Masterful Storytelling

Television mini-series don't tend to have the staying power in the public consciousness that long-running full-fledged series get. But a few mini-series do stand the test of time, and are talked about decades later. One of these is HBO's Band of Brothers, which in 2001 presented gripping stories of World War II. Almost a decade later, a follow-up, The Pacific, turned its attention to the other major theater of that war. Now, in 2024, those two series have become a trilogy with Masters of the Air.

Masters of the Air is a 9-part mini-series focused on the operations of the 100th Bomb Group in World War II. We follow their harrowing raids into German-occupied Europe, tracking events from roughly the U.S. entry into the war to its final days. We see how the pilots and their crews coped (or sometimes, didn't); how they gave their lives, or were captured; how triumphs and defeats seemed to go almost hand in hand.

It's been a long time since I watched Band of Brothers (though watching this made me want to revisit it). Yet I still think Masters of the Air arrives at the right time, as visual effects for television have reached the point where this story can be told well. Just as Band of Brothers took the combat that many people may have imagined as noble or righteous and exposed it as terrifying and grimy, so Masters of the Air shows what flying bombers over Nazi Germany really entailed. The title of the show paints a picture that the show itself quickly contradicts: we are following the "grunts" of the skies, relying as much on luck as skill to survive.

For the most part, the series follows the same core group of characters (with some departing or arriving over the course of episodes). Yet each episode has a distinctly different focus and tone. You see massive air raids in one episode, but in the next follow pilots on medical leave. You see a deadly attack in one episode that forces airmen to bail out... and in the next episode follow them on the run trying to escape enemy territory.

The cast is simply sprawling, including Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle, Barry Keoghan, Ncuti Gatwa, and more. As with Band of Brothers and The Pacific before it, I have no doubt that if you go back to watch Masters of the Air, say, five years from now, you'll recognize several actors who have gone onto greater fame and think, "wow, they were in this?" Yet paradoxically, I wouldn't necessarily point to any one standout performance in the ensemble. Again, much like Band of Brothers and The Pacific, the story and the setting are the stars, and that seems to be how everyone wants it.

Masters of the Air is only the latest in my frankly never-ending list of reasons you should subscribe to Apple TV+. I give the series an A-. It's an epic, gripping tale with several exceptional episodes throughout.