‘Masters of the Air’ takes its time to soar
Sometimes you’re not angry at a TV show, you’re just disappointed.
Or, rather, you want to pick up said TV show and shake some sense into it. You want to have been there in the beginning with a big red editor’s pen and a stern lecture for the writers. Because sometimes there’s a good TV show inside a TV show. It’s just hidden away behind some slop.
That’s the trouble with Apple TV+’s “Masters of the Air” (streaming Fridays,
★★☆☆), a World War II epic from the producers behind World War II epics “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific.” “Masters” tells the story of American airmen during the war, mostly centered on men from the 100th Bomber Group, who flew dangerous raids into enemy territory and were far more likely than infantrymen to be killed or missing in action. It’s a very good, harrowing and important story to tell. There’s nothing wrong with the story here, or the very good-looking young men enlisted to tell it (including Elvis himself – I mean, Austin Butler).
No, this isn’t a problem with content, but with execution. “Masters” opens with three episodes of confusing, illwritten filler. 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.
And that’s the trouble because 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,” which aired on HBO in 2001 and 2010, respectively. But by the time “Masters” gets to the good stuff, many viewers may have parachuted away. It’s asking a lot to watch three bad hours to get to six good ones.
“Masters” tries to tell a very big story, spanning several years of the war and including dozens of characters, which is part of why it falters so much at the beginning. It focuses on two pilots, nicknamed Buck (Butler) and Bucky, played by Callum Turner. (It’s no wonder it’s hard to remember their names at first.)
Buck and Bucky are two majors with plenty of skill in the cockpit and inspire their men in the sky and on the ground. Early episodes establish what life is like in these bomber groups, which operate out of a base in East Anglia in the United Kingdom. As the orders come in from on high, the planes fill with pilots, bombardiers, navigators and radio operators, and the kids (and they really are young kids, including one played by Barry Keoghan) fly into Nazi territory to destroy strategic targets. Most never come back.
“Masters” really picks up in Episodes 4 and 5, when the story expands beyond planes coming and going from the base. Some men are stuck on the ground in occupied France and Belgium, working with the Resistance to get back to the Allies’ side. Others are taken to Nazi prisoner-of-war camps. Star navigator Crosby (Anthony Boyle) is promoted and stops flying but is wracked by survivor’s guilt. Ace pilot “Rosie” (Nate Mann) seems like the luckiest airman around. As D-Day, and an end, approaches, the legendary all-Black Tuskegee Airmen are finally introduced, which feels a little like tokenism considering how prominently the Black actors are featured in promotional materials.
Eventually, “Masters” pulls you into its heartbreaking story. Some of the air battles are hard to follow, while others are as breathtaking as anything from “Saving Private Ryan.” Butler is just fine, but Turner is an electric rogue, with shades of Steve McQueen’s rebellious soldier from “The Great Escape” (a movie you’d do well to remember while watching this series). Some World War II stories make the war seem too glossy, too Hollywood and too neat, allowing audiences to forget how horrific it really was. “Masters” is not one of those; it leans into the trauma, carnage and devastation of the war on so many different fronts.
But it takes too long. People are busy. It’s cold outside. There are 5 million things competing for our attention. And there are a lot of movies and TV shows about World War II already. “Masters” has to stand out to succeed. But I fear it is doomed from the start by a lack of proper editing.
A good takeoff is just as important as the landing.