The third episode was particularly hard to tell who was who since it was almost all in the air and everyone wearing oxygen masks until the end of the episode.

quote:

Originally posted by Dwill104:
The third episode was particularly hard to tell who was who since it was almost all in the air and everyone wearing oxygen masks until the end of the episode.

Oxygen masks and they all have a name derived from the word "buck".

Bucky
Buck
Buckerson
Bucknut
Buckwheat
Whathebuck

For those of you wanting a bit more backstory on the men of this series, I found this guy and he does a good job of referencing the record in regards to what you see on screen.

The dialog is too muddled to understand most of the time. The actors mumble and the ambient background sound is too loud. They also do one of my major pet peeves, which is go from very soft whisper or near whisper dialog to really loud environment, and vice versa. So the engine sounds and gunfire will be so loud I turn down the volume, but the semi-whisper dialog needs the sound turned up.

This series is pretty much the worst I can remember for that.

quote:

Originally posted by Fly-Sig:
The dialog is too muddled to understand most of the time. The actors mumble and the ambient background sound is too loud. They also do one of my major pet peeves, which is go from very soft whisper or near whisper dialog to really loud environment, and vice versa. So the engine sounds and gunfire will be so loud I turn down the volume, but the semi-whisper dialog needs the sound turned up.

This series is pretty much the worst I can remember for that.

FX and a few other channels are famous for that, the movie dialog is almost bad enough that you have to turn on subtitles to understand it, and then the action scenes are so loud its unbearable, especially running a sound bar that amplifies the sound.

It isn't Band of Brothers, but so far it isn't bad.

Band of Brothers was based on a best selling book by Stephen Ambrose, so the story was already fairly succinct and flowed well on the screen just as it had in the book. Add in the fact that most of the real men were still alive when it was being filmed and the actors were able to talk to them and get to know them before betraying them on the big screen. The viewer was also able to hear from the real men at the beginning of each episode. It felt very personal.

The Pacific (which I also enjoyed) was really based on the autobiographies of two men: Eugene Sledge and Robert Leckie. Both those men had already passed, but their family and combat buddies were still alive. Some of the original Marines in the story, like Sid Phillips, were still alive and again the actors were able to talk to them and get to know them.

With Masters of the Air, the real men are all dead, so the actors are doing their own interpretations of what they think the real people were like. Never mind the fact that almost all the combat scenes are taking place in B-17's so much of what we are seeing on the screen must be CGI.

Both my grandfathers, and almost all my great uncles and their cousins served in WW2. I watched Saving Private Ryan in the theater when it came out with a bunch of American Legion guys that were WW2 vets. Band of Brothers was only a few years later. Again, it felt very personal, and it aired on HBO right before and during 9/11/01.

To me, it is very very hard to get close to what Band of Brothers was. Never mind the fact it was filmed and released over twenty years ago so we are also viewing it through the lens of our nostalgia.

Give Masters of the Air a chance and appreciate for what it is.

Please forgive me for not reading through the entire thread for this answer, but has this series been released on Blu-Ray or is it only available via streaming?

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
Please forgive me for not reading through the entire thread for this answer, but has this series been released on Blu-Ray or is it only available via streaming?

Only via streaming through Apple right now. They're only released 3 of the episodes. They're coming out every Friday.

quote:

They're coming out every Friday.

As forgettable as most of the characters are, having a week gap doesn't help me learn who they are or why I should care.

Many of the Veterans accounts of combat are archived at the Veterans History Project website.
My best friends father was a ball turret gunner on a B-24 Liberator in the 98th Bomb Group, first with the 15 AF and then with the 8th AF. Flew 33 missions total and eventually passed away at the age of 96 a few years ago. The stories that man told were incredible and awe inspiring.

https://www.loc.gov/collection...-project-collection/

quote:

Originally posted by Veeper:

quote:

Originally posted by Dwill104:
The third episode was particularly hard to tell who was who since it was almost all in the air and everyone wearing oxygen masks until the end of the episode.

Oxygen masks and they all have a name derived from the word "buck".

Bucky
Buck
Buckerson
Bucknut
Buckwheat
Whathebuck

Yeah, it's pretty Bucked up.

Watched the third episode yesterday.
First i wondered how they managed not to shoot each other when surrounded by Kraut fighters. There must have been quite a lot of blue on blue

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

quote:

Originally posted by Fly-Sig:
The dialog is too muddled to understand most of the time. The actors mumble and the ambient background sound is too loud. They also do one of my major pet peeves, which is go from very soft whisper or near whisper dialog to really loud environment, and vice versa. So the engine sounds and gunfire will be so loud I turn down the volume, but the semi-whisper dialog needs the sound turned up.

This series is pretty much the worst I can remember for that.

FX and a few other channels are famous for that, the movie dialog is almost bad enough that you have to turn on subtitles to understand it, and then the action scenes are so loud its unbearable, especially running a sound bar that amplifies the sound.

My wife asked for the subtitles for this series. She never uses them for anything else, and her hearing is really good.

I imagine they shot each other quite a bit.

Huh, lots of you severely underwhelmed. My Uncle Bill flew 17s in WWII, and my dad was a flight mechanic on 24s, then airborne on 29s involved in pilot training. I sure wish they were around to see this show. Both were proud USAAF veterans, and I think any remaining veterans of the air war over Europe would be proud of the effort Spielberg and Hanks put into this production.

I'm done with it after the 4th episode. Would rather watch grass grow. Yawn...

Theres just no "soul" to it. Paint by numbers feeling

I agree it's somewhat boring. I love good war movies of any generation, especially WWII but I have find its not easy to watch full episodes and I have little desire to go back and finish.

My Apple stream service trial is done.

I had to make the decision to pay so I could continue the series, or not pay and forget about it.

guess what I chose to do. Not a difficult choice in this case.

Done.

I really wanted a “Memphis belle” series and thought we would have it.

The comments about the dialogue are so welcome, I really thought it was me.

Characters killed off quick, similar names, etc… a let down.