Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg are no strangers to the war drama genre. Following Saving Private Ryan, the duo reunited – this time as executive producers – for Band of Brothers, widely regarded as one of the greatest TV shows ever made, then set their sights on another theater of war with miniseries The Pacific. Now, the duo have once again returned as executive producers on Masters of the Air, another epic-in-the-making that adapts the true-life story of the 100th Bomb Group.
From the very first scene of the series' double episode premiere, the show exudes suave, old-school cool. We're introduced first to Austin Butler's Major Gale Cleven and Callum Turner's Major John Egan as they bid farewell to their sweethearts. The threat feels far away in that dim, warm bar: but before the opening credits have even rolled, we're thrown into our first aerial battle, and it's a visceral, shockingly fast-paced scene, all blood and bullets. Any doubt that Masters of the Air wouldn't recapture the harrowing naturalism of Band of Brothers is immediately dispelled.
