Masters of the Air: Episode Discussion 3

[muccamukk]

I recently learned (because someone had checked Wikipedia, and I had not) that there will only be 9 episodes, not 10 like the other series :'(

Rules:

1. Don't be a dick. Specifically (but not limited to):


1. Not liking something is fine, and negative comments are fine. Please do not directly tell other participants why the thing they like is bad or that they are bad for liking it.


2. Kink shaming will be deleted.


3. Racism, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, misogyny, etc will be deleted.


2. Discussing material from the books is fine, but if you're going to discuss something that happens in future episodes, or the fate of historical characters, please put it under a cut and title the comment Book spoilers! or something similar.


3. Likewise, wanting to treat the show as a self-contained unit and not engage with the books/history is perfectly valid.

How to do an in-comment spoiler cut:
<details><summary>Describe what you're spoiling here</summary>All the spoilers go in this part.</details>

Comments

[muccamukk]

Only 9 episodes, and this one was 40 minutes if you take the trailers and credits out. Not sparking joy.

The fog scenes at the start were really good! I loved the atmosphere and sort of eerie lighting. The flying shot when it's all going to shit was really evocative too.

I wish we'd met the crew we're supposed to care about now a bit earlier. It seems a bit like the Band of Brothers thing where they'd give someone a few lines just to remind us they were a character who existed, right before killing them off.

RIP Curt. You were my fave.

I'm confused about Croz. I thought he was going to be promoted to a desk job? Why was he on the mission? I did like the running thing between him and Blakely (sp) though, with the goblin quiz.

Also confused about why Egan was on the mission. Because he could? Do we want to ship him with anyone from SAS Rogue Heroes, since he's over on the right continent now?

I enjoyed Cleven's commander of steel bit. I'd seen the part where they start ditching stuff already, but it was still a great section. No Engine Cleven starts to pay off.

The show is starting to show how pointless this shit was. Cheering that on.

No women with speaking roles, so all the hair was fine. Bit concerned about episode 4, which looks like it's going to be making up for this.

[partypaprika]

Alright, my thoughts:

1. We're still introducing lots of people that I'm not sure I've met. Hard to keep track of people. I did like the accent of the guy who did the briefing for the mission, who I think was nicknamed "Red"?

2. Why were so many command officers taking part? I thought the Air Exec position didn't fly (but he was flying, right?).

3. This is an "iron fortress" conversation is pure gold because I'm with Quinn. They are in a tin can that will accordion at the thought of a cow.

4. Love that they're playing the good guard lying guard game.

5. What was Bucky reading? Was it Guys and Dolls?

6. I'm getting major "The channel coast is socked in with rain and fog. High winds in the drop zone. NO JUMP TONIGHT." vibes with the fog. Aesthetically, I liked the fog and the return of MY FAVORITE CHARACTER, Meatball!

7. Do we know why the decision maker for the division didn't wait for the other task force divisions before sending them? I find this very confusing.

8. Yikes. Ok so a lot of death. Ooofff. I do not like this.

9. Quinn....poor Quinn. Poor Baby Face.

10. I'm more into this episode than the last, so the series is definitely growing on me, although I'm still not in love with it. Also, for some reason, the end emotional beat felt like an odd one to end on.

11. Did the destruction of that one factory actually cause any quantifiable injury to the German army? That seems like a lot of death and it's not clear to me if we're meant to see it as evidence that the bombing units didn't make much impact or if they did.

[wearing_tearing]

Some progress made on being able to tell people apart when they're not wearing masks! For the life of me, I can't tell who's who when they're flying. I do love their jackets :D

The visuals during the first 15min or so were fantastic! I'm a big fan of foggy settings and the scenes of them flying right after the credits were very pretty.

I am having an issue caring about the characters, though? I don't feel like I know them yet and/or have established a connection with them. This means the more dangerous/tense scenes don't have much of an impact on me. This is a big contrast with BoB and TP where we had time to get to know the characters and get invested in their arcs.

Really didn't expect Curt.

The ending was also a bit abrupt...

[sovay]

What the fuck, Curt, the little big mouth from Brooklyn isn't supposed to bite it until the last reel if at all!

(I can see that his refusal to leave Dickie even if it does kill them both is a counterpoint to the other character who abandons the tail gunner to die and also to Buck successfully landing with all engines gone, but still.)

I did like the cold equations stripping down of the shot-to-shit plane in order to make it across the water to Africa, also the guy who argues quite accurately that a B-17 would lose a head-on collision with a cow.

The pacing for this show remains extremely weird.

[copperfyre]

Coming to this a week late, but that does mean I have another episode to watch this weekend! I think I liked this episode best of the three so far; the single mission gave it a tight story, and it is astonishing to me how far these planes fly and how far they fly when they're beat to shit.

I liked all the atmospheric foggy stuff (and the return of Meatball!!!) at the beginning, though I felt like I needed some more explanation as to why they got ordered to go without the other planes. I guess just a fuckup from command and a total disregard for the loss of life (and also of materials, it's kind of wild to me that they're throwing so many planes and all their equipment away every time!) (And also lives, but given its the military that is sadly less surprising to me.)

Unfortunately the only people I can tell apart thus far are Crosby and Curt; this did mean that Curt's death did actually hit for me, unlike everyone else where I confess they're all a bit faceless nobodies to me. I really think an episode of everybody training or everybody just hanging out on the base would be helpful to establish everyone (and the latter would be interesting to delve into the weird thing about being in the air force which is you could be flying a bombing run and watching all your friends die in the morning, then safe and at a club in the evening). It is weird to me that so far Crosby is the only character who seems to have a story? Everyone else is just kind of... competent.

I think there was one woman who got a speaking line this episode, the lady in Belgium at the end. I feel like it's particularly egregious in 2024 to have just no women in your show, especially given they do have WAACs and Red Cross staff and Land Girls in the backgrounds of shots; give some of them actual roles! The show clearly realises they were present, it's just not interested in them mattering, I guess. (I'm crossing my fingers for future episodes.)