muccamukk: An orange life ring floating in the sea. (Misc: Lifering)
[personal profile] muccamukk posting in [community profile] heavyartillery
B-17 bomber aircraft resting on a runway under a sunrise sky, title card: Masters of the Air


In which we (hopefully) welcome directors Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck!

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Date: 17/02/2024 05:46 (UTC)
sovay: (Claude Rains)
From: [personal profile] sovay
I do think all those gunners etc getting shot up would be more meaningful if we had any idea who the fuck they were.

I think we were supposed to, but none of them had distinctive enough eyebrows.

I thought one of the kids was a girl, but I guess he's a boy with longer hair? Or are there different kids sometimes?

Genuinely not sure. I thought more kids showed up last time, too, but wouldn't swear to anything without a rewatch.

They actually talked about maybe bombing civilians is bad

I appreciated that the pushback came from Egan in obvious revenge mode, so that the audience would not be tipped to settle down to the idea that actually indiscriminate area bombing is fine. (Wouldn't they know about carpet bombing, even without being involved in Hamburg etc.?)

Voice over continues completely pointless.

This is obnoxiously true.

Date: 17/02/2024 20:26 (UTC)
sovay: (Claude Rains)
From: [personal profile] sovay
We see a bit more of them with Rosie's crew, but Egan's gunners idk if I've ever seen them before in my life!

Fair! I assumed I'd just failed to recognize them.

They're really failing to mention the area bombing, or mentioning it as if it's just the RAF that's doing it.

Based on the experience of the Dresden firebombing survivor my mother met in the parking lot before the last ice age, I also was expecting the question to be a factor. I will consider it sub-optimal if they just leave it out completely.

Date: 17/02/2024 19:06 (UTC)
wearing_tearing: black and white icon of a person holding a wolf mask to their face. (Default)
From: [personal profile] wearing_tearing
They actually talked about maybe bombing civilians is bad, but then the bombs were perfectly on target again.
I appreciated this little bit they decided to include and the sharp contrast of Egan going: so what this is war.

Wonder if they'll ever get around to addressing how often that wasn't the case.
RIGHT?? I'm waiting for a scene where they mess that up.

Date: 16/02/2024 05:25 (UTC)
From: [personal profile] partypaprika
I went into this episode wanting to be a lot more positive in my outlook. And honestly, this episode gave me a lot to work with.

I like that we're seeing Lemmons again. And Crosby's returned! I love getting a look at the headquarters.

I feel like the music did a great job of steadily ratcheting up the tension leading up to the mission to Munster. I'm not sure if I just wasn't paying close enough attention to it in the previous episodes, but I liked the music a lot in this episode.

I liked the flying visuals as well in this episode, especially combined with the music.

Escorts? I feel like this is the first I'm hearing of them. But interesting to know that they had escorts for some portion.

I really liked that we stayed with one ship for a good portion and then a second. I really felt the tension. I think the sound really was great (sorry to keep going on about it, but I felt like it was just so well done).

I think I had a heart attack when Hambone (?) got caught on the door. I totally freaked out. I was prepared for something really gruesome.

Ugh, I knew what was going to happen to She's gonna but it was still so sad. The end scene with the men helping to put together the personal belongings of the men who hadn't come back was very well done.

This was like the aviation equivalent of watching "And Then There were None". This was also the first episode that felt like really getting to see a dogfight. I really think that they should have extended it a little longer.

I really liked Rosenthal as a character and hope we get to follow him a bit as well.

This was a big step up. This was the episode that I really wanted for the second or third episode. It's frustrating that it came in the middle and not earlier, but I'm glad we got it.

Date: 17/02/2024 05:14 (UTC)
sovay: (Claude Rains)
From: [personal profile] sovay
I liked the flying visuals as well in this episode, especially combined with the music.

The air logistics were really crisp—I still couldn't always tell who had just been dramatically riddled with bullets or flak, but the attrition of the ships was painfully clear, even when it was happening so fast that no one had time to record anything except losses. The music this episode was great.

I was prepared for something really gruesome.

Same! Nice that it was averted, but after the close-up facefuls of shrapnel and flying glass, I wasn't taking any bets!

This was the episode that I really wanted for the second or third episode. It's frustrating that it came in the middle and not earlier, but I'm glad we got it.

Agreed. I hope the rest of the show can keep it up.

Date: 17/02/2024 19:08 (UTC)
wearing_tearing: black and white icon of a person holding a wolf mask to their face. (Default)
From: [personal profile] wearing_tearing
The end scene with the men helping to put together the personal belongings of the men who hadn't come back was very well done.
You mentioned above the music in this ep, but I also really enjoyed how they used silence here! It made it all so grim and heartbreaking, as it should be.

This was like the aviation equivalent of watching "And Then There were None".
Such an apt description.

Date: 17/02/2024 03:28 (UTC)
sovay: (Claude Rains)
From: [personal profile] sovay
"The only tree in East Anglia!"

That was like an actual hour of television with dramatic tension and emotional stakes and characters the camera could identify and follow. Crosby gets kicked upstairs to send his friends to die! Rosenthal pilots a bomber like an ace and can hum a memorable klezmer besides! Lemmons remains good with kids! The shots of the bunks and gear of all the men who won't be coming back for them are appropriately somber without being slushy. This may in fact be the first episode in some time where I can remember taking note of specific images as more than plot information: the wall of German fighters, the air full of fragments of falling B-17s. The music was also nicely welded into the clusterfuck and it wasn't all Shepard tones. What took the show so long?

Date: 17/02/2024 04:52 (UTC)
sovay: (Claude Rains)
From: [personal profile] sovay
Yes, the scene with them coming back was so sweet and funny. It was great contrast to everything going straight to hell. (Though reminds me a bit of the HBO cliche where the minute you see a character being happy about something, you know they're doomed.)

The definition of buying the farm! But unlike many previous scenes of theoretical camaraderie, it worked. I cared that they were reunited and happy. And two missions in two days is meat grinder enough already ("Aren't they supposed to rotate the squadrons?" – "Who else have they got?") and then it just gets worse. I didn't come in knowing the history of this bomber group. The scale of the wipeout was effective.

What was the klezmer song?

It was probably cheating to call it klezmer just because it's a Jewish dude on a clarinet, but the little riff that Rosie is humming during the raid is Artie Shaw's "The Chant." In its big-band form, it's a serious earworm. And I loved the character note of the humming because I couldn't tell if he was doing it out of concentration or to steady his own nerves or project reassurance to the rest of his crew, but it felt real: a human quirk. A lot of this episode felt suddenly in focus in a way that the show until then had not.

The only conclusion I have is the change in directors, but I don't have enough data to nail that down yet. The writer is the same. If it works out to be true, I may die mad about giving the A Block to Mr. Dickface.

*looks up director of first four episodes, unknown to me except by name and CV*

Jeez, yeah, potential same.
Edited Date: 17/02/2024 05:01 (UTC)

Date: 17/02/2024 19:03 (UTC)
wearing_tearing: black and white icon of a person holding a wolf mask to their face. (Default)
From: [personal profile] wearing_tearing
This isn't going to be a long comment because I was actually invested in what was going on! A much better episode all around in terms of tension, action, and continuity. There was no confusion aside from me still having a little trouble telling all the white men apart.

I loved that we got some more Lemmons with the boys! Even if his final scene was not a happy one. I also very much enjoyed Rosenthal as a character and what we saw from him here--it was very exciting to watch him pilot and the implications of his team being the only one that came back. I did tear up a little with Croz and the letter, that was really well done.

The preview for next episode also looks really interesting! Finally :D

Date: 18/02/2024 13:25 (UTC)
wearing_tearing: black and white icon of a person holding a wolf mask to their face. (Default)
From: [personal profile] wearing_tearing
and possibly not while wearing a mask flying a plane.
The novelty! We'll get to see people's faces :D

An entirely ground-based episode might be a nice change.
I think it will be a nice change! I hope it gives us time to connect more with the characters as we get to know them (and what makes them tick) a little better.

Date: 24/02/2024 22:54 (UTC)
impala_chick: (BoB || Jones and Web)
From: [personal profile] impala_chick
Finally feeling fannish this episode!! I think because Egan and Crosby's points of views solidified a lot more imo. Also the Egan bravado/pretending he's got it all under control thing has me intrigued. Egan saying he doesn't even feel it!! Not wearing the Jacket Buck hates!! Everyone walking on eggshells around him!!

Also Crosby reading Bubbles' letter literally brought me to tears, and I don't remember crying this early into BoB.

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