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

[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.