Masters Of The Air Review: 4 Ups & 6 Downs

There are many highs to be found in Masters of the Air's moments of aerial combat, highs we'll shortly get to, but these spots of excellence are slightly undercut by Apple's unattractively glossy production. 

Utilising both practical and VFX effects, the action of the show is typically set to a large blue backdrop, an endless sky that looks more like a video game background than that of a prestige, big budget TV series. Even the explosions are uncanny, too polished to hammer home the battles' gritty reality. 

I would never go as far to call this a travesty, since the action sequences themselves are too thrilling to completely fall out with, but the refined effects do little for Masters of the Air's harrowing wartime struggles. It borders, for a time, on the desolate, polished within an inch of its life.

For a show with a budget of $250 million, produced by one of the most powerful companies on the planet, you have to wonder why they sacrificed the palpable realism of its successful predecessors to create something so aesthetically hollow.