Masters of the Air: Episode Discussion 7

[muccamukk]

In which we welcome director Dee Rees, and embrace our boys in shabby chic.

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]

Well. I've lost the will to live.

Um... I liked Cleven building the radio and Rosie deciding to stay.

That's all I got.

Oh, Cleven's scarf is a good look, and Rosie's hair continues on point.

[partypaprika]

My thoughts about the episode:

Shabby chic is right haha. Lots of shabby chic.

THEY KILLED THE CAT??? Ok, that is where I draw the line.

When they showed everyone around the table as Buck listened the radio, my thought was "Wait! I want to know how they're listening to the radio?" It was so gratifying to later watch it get built even as I realized that I understand nothing mechanical.

They didn't really focus on Jewish POWs aside from the brief comment, but I read an interesting article about the treatment of Jewish POWs the other day here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0964663920946468

Quinn! You've returned! I'm glad we got to see you. Although anti-climatic? A real hi and goodbye with no info of how that return was accomplished.

I'm getting real James Garner vibes from Bucky about scrounging things up.

What prompted the raid on Berlin when they hadn't previously been bombing it? Was it all circling back to what the new CO said at the end of the mission, that it was as bait for the P-51s?

I wish we had seen more of the raids, instead of just the one. I also liked getting to see about the P-51s, although I wish we had gotten more information on them. The fight with the P-51s was very interesting to watch.

Wait? So Crosby and Sandra did end up having an affair? Man, I am disappointed.

I wish we'd seen more regarding the British attempt at escape.

I think that Rosie is my favorite character. Oooff, that scene with the new CO about being used at bait.

Next week's episode looks exciting!

[muccamukk]

I refuse to acknowledge that they ate the cat. The cat is fine. LALALALA.

Thanks for the essay on Jewish PoWs, very interesting. I'd read quite a bit about what happened to the 106th Infantry Division after the Battle of the Bulge (they were very green, and the majority of them ended up as PoWs, including Kurt Vonnegut) for research into that Babe/Julian fic, and ran into Jewish PoWs swapping or ditching their dog tags, and sometimes being sent to labour camps like Berga. (At one point, the German officers threatened to execute the Jewish prisoners, and everyone in the camp did the I Am Spartacus thing and protected them.)

I'm very fond of the MacGyvering the radio scenes. A+ Hogan's Heroes vibes. I'm kind of

It was nice to see Quinn making it back, but a) I wanted to see more of their escape, especially as the French/Belgian resistance ladies are the only ones in the show aren't there to be fuckable, b) I felt like just having the narration go "they were back, we were glad to see them, they got to go home, yay" drained all of the drama out of them. Compare to the scene towards the end of Red Tails, for example. Couldn't we at least have had a scene where people are happy/surprised to see them and then hugging? But I throw the narrator in a fucking loch for most of this episode. This was another 40-minute episode, and it felt like there were so many scenes we could've been shown not just had summarised, with little to no extra filming expense. Like ten minutes of GETTING TO SEE STUFF HAPPEN BECAUSE THIS IS A TV SHOW! A VISUAL MEDIUM! rather than just being told about it would've made huge difference. I'm not even blaming Dee Rees; no one could've saved this script.

I did like seeing the P-51s, and wish there'd been a longer shot of the chaotic dogfight over Berlin. (I think they started bombing Berlin because they could get to it! Previously, it was just too well defended? But may be wrong on that.) I'm glad we're getting more P-51s next week.

I'm bitterly fucking disappointed in the plot with Croz and Sandra (maybe this is why they changed her name). WTF, Writers! No one wanted that! Why'd they have to go and ruin my favourite part of the show?

Rosie is also my fave!

[kore]

THEY ATE A CAT?

[soundandvision]

THE CAT THING WAS SO UNNECESSARY.

[wearing_tearing]

The second I heard that meow I knew something terrible would happen. :(

Did we really spend all that time on Quinn to then NOT REALLY SEE HOW HE ESCAPED?????? What in the hell. I didn't mind the narration up until this episode, but there was just so much telling us things instead of showing them to us... ON A TV SHOW. All the tension went out the window with that.

I do love scenes of characters building stuff with basically spit and sweat in an attempt to make their lives a little better/easier. The radio was the best part here.

Rosie, the one consistent great in this series.

[muccamukk]

I know how Quinn escaped because I read a book about downed airmen in WWII, which had lots of fabulous details that would be great if they were their own show or movie. As it stands, I have no effing idea why Quinn's plot was in this at all. Because the writer thought it was neat? Is my main theory on a lot of plots we never see again, at this point.

Loved the radio, love Rosie.

[wearing_tearing]

It seems like the show is relying a lot on the audience having read books about the subject before watching?? It's not good :(

And I totally agree with your theory.

[soundandvision]

do you remember the name of the book or the author. There are 794394 unfinished plots and I'm so nosy tell me what happened !!!!

[partypaprika]

TELL ME ABOUT IT. Why have that plotline if it's going to end with a throwaway line???? Tearing my hair out.

Agreed about both the radio and Rosie.

[wearing_tearing]

The show is making many weird (and sometimes bad) choices about what to focus on :(

[impala_chick]

This episode wasn't as good as ep6. The brief Quinn part was not great :/ Why did they cut out any sort of reveal for him coming back?? I could tell they were trying to focus on the March 6, 7, 8 timeline and all of the existential dread but the intro could have been Quinn coming back instead of the POW camp scene.

From some googling today, it looks like Harry really did have an affair with Westgate (even if the writers are shaping her into an amalgamation of different people). I still like both of their characters. I was going to guess she was a cinetheodolite operator based on the ATF wiki, but now I'm even more excited to see her be a spy. I liked this reddit thread about her but be warned for spoilers of the preview at the end of ep7 and speculation.

John Egan being totally jealous of Buck getting the Marge letter - and then that awkward convo about being best man without a hint of joy in it - FED me though. I'm so in the mood for pining!Egan. Also when he was talking about not having anyone to write to, it was very gender neutral. I loved seeing John gather the parts and Buck build that radio. Copper wire is Buck's love language. Love when he gave John praise for finding it too.

Rosie!!! Goddamn what a hero. He's so solid that it does make me worry - all of the anxiety and trauma has got to catch up with him sometime, doesn't it?

[muccamukk]

Regarding the reddit thread, and maybe I'm just not good at Reddit, is the only thing they're basing "she had an affair with Cros" on his book? Because his book says nothing of the kind. It sorta leaves space that he might have, but he doesn't say he did. I think SOE was the majority opinion here/HA discord as of episode 6, but some people did think Bletchley park, too.

The Egan/Cleven stuff this episode was gold generally. A+

[impala_chick]

Yeah, it looks like some folks were saying it was fairly 'obvious' in his book that he was dropping hints of an affair. I haven't read it so idk... I didn't see any direct quotes. I wonder what his family thinks about this choice.

[soundandvision]

I need someone who can write do a long fic based on the following prompt (based on Egan being feral the last 2 eps):

College or post college modern au. No cheating pls.

John Egan acting out cause Gale is w Marge or asks her to marry him doing stuff like being promiscuous, doing drugs/getting too wasted, and getting railed at a party.

Gale corners him and warns that he'll get someone pregnant but Egan is like not when we both have dicks. Gale has to come to terms with all this, being in love w Egan and his own sexuality. Can be written from either pov but if it's Egan really destroy him with angst for a bit.

Ok love you byeeeeee