Apple TV+
A companion piece to Band of Brothers and The Pacific which proves that WWII was as hellish in the skies as it was on the land and sea, Masters of the Air is a worthy follow-up to those two esteemed miniseries, capturing the horror, brotherhood and patriotic duty that defined the American air campaigns against Hitler’s Nazi regime.
Executive-produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, developed by John Shiban and John Orloff, and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Dee Rees, and Tim Van Patten, this nine-part based-on-true-events adaptation of Donald L. Miller’s book of the same name (premiering Jan. 26 on Apple TV+) is old-fashioned through and through. A sprawling 1943-1945 saga about the 100th Bomb Group that soars far more often than it falters, it romantically lionizes the bravery and commemorates the anguish and sacrifices of “the greatest generation” via muscular action and poignant drama that understands what war is, what it takes to triumph in it, and why those who risk it all in service of their country and the world deserve our highest respect.
Masters of the Air’s impressive behind-the-camera pedigree is matched by headlining talent led by Austin Butler, Barry Keoghan, and The Boys in the Boat’s Callum Turner, whose breakout performance is the series’ finest. Turner is Major John “Buck” Egan, a cocky and dashing flyboy whose gung-go personality often leads to drunken trouble, and whose commitment to the Allied cause is so great that, at story’s outset, he’s frustrated by the fact that his rank will keep him behind a desk rather than in one of the fleet’s tin-can behemoths alongside his mates, most notably best friend Major Gale “Bucky” Cleven (Butler). That the two men share nearly identical nicknames speaks not only to their closeness but to their playful egotism. Though Cleven is the more soft-spoken and level-headed of the two (he doesn’t drink, gamble, or care about sports), they’re a pair of likeminded men with a passion for the sky and an eagerness to stick it to the Third Reich.