DJariya

The 1st 2 episodes were a lot of set up and introduced a lot of characters, but I enjoyed both of them. Buck and Bucky seem to the heart and soul of the squadron. It is a little weird seeing Callum Turner with darker hair after seeing him as a blonde in The Boys in the Boat. The flight sequences are pretty awesome.

Funny how I still hear a little Elvis whenever Austin Butler speaks. Is that suppose to a Boston or Jersey accent on the Biddick character (Keoghan)?

uteotw

I read he had to go to a voice coach to stop talking like Elvis for this, but I do still hear some of it too.

And I'm absolutely loving this so far--it's incredibly well done and I really like the characters so far. The special effects are tremendous.

beavis69

This made me buy Apple TV+ for at least the duration of this series. Wow what a barebones service. I feel like there is less than 30 movies/shows on the damn thing. At least I finally get to watch Ted Lasso as well I guess.

Anyways, wife and I enjoyed the first two episodes. As a former Navy navigator, seeing the nav fuck up in the first episode but redeem himself in the second was nice. We rarely get more than background scenes in most movies. Couple of minor complaints
- With the money they probably threw at this, why in the world did they not get a real B-17 for the takeoff and landing scenes. The CGI is inexcusable.
- Austin Butlers kinda sticks out like a sore thumb so far. He looks way too much like a Top Gun character.
- I wish this had included some of the flight school for these guys, kinda like the training first episode of BoB. It was a great way to introduce the characters and build a background.
- I made the comment to my wife that one of the things that made BoB special was the real life interviews with the characters. I wondered why they didn't do that here until I realized that most if not all of these guys are probably dead. Sad to think about
Looking forward to the rest of the series and interested to see how they incorporate the Tuskegee Airmen

Gunde

Because it's complicated, expensive and wasteful. CGI is not, and we'll all get over it not being perfect.

beavis69

5 continue to fly in air shows to this day.

jpcamb

I liked the first two episodes and am looking forward to the next ones. Yes, it's not BOB but I think it has a lot of promise. Always been a fan of these airplanes and fondly recall building a bomber as a kid and love how a lot of the elements of these made it into the Millenium Falcon

Draven

Any time I see a movie or show where someone has to get in the ball turret below the plane I'm like "hell no".

jpcamb

It always makes me think of the Amazing Story episode when the guy is trapped in the turret but lives. LOL

mugwump

Yep and anyone with a spare few hundred bucks can take a ride in one pretty easily. No excuse for not having some real B-17 flying scenes although maybe they were worried that it would make the CGI really stand out. The Yankee Lady used to fly over pretty regularly when I worked in Ann Arbor and there was no mistaking that busted washing machine sound of the radial engines.

beavis69

I actually don't have any beef with the flying scenes, CGI looks pretty decent so far. But man those landings/departures/taxiing look horrible.

MrX

Episode 3 was the best episode of the series so far.

Why So Blu?

Awesome episode. What did throw me off briefly was the scene that showed a plane shoot two missiles at another plane. I didn't think missiles were around until the 1950s or so. Outside of that, it was a cool episode. It was a much shorter episode than listed. There's next week's preview and almost 10 minutes of credits.

mugwump

I must have missed that scene in all the chaos but many WWII fighters could carry wing-mounted unguided rockets. Americans mostly used them for ground attack but the Germans did use them against bombers.

Why So Blu?

Yeah, it was one brief scene and it was two missiles and it wasn't used again in the episode.

devilshalo

And insurance is on the owners of those B-17s so they can assume the risk. A studio doesn't want to pay for an insurance policy on top of that as well as vetting and insuring the pilots, especially since premiums right now are through the roof. Just because Apple has deep pockets, doesn't mean they won't find ways to cut costs so money can be used for other things (like VFX and locations).

DJariya

The third episode was great. Some really intense sequences.

Poor “Baby Face”.

Surprised they killed off Biddick so soon.

Aside from Buck and Bucky, I still don’t really have a grasp of all the characters names. Like what is the name of the character who bailed on Baby Face and got captured at the end? Was it Quinn?

Draven

I think there were a few moments with missles. They were flying all over and the pilots even called it out

An intense episode for sure - my wife and I both wondered how the forts don’t end up shooting each other. Just utter chaos.

Noonan

Really enjoying this show. I noticed that Greyhound is back up to #2 on Apple TV+, I'm sure because of this show. Some of the air scenes in this remind me of the anxiety that I got watching Greyhound. Confined spaces with nowhere to go, being hunted down.

Draven

I commented to my wife tonight that it’s wild the planes basically come back as smoking wrecks after every mission.

GoldenJCJ

I made the same comment to my wife. I’m sure the maintenance ground crews were like “what the fuck, guys!?” Every time they saw the planes come down completely shredded.

I wonder how they even managed to fix those planes that were basically just piles of scrap metal when they landed. Like the ones that landed in the African desert. Did they just leave those to rust or did they have ways of going back and carrying them out?


I was sad to see Biddick go. His luck finally ran out after one crash already.

Draven

I was thinking the same thing - like it's one thing fixing mechanical issues. But when chunks of the wings and tail are just...gone...they have to be replacing those sections completely. I wonder if they were modular? Pop the old tail off and put the new one on? Now I have to do some googling.

EDIT: Ok, little bit of searching and it sounds like they were able to basically remove pieces and replace them. They also stripped scrapped planes for parts. I also found this photo of a B17 that managed to make it home (and the tail gunner survived). Fucking crazy stuff.

beavis69

Yea the frame was alot less complicated than the planes of today. Alot of it was like legos, remove and replace. They also didn't have heavy, armored material so they could fly longer distances so the parts were easier to get across the ocean. This also left them more exposed obviously.

If this series is successful I hope we get one set in the Pacific. While I like it so far, Pacific air combat is way more interesting in my opinion.

DJariya

Poor Lieutenant Nash. We get introduced to him, meets a pretty girl, and then he gets killed off camera.

Osiris3657

My first impression wasn't good. It seems sappy and mellow dramatic compared BoB and The Pacific

Draven

I'm a huge fan of both BoB and The Pacific and I haven't thought that at all watching this. It's mostly me going "fuck that, I wouldn't go back up there".