DWalt
Member
I saw it started on Apple+ yesterday. Any opinions about it yet?
Masters of the Air
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I watched 2 episodes this afternoon and I liked it.
rockquarry
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I suppose I expected more as I usually do, but it's good and worth watching, at least the first two episodes.
Me too, I don't subscribe to Apple+. I saw Greyhound only because one of our kids had a subscription, which is now cancelled. It's irritating that they want everyone to spend more on their "subscriptions" to see new films. I remember a time when movies came out pretty quickly on DVD/Blu Ray because they realized that's where the money was to be made...
sigp220.45
US Veteran
I loved the first two episodes and can’t wait for the next.
The only downside for me is the presence of the annoying girl from 1883, but at least she isn’t attempting a southern accent in this one.
The only downside for me is the presence of the annoying girl from 1883, but at least she isn’t attempting a southern accent in this one.
Rammer Jammer
Member
First two episodes and they're off to a great start.
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I was expecting raptor photos...
Haven’t seen the series yet, but am almost through listening to the audio book. Amazing. I’m sure the series won’t do the book justice, but am glad we are exposing newer generations to what World War 2 was like.
Just finished the whole 9 episodes. Best telling of the Allied bombing campaign that Hollywood is capable of. I'd pay for it if'n I didn't have it. Great flying shots/special effects, gritty reality along with wins and losses. A bit of "hokum" is to be expected, sort of "Saving Pvt Ryan" in the air. Worth the "time investment." Joe
It was OK, not riveting by any means...by contrast Greyhound was great, trust Mr. Hanks. I worked with a guy that had served on a WWII sub chaser and will never forget the way he stood and walked as if he was still rolling in heavy seas. Those guys were a special breed. My boat got busted up in heavy seas during Typhoon Kate back in Nam, we lost our engines due to a cracked hull which allowed salt water to pollute our fuel. We were basically surfing doing the best we could to avoid broaching, waves were big enough for us to hit a higher hull speed in the trough than when under full power. Long story short we were firing off Maydays, a Navy destroyer was within a few miles and got within a quarter mile but could not help us as he was having a tough time on his own. Never forget the sight of the destroyer disappearing, then watch the bow knife through the wave until the full boat was in view, then disappear again into the next trough. We finally got rescued by a Korean LST that got a line across our bow on the third attempt, then towed us to safe harbor. I've got a lot of respect for blue water sailors, you see one big storm like that and I don't care how big the boat is you got your hands full.
twodog max
Member
I have seen clips of it on You Tube. It is based an the 100th Bomb Group. For those interested in real stories you can read "A Wing and a Prayer" written by Harry H. Crosby the Group Navigator of the 100th and "Damn Lucky " by Kevin Maurer about Jack Luckadoo a pilot on the 100th.
Hair Trigger
US Veteran
I haven't seen it yet, waiting to hear more about how it compares to BoB and The Pacific in terms of acting and accuracy. I know it has to have a lot of CGI ( not enough B-17's left), and I worry how well that was done to promote realism and not sensationalism. I also worry about how melodramatic it gets, would rather it hold close to how Band of Brothers was done.
As for "the presence of the annoying girl from 1883", I didn't think she was annoying at all in 1883, the entire series was focused on her. Is her character in MOTA what is annoying? She deserved an Emmy for 1883, I think.
As for "the presence of the annoying girl from 1883", I didn't think she was annoying at all in 1883, the entire series was focused on her. Is her character in MOTA what is annoying? She deserved an Emmy for 1883, I think.
Finished watching episode 9 last night. A good series, not to the level of Band of Brothers or The Pacific, but still good.
The book is, as usual, better and more detailed. Amazing what these men were able to accomplish, and incredible sacrifices were made.
We must never forget.
The book is, as usual, better and more detailed. Amazing what these men were able to accomplish, and incredible sacrifices were made.
We must never forget.
Farmer17
Member
We've seen some pretty good movies at the theater lately, The Iron Claw, Boys In Boats, Ordinary Angels, and Arthur the King. They were all pretty decent but for some reason now when I watch a series on TV I just don't get as much entertainment out of it? I'll get part way through a Masters of the Air episode then just start doing something else or go to bed.
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I was hoping for a Falcon wiping out some random swan just for the hell of it.
I thought it was a miss. There are some great moments and solid eps (the Munster raid, the beginning of the last episode, and some others) but overall it was not what I'd hoped for after ten years or so of bouncing around for development.
It seemed like they originally planned on having more eps, or longer episodes. All of the episodes except the last were well under an hour and you can see plenty of loose ends throughout the series that I'd imagine they planned on including. The aircrew getting helped back to freedom back by the French resistance, in one episode they're beginning their journey getting hassled by the germans on a train in disguise, the next they've just teleported back to the airfield. There was absolutely more that was intended to be shown. Cros' love interest plot was clearly supposed to be more involved, then abandoned. Big Week, the D-Day raids, the destruction of german fighters (even preceded by an end of episode cliffhanger about how the bombers were to be used for bait, etc), were handled off camera with some limited discussion of the aftermath.
The most egregious example was the Tuskegee airmen subplot. I really don't know what the plan there was. They had some great actors, the story is excellent (if not related to the 100th we've been following up to that point), and they got an absolutely trash treatment that really should have been given a lot more resources, removed, or given it's own show. The writing for those characters was incredibly bad ("Nooooo..." "You're gonna pay for that!", etc), the characters were given little introduction beyond the most surface level acknowledgement that racism impacted their lack of promotions and the cliched girl/job waiting for them back home.
The group was famous for their bomber escorts, and the only time that was mentioned was in the PoW camp where one prisoner says something to the effect of "Red Tails! You guys saved our ****** so many times". Instead of getting any examples of them escorting bombers (in, yaknow, a show about bombers), we get two ground attack missions in the worst CGI of the series. You get a little more of them in the PoW camp, then just nothing.
The PoW camp liberation, beyond being fictional, was also crazy. P51s hitting the machine gun towers but sparing all of the densely packed PoWs, german guards ripping MG42s into the crowds of prisoners without doing any damage, the semi-auto KAR98K in the guard tower, the running up the tower to hoist the American flag, all of that, just bonkers.
There's the bones of something really cool there, and with so much crossover from BoB/the Pacific, and the creators marketing it as a similar product, I was pretty bummed out with what we actually got.
It seemed like they originally planned on having more eps, or longer episodes. All of the episodes except the last were well under an hour and you can see plenty of loose ends throughout the series that I'd imagine they planned on including. The aircrew getting helped back to freedom back by the French resistance, in one episode they're beginning their journey getting hassled by the germans on a train in disguise, the next they've just teleported back to the airfield. There was absolutely more that was intended to be shown. Cros' love interest plot was clearly supposed to be more involved, then abandoned. Big Week, the D-Day raids, the destruction of german fighters (even preceded by an end of episode cliffhanger about how the bombers were to be used for bait, etc), were handled off camera with some limited discussion of the aftermath.
The most egregious example was the Tuskegee airmen subplot. I really don't know what the plan there was. They had some great actors, the story is excellent (if not related to the 100th we've been following up to that point), and they got an absolutely trash treatment that really should have been given a lot more resources, removed, or given it's own show. The writing for those characters was incredibly bad ("Nooooo..." "You're gonna pay for that!", etc), the characters were given little introduction beyond the most surface level acknowledgement that racism impacted their lack of promotions and the cliched girl/job waiting for them back home.
The group was famous for their bomber escorts, and the only time that was mentioned was in the PoW camp where one prisoner says something to the effect of "Red Tails! You guys saved our ****** so many times". Instead of getting any examples of them escorting bombers (in, yaknow, a show about bombers), we get two ground attack missions in the worst CGI of the series. You get a little more of them in the PoW camp, then just nothing.
The PoW camp liberation, beyond being fictional, was also crazy. P51s hitting the machine gun towers but sparing all of the densely packed PoWs, german guards ripping MG42s into the crowds of prisoners without doing any damage, the semi-auto KAR98K in the guard tower, the running up the tower to hoist the American flag, all of that, just bonkers.
There's the bones of something really cool there, and with so much crossover from BoB/the Pacific, and the creators marketing it as a similar product, I was pretty bummed out with what we actually got.
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The USAAF had the highest casualties of US forces in WWII. Find and read “ The Fall of Fortress” and you will get the real story of 8th AAF bombers.
I watched all of it, and then the documentary “The Bloody 100th”. I thought it was pretty good. To me it was the best representation of the B-17 campaign over Europe I’ve seen to date, but I’m no subject matter expert, by any means. I learned quite a bit about the history of the 100th and the 8th Air Force. I didn’t realize they had the highest percentage of the force killed compared to many other high attrition WWII combat roles. The effects were good and depicted well what they had to endure, even though you could tell most of it was CGI. I didn’t care for some of the subplots as others also pointed out. The Tuskegee Airmen portions seemed hastily cobbled together and didn’t do justice to their role in the fight. Likewise the death camps. They should have just left that part out if they couldn’t go into greater detail and spend more time with the story line. I didn’t like the part where the married Croz takes up with the Subaltern. I guess that actually happened, or they wouldn’t have included it, but I have to admit, I didn’t look at Croz in the same light as before, despite his heroism. It was even more awkward when they interview the actual Croz in the documentary. I do like the fact that it follows the same genre as BoB and The Pacific in that it depicts actual living heroes and their historical exploits. I wonder how much was embellishment for the sake of entertainment, though. All in all, it was good, but not in the same league as BoB or The Pacific. I just rewatched BoB a few weeks ago and it set the bar pretty high. I’ll grade them in order…BoB, The Pacific, then Masters of the Air. I will say it held my interest and with each passing week, I really looked forward to Fridays and new episodes. We must never forget The Greatest Generation and their sacrifices for our freedom. I think this story will enlighten a lot of people that only have a peripheral understanding of actual events.
Movie critiquing aside, I am pleased to see the WW2 generation and their collective accomplishments revisited in our current times. Younger people who, like many of us, did not have the privilege of knowing family members and/or neighbors who served in WW2 will hopefully be awakened to important events that aren't addressed in schools.
