Masters Of The Air - E01 - Alice From Dallas - RECAP

After a last week of grinding for January here we are on February 2024, my streak is intact but today it was threaten by nature after a tree fall on top of the power energy cables close to my apartment, its all OK although it took power out for the entire street, lucky my mother is traveling and her apartment is close to mine so I took my laptop and came here to make this post, only problem is I forgot my mouse so using touch pad is hell for me; I will do what ever in my power to keep this show going and it goes father than Hive for me, its about commitment.

This are the type of post that takes the most time for me to create, got to watch the episode, take screenshots so that's basically a second watch but more to analyze it, then need to edit the screenshots trying to make them look like a guide to then finally start writing.

I did a post about Masters of The Air some time ago when the trailer came out, I have taken the route to generate informative content and then move into the reviews or recaps, I prefer calling them RECAPS, the word review makes me feel like a professional critic and I'm simply not.

By the time of this post the series is already three episodes in so its hard for me to spoil it for anyone, its on you if you keep reading. When I made the post about the trailer I remember reading all episodes were suppose to be name after each base they visit but some how IMDB still has it as Part 1, kinda boring. Masters of The Air is all about what I expected but as this is an adaptation of the Bomber Unit 100th from World War II I would not take everything they show on the series as the truth, remember it still a show. This Mini Series starting on episode one does make honor to its name by focus on how Pilots and their crew make what ever it was on their power to defend and keep those bombers in the air, so far they did go into one mission but it even bothers me a bit that the battles in the are are confusing and very fast that you cant see German Fighters they go so fast, do see anti air firing but I guess from the Bomber perspective or view the battle was very slow, this things were huge and could not maneuver as fast to fight back.

There will be quite a few characters on this story but for now this are your main, from top to bottom Major Gale "Buck" Cleven, Major John "Bucky" Egan and Lt. Harry Crosby, the story is at times narrated by Crosby mostly when they are in the air, the reason for this is because Major Harry Crosby wrote one of the books the mini series is based on, the name of this book A Wing and A Prayer, I haven't read any of the books this series is based on and don't now much rather what I will write on this post but after watching episode one the name of the book does make sense because most of the time all they could do is fight back and pray.

For now the series is not much about the battle actions but the struggle of pilots and their crew above 10k feet in the air, most things on the planes were very manual compare to how things are now days, it happens that two of my family members are commercial plane pilots and would probably talk hours giving their opinion but after seen how they pilot this massive beasts that were the bombers it was a huge risk, all the things that could go wrong. On first episode the 100th unit gets to England, Buck leading the pack although Bucky arrive way early even when through two missions, he was basically preparing the terrain for rest of the 100th, it is mention that before those days many of them have never got into a plane to travel so all they had is their training as experience.

The flight to England was not the most pleasant because of weather in some parts, at the moment the 100th was compose of nine planes that would integrate to other squads, not sure the proper term for this group of bombers; everything went smooth the last part of the flight except for one plane, the pilot in charge Captain John Brady but it was not hist fault, they had some electric failure although his navigator was Crosby who had air sickness badly and screw up their flight coordinates, they end up in France that at the time was German Army territory, eventually made it back to England way behind the pack and had a force landing after their right landing gear would not go down.

Across the episode there are about eight characters and they made a quick introduction at first that in my opinion it was not worth doing, there are so many characters that its better to learn them as it goes, the introduction to the main two Buck and Bucky was fine but the rest was not helpful. Day latter after landing the 100th is going on their first mission, Col. Harold Q. Huglin is giving orders but on a previous scene he seems sick and probably Bucky is the next on the line to replace him as he is ask to stay on land and will probably get a desk job giving orders too. Bucky already knows what is up there, Buck is flying with Lt. Curtis Buddick, when Bucky talks to Buck giving him his lucky bill its like he knows the danger to be up there and there is a big chance he never sees his friend again.

When Buck arrives to Bremen, German were waiting for them, lots of anti air equipment open fire their way, while this was going on all they could do was hold on, keep moving forward and pray, there was literally nothing they could do, when this Flaks (aircraft defense canon) shoot their missile seem to explode in many pieces hitting bombers and basically cutting them off, this tear apart the bombers or in the worst case they get hit directly by the missing and take the explosion, when the Flaks stop shooting then it was time for the German fighters to pick them up and that they did, Buck and the other pilots had to sit and watch how gunners on the Bombers shoot back but the German Fighters were just too fast, for every one German they took down it seems that three bombers go down because thats is how that fight ends, 19 bombers go out, one early return and only 16 came back, this is not how Buck had things planned or how he though it would be and he did ask Bucky why didn't you warn us but basically there is nothing else they could do once they are in the air on German territory. Col. Huglin had to call off he mission because they were been taken down one by one by the German Fighters and on top none of their two targets were visible, it was too cloudy so he decided not to drop any bombs and go back to the base.

Sixteen bombers come back, heavily damage, three bombers confirm went down each one carry ten men, those were thirty men who Buck knew and now they are gone, Col. Huglin comes back from he mission too but he is sick as F and most likely Bucky is going to take charge of the base, Buck can't believe what he just went through and Bucky is taking him for interrogation.

For been the first episode was not bad at all although I would like to see more air fight scenes probably from the Germans Fighter view although I guess that would go against the story so there is the reason why some times they don't stick to it, because it can loose some of the excitement, watching how heavily damage Bombers get when getting through Flaks was something I had not idea about also how Bucky specially had to maneuver this heavy airplanes during windy situations with what look like very basic controls, not that I know how modern look but this Bombers look ascent from the inside based on the images. A great episode, I'm very satisfied after an hour of drama and heavy fire in the air, over all a solid 8/10.

Today the universe was against me to make this post, something that should have take me about two hours end up close to four due to energy problems, forgot my mouse at home, then the upload at my mothers apartment took vacation and I could not upload images had to reboot the modem couple of times, but I still manage to finish my post on time, I try to make them not as long and complex as before, I also left out some details about the pilots challenges on the bomber itself; since it was taking me just too much time an energy draining me out and not having much energy to keep going the next day, I hope you enjoy.