Masters Of The Air: Crash Landing On Cue

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FOR A SERIES produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, and a companion to the acclaimed World War II dramas Band of Brothers (2001) and The Pacific (2010), Apple Studios' Masters of the Air almost managed to fly under the radar. And perhaps for the better — even with the absence of marketed hype and build expectations, the show is somewhat of a crash landing.

Based on Donald L Miller's 2007 nonfiction of the same name, the series follows the lives and times of the 100th Bomb Group, an American B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber unit based in eastern England during the War. What it also follows is a derivative and formulaic approach to almost every aspect of the show, to an extent that the whole thing feels more akin to a revarnished old dream, than a $250 million project in the works for over a decade and released in the current television landscape.

But before we get too ahead of ourselves, there are a few things Masters of the Air has going for itself (somewhat). The sets and the costumes look beautiful, if not too pristine for their own good. It's as if everything has just been pulled out of the box, still smelling of fresh paint and formaldehyde. And this unnaturalistic quality is something that the show carries around like a white suit on a muddy battlefield — it surely stands out at times, but it's not doing anyone a favour.

Also worth noticing in a positive light is the lighting and the cinematography, that is, when everyone is firmly on the ground, and not flying around in a haze of CGI (more on that in a second). Up in the air, it's mostly the sound design that does all the heavy lifting. The few places where the show manages to fleetingly capture interest are the ones where it showcases the behind-the-scenes workings, so to speak, of the war and the technology of the time — be it the “last supper” the crew has before flying, the use of flares mid-flight to get in formation, the lucky charms, or the role of the ground staff. As for the supposed stars of the show, the aircraft themselves, the novelty wears off quickly once you've seen them a couple of times.

As for the other, more organic, stars of the show, the cast lines up a few of the industry's more in vogue names — Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle and Barry Keoghan. A pity, though, that none of them bring their A game to the cockpit. While some of it is down to the poor script, character writing, and dialogues that sound as natural as teenagers talking to their parents over dinner, doing little with what little you do have doesn't help either.

And to all the fans of Elvis, I hate to break it to you, but Butler just ain't it here. The delivery, the accent, the pseudo-cowboy act, the expressions, the physical aspect — it's some of the most one-tone, jarring acting one has come across in a while. Turner, on the other hand, tries to make a circus out of every scene, be it the on-the-loop joke (stretching the definition here) of how he can't sing or the classic “I don't feel anything” sermon following a mission gone awry. Keoghan, meanwhile, just looks bored.

Set in a period (and concerning events) so rich with stories of tragedies and triumphs, both personal and collective, the series somehow manages to feel artificial, both in how it goes about generating conflict and tension in a detached, by-the-numbers manner, and how it all plays out like some sanitised theatre with cheap earnestness. The show aims to mimic some sombre qualities of Band of Brothers, but finds itself deeply lacking in generating any emotional depth with its rinse-and-repeat storytelling, tired laughs and forgettable characters. It's not a good look when the best comparisons that come to mind are the Call of Duty cutscenes.

And none of this is helped by the CGI — which the series is so utterly reliant on — that looks serviceable at best. To be sure, no one expects (or even wants) this to be a WWII Top Gun: Maverick, but for a production of its scale, the aerial landscapes and action choreography (or just the chaos) leaves much to be desired.

While the show has time to course-correct and redeem itself, if the first two episodes are anything to go by, it's bound to be a turbulent ride. What could have easily been a new recruit into the upper echelons of prestige TV, Masters of the Air ends up being a poor, soulless imitation of classics of the genre. 

Stream Masters of the Air here.-