductions, is just top-notch. There's simply no faking this. I'm totally convinced some set designer got blueprints from Boeing and just started bucking rivets. I wouldn't be surprised that these prop makers have created nearly flightworthy pieces.
I really, really want to see a "making of" reel when this is all done.
Flying - I imagine a lot of this is done with CGI. I'm just super impressed that they seem to have gotten all of the flight dynamics right. So often these things turn into video games, as real WW2 aircraft weren't maneuverable enough to be so-called "exciting" for modern viewers. These airplanes fly right for the era. In ep1, they even got the wheels-up landing correct, where the belly turret was ejected before landing. Superb.
On the ground, external - I am puzzled where the props end and where CGI begins. These things are spectacular. On the one hand, I'm totally convinced the bombers that these boys are crawling around and over are real, but on the other hand they're being treated far too roughly to be actual WW2 artifacts. The battle damage here is spectacular.
Internal - I know these are sets, but the sheet metal work on the aircraft interiors, for being reproductions, is just top-notch. There's simply no faking this. I'm totally convinced some set designer got blueprints from Boeing and just started bucking rivets. I wouldn't be surprised that these prop makers have created nearly flightworthy pieces.
I really, really want to see a "making of" reel when this is all done.
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