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In which we (hopefully) welcome directors Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck!
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Book spoilers!
or something similar. - 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:
no subject
Date: 16/02/2024 03:12 (UTC)The subplot with Bubbles and Croz was appropriately gutting, ditto Rosie's ship being the only survivor.
The music in the key of "well, we're fucked" as they were leaving worked for me.
I was thinking the other day that the only NCOs we're really gotten to know are Lemmons, and the two guys on the run last episode, who I'm not sure we'll see again. HBO War shows tend to be a lot more about EMs and NCOs, at least as much if not more than officers, so this show's a bit of an oddity. I do think all those gunners etc getting shot up would be more meaningful if we had any idea who the fuck they were.
Sad lack of Meatball, but nice bit with Lemmons and the kids. 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?
They actually talked about maybe bombing civilians is bad, but then the bombs were perfectly on target again. Wonder if they'll ever get around to addressing how often that wasn't the case.
Voice over continues completely pointless.
no subject
Date: 17/02/2024 05:46 (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 17/02/2024 17:33 (UTC)They're really failing to mention the area bombing, or mentioning it as if it's just the RAF that's doing it. Which, to be honest, is kind of what I was expecting to not like about this show, rather than not liking that the first four episodes were technically Not Very Good.
no subject
Date: 17/02/2024 20:26 (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 17/02/2024 20:33 (UTC)Dresden was in the book, in quite a bit of detail, so there's that at least. The show's up to October 1943, so far, and Dresden was February '45. We saw a brief clip of D-Day in the opening credits, so they're at least getting to summer '44?
no subject
Date: 17/02/2024 19:06 (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 16/02/2024 05:25 (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 16/02/2024 15:45 (UTC)LOVED the music this episode.
The escorts were a whole thing. I'm going from slightly elderly memories, but the feeling was that with so many guns, the b-17s wouldn't NEED fighter escorts since they'd be able to look after themselves (and the RAF was flying at night), so the AAF didn't bother developing any with a longer range. Multiple people warned them that this was going to be a fucking disaster, and it was. After the mission in Part 3, the higher ups put a rush on a long-range fighter (I think the p-51?), but by Part 5, they weren't coming off the line in high enough numbers to do any good.
Also like Rosie!
no subject
Date: 17/02/2024 05:14 (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 17/02/2024 19:08 (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 17/02/2024 03:28 (UTC)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?
no subject
Date: 17/02/2024 04:40 (UTC)What was the klezmer song?
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.
no subject
Date: 17/02/2024 04:52 (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 17/02/2024 19:03 (UTC)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
no subject
Date: 17/02/2024 20:35 (UTC)no subject
Date: 18/02/2024 13:25 (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 24/02/2024 22:54 (UTC)Also Crosby reading Bubbles' letter literally brought me to tears, and I don't remember crying this early into BoB.
no subject
Date: 24/02/2024 23:27 (UTC)That scene at the end is so tragic. You know it's coming, and yet... grate use of Chekov's letter.