The problem for any war film or series that gets produced today is they are going to be compared against the "Band Of Brothers" series and nothing has come close. Dunkirk which could have been so good was literally a dud and looked like a cheap budget "B" grade film in comparison. Hacksaw Ridge is probably the closest we have seen since Band Of Brothers with regard to storylines and quality.
This week we saw the final episode of Masters of The Air released and if I had to sum up the entire series I would say it was very disappointing as I expected far more. The story line offered so much being based on the United States 8th Airforce during the Second World War.
I think the problem is every war series gets judged against Band Of Brothers because it is the same producers involved being Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. This is bound to happen because they set the bar so high with that series. Being frank fully honest nothing will come close and you always hope something does. The Pacific which was the first series after Band Of Brothers I watched once and have never watched again compared to Band Of Brothers which I have seen many times over and over. This maybe a little unfair because the Band Of Brothers story line cannot be compared to this as they were involved in every major battle during the war in Europe.
Easy Company which the series Band of Brothers was based on only lost 49 men out of 360. The 8th Airforce on the other hand lost 75% of their crews either being killed, injured or captured and making it through the war was an achievement on it's own. They are two different story lines with one group basically being massacred and there can never be a feel good factor under that type of story line.
I don't think you can do this tragic story justice over 9 episodes and I think it is down to the difference in the authors of the books these two different series are based on. The producers also used the same author for the series Pacific which was also disappointing and possibly why the detail in story line and characters are not as thorough.
Another important fact we cannot forget the Band Of Brothers series was filmed when surviving members of Easy Company were still alive which helped make the accuracy of the story adding a personal touch. Masters Of The Air did not have this luxury with the main characters the story was based on all having passed away. The attention to detail was just off and you would never have guessed the storyline was based on real people.
Masters Of The Air cost a reported $250 million to produce so they had a decent budget and was comparable with Band Of Brothers which cost $125 million back in 2000 and with inflation would cost $240 million today. Today you have AI technology which does help make things more realistic and you don't have to be so creative compared to what special effects teams had to create in the past.
I think this will be the final war series Spielberg and Hanks do together because there is not much left unless they do a naval series. What is important is that every series is not just a series, but it pays tribute to the men who fought in the Second World War by highlighting personal experiences of heroism. The characters in every series could have been a story on their own and that is what is important because this all happened 80 years ago and many people today are ignorant to what took place.