Masters of the Air

Apple TV+’s WWII epic Masters of the Air is gorgeously filmed but dull, with a distinct lack of narrative urgency.

This show is a descendant of programs that weren’t just “well-made,” they were revolutionary, feeling like nothing else on TV. You can’t say that about “Masters of the Air,” a show that’s fine, but these war heroes and the TV lineage into which the dramatization of their heroism falls deserve better than “fine.”

“Masters of the Air” doesn’t rise to the level one might have hoped or expected – offering a potent reminder of the sacrifices the Greatest Generation endured, to be sure, without really finding its target.

If you're a die-hard World War II enthusiast, "Masters of the Air" will probably hit the sweet spot in capturing what makes this specific genre so appealing. But viewers with less of an emotional attachment to the period may find it harder to connect with — there's little here that we haven't seen done before, and frequently better.

There are too many characters introduced too fast, locations whizz by and air battles are too hazy and frenetic to focus your eyes on any one soldier. They go for bombastic but end up boring. They're a slog to get through. But if you can fly through the first three episodes, you will eventually find the kind of gripping, emotional and lofty television that is reminiscent of "Brothers" and "Pacific."

Befitting its title, Masters of the Air is sublime when it’s in flight, staging several incredible combat sequences in an arena that’s holy in its beauty and ungodly in its capacity for death. .... Unfortunately, when it turns that gaze to ground level, the series’ view of men at war becomes far less interesting and more treacly than that of its predecessors.

There are some Spielbergian flourishes peppered throughout Masters of the Air, from the masterful construction of its period setting to a soaring score that makes a valiant effort to inject the series with some raw emotional power. But those efforts prove overcompensating, as the thing that should make it all tick—the human heart—is tragically missing.

“Masters of the Air” is often absorbing and irresistable, even if it is not as compelling as the first two series. Part of the problem, especially in the first few episodes, is that there are so many characters, and battle after battle, that gets a bit confusing and repetitive.

Masters of the Air is a thrilling, entertaining watch that lacks the depth of its HBO-produced predecessors.

Masters of the Air ultimately lacks the adventurous spirit of the former and the emotional gravity of the latter. Unlike the precision bombardiers of the 100th, it only occasionally hits its target.

All of this should be exciting, vibrant, thrilling! But it's not. The show merely crashes when it should soar, and it becomes tiresome to sit through. It's hard to become invested with these men when they remain so stagnant, so uninteresting. There are a few flourishes here and there, like an indoor bicycle race shot exquisitely, but these are few and far between.

It’s merely an average war drama, with a few sequences that will thrill, offering a little bit more insight than you had before with some sturdy period detail and costuming. It’s just that when sights are set high, a humdrum construction can be a fatal blow.

“Band of Brothers,” “The Pacific,” and “Masters of the Air” intend to do with their deeply respectful odes to American heroism. But the third part of the trilogy is over-invested in recreating what we’ve seen before and under-invested in what made those previous series so impactful. It’s not the carnage or the spectacle. It’s the men.

“Masters of the Air” is a little too decorous to get into all that. Its heroes aren’t rebels or victims. They’re archetypes. The technology is the real star here; the B-17s are as period-perfect as they are immense. As for the story — well, at 25,000 feet, maybe it doesn’t matter that it’s almost as thin as the air.