Masters of the Air • Miniseries
Masters of the Air
TV-MA
85%73%
During World War II, five miles above the ground and behind enemy lines, ten men inside an aluminum bomber known as a "Flying Fortress" battle antiaircraft fire and unrelenting flocks of German fighters.
Robert Clarke reviewedApril 28, 2025
I finally got around to watching "Masters of the Air" after all the hype. It's... decent enough, I suppose. Not terrible by any means, but definitely not hitting the heights of "Band of Brothers" or even "The Pacific."
The aerial combat scenes are genuinely impressive - they've clearly spent a fortune on the special effects, and it shows. Those moments when you're up in the sky with the bombers facing flak and enemy fighters? Pretty gripping stuff.
But then there's the characters. God, I kept mixing them up. They all sort of blend together after a while - young, earnest American airmen with similar haircuts and similar problems. I found myself struggling to remember who was who several episodes in, which wasn't an issue I had with the previous two shows in this unofficial trilogy.
And I couldn't help but notice that actor who plays Buck (not Bucky - I made that mistake too). When he's wearing his flying hat, he looks bizarrely like Prince William. Once I noticed it, I couldn't unsee it! Kept expecting him to make royal proclamations between bombing runs.
The show does capture the psychological toll of bomber missions quite well. The odds these guys faced were absolutely horrific, and the series doesn't shy away from showing how that affected them. That part felt honest and well-handled.
Overall, it's a perfectly watchable war drama with some standout moments, but it lacks the emotional punch and character development that made "Band of Brothers" so special. I'd say it's worth watching if you're a WWII buff or have already gone through the better shows in this genre. Probably a 6.5/10 - good enough to finish, not good enough to rave about to friends.