Masters of the Air

Starring: Callum Turner (9 episodes), Austin Butler (9 episodes), Anthony Boyle (9 episodes), Darragh Cowley (9 episodes), Matt Gavan (9 episodes), Jonas Moore (9 episodes), David Shields (8 episodes), Ben Radcliffe (8 episodes), Jordan Coulson (8 episodes), Stephen Campbell Moore (8 episodes), Adam Long (7 episodes), Elliott Warren (7 episodes), Edward Ashley (7 episodes), Rafferty Law (7 episodes), Nate Mann (6 episodes), Samuel Jordan (6 episodes), Kai Alexander (5 episodes), Bailey Brook (5 episodes), Harry Ames (5 episodes), Adam Silver (4 episodes), Barry Keoghan (3 episodes), Bel Powley (3 episodes), Josiah Cross (2 episodes), Ben Dilloway (2 episodes), Isabel May (1 episode)
Directed by: Cary Joji Fukunaga (4 episodes), Anna Boden (2 episodes), Ryan Fleck (2 episodes), Dee Rees (2 episodes), Timothy Van Patten (1 episode)
Rating: TV-MA
Genre: Action, Drama, War
2024

Seasons Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: During World War II, American bombers face grave dangers over the skies of Europe.

Review:
Tim: I feel like I've been waiting like a decade for Masters of the Air. Band of Brothers is one of the all-time great miniseries, and I might have loved The Pacific even more- that series felt so personal and emotional. So, I couldn't wait for another companion series. After two miniseries that are among the best ever crafted, Masters of the Air is... good. I suppose we should always celebrate good television, but it's hard not to feel disappointed. This series is far, far beneath the first two in every metric of quality. I liked it, but I never cared about it. I'm a bit stunned that the miniseries wasn't better.

After tackling the European and Pacific theaters, it made a lot of sense to put the spotlight on the airmen who flew over the skies of Europe, in a totally different kind of battle. The visuals are impressive and I genuinely loved many of the flying sequences. They were fraught with danger, interest, compelling, held our attention. It does feel like we get too few of these as the series progresses. For a story about pilots, the characters spend so much time on the ground. This doesn't help once some of them get captured and moved to P.O.W. camps.

Now, I recognize this series is based on a book that recounts true events. I'm not suggesting the series should have told a fictional story. I think (based on this series alone, I haven't read the book) that Donald L. Miller's book was perhaps not the right source for a series like this. I'm not entirely sure what was so great or fascinating about any of the events we see depicted on screen. The series focuses on many characters, but it prioritizes Bucky and Buck, which is kind of a terrible set up for two main characters. Again, I know it's based on real life, but this aspect of the series didn't really work. The episodes pick up steam once the focus shifts away from them- to an extent. As a few supporting characters emerge as even more interesting than these two, the series takes on a weird quality- it gets better, but it also makes the earlier episodes feel worse. This creates an experience far less than desirable. I felt like getting through all 9 episodes of this series was a slog. Outside of the maybe the first two episodes, I lost my excitement. I kept watching because I wanted to finish the series, but each new episode was greeted with hesitancy. I hoped it would get great- but it never does.

The cast felt odd to me. There weren't the same level of standouts in the earlier series. I'm not a huge fan of Callum Turner. He's a continuously overrated actor. His smarmy shtick grows old so quickly. It was bizarre to cast him in arguably the lead role. He gives a fine performance- he's not an awful actor- but his whole demeanor is above and separate from those around him. I never believed his friendships, never felt the camaraderie. Turner is absolutely the wrong choice for a role like this. He gives it his all- the effort was absolutely there, and I'm sure some will see this and praise his performance. It was fine, never especially good. I don't think this series would have been great with someone else in the role of Bucky (and I had to look up which one he was), but it would have been better. Austin Butler is definitely better as Buck. He at least has the ability to connect with the audience, to show emotional vulnerability to make you more interested in his character. The way he was leveraged across the episodes absolutely floored me. The series makes some choices with his character that were so unbelievably stupid. I think I need to address this, so if you haven't seen the series, MAJOR SPOILER WARNING. After several episodes where he's the most interesting character, he basically disappears. No one knows if he's alive or dead, and the series leaves it open ended. I couldn't believe they would kill off Austin Butler, but again, true story- so who knows. The series unnecessarily creates this big question and takes its time answering it. Those were some of the worst episodes of the whole miniseries. It was so hard to focus on anything else- are we going to see Butler again or not? It was just a terrible writing decision. Besides all that, Butler is at least good and he does work well with Turner. I didn't especially care about these characters, but they were generally okay.

The supporting cast does help the series. Nate Mann was the shockingly good, most pleasant surprise. His performance as Rosie was my favorite of the series. He gives a wildly effective performance- he makes you care about his character. I genuinely wanted him to live and I was nervous whenever he'd go into combat. I never really felt that about Turner and Butler. I wanted Butler around because the actor was one of the more interesting things in the show, but I never cared about Bucky or Buck. I cared about Rosie, and a lot of that had to do with Mann's tremendous performance. He was the best part of this series and I suspect we'll see a lot more from Mann in the future. Thank goodness for him, because he saved the series for me. We also get a ton of time with Anthony Boyle. His performance is fine, and the series devotes so much time to Harry that yes, we eventually care about him. I never really loved his character, but in the absence of great, relatable characters, we had to make due. I thought Boyle was solid and he does grow on us as the series progresses. He might not have been great, but his endearing portrayal does eventually connect. The rest of the cast is mostly fine, if mostly unremarkable. I always enjoy a supporting performance from Barry Keoghan, so that was a plus for the series. Kai Alexander had some nice moments, although I honestly can't remember his storyline well. The series randomly swings onto the Tuskegee Airmen late in the series. I loved their inclusion from a diversity standpoint, but it felt like they were added too late and don't get enough screen time. Josiah Cross gives a strong performance, but they only get to appear in 2 episodes, which felt badly managed. The series definitely could have used more women. Bel Powley gives a great performance and makes us interested in her character. She only appears in 3 episodes. I loved seeing Isabel May here, but her strong performance in limited to just the first episode. As a whole, the cast was okay, but besides Mann's standout performance, it left a lot to be desired.

I know I've mostly seemed critical about Masters of the Air. This is a good miniseries. It tells a true story about brave men and women, fighting for freedom in one of the great conflicts in human history. It puts us in the cockpit with tremendously brave men who leveraged a still fairly new technology to wage war in the skies. That's stunning, incredible, worthy of our time and attention. Yes, I wish the human drama was better. The story could have been significantly stronger, while still telling the true story of these people. The visuals are strong, the music was excellent. In comparison to most series out there, there's so much to like and praise about Masters of the Air. I acknowledge that. However, following two of the all-time classic miniseries, you just have to wonder why this one failed to reach similar heights.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: N/A



If You Enjoyed This Series, We Recommend: Band of Brothers, The Pacific, 1883, Chernobyl