TV Review: MASTERS OF THE AIR (Ep. 8) on Apple TV+

D-Day.

As the 100th regroups, it becomes pretty clear their focus is on the Allied invasion of Europe at Normandy. Crosby, or Croz, is preparing flight plans for roughly 200 different missions as he pops pills and chugs coffee in an effort to stay awake for 72 straight hours before June 6. Inevitably, the lack of sleep takes its toll, albeit in a rather humorous way.

Over in Stalag Luft III, Bucky laments they’ve been there for eight months and the isolation is clearly getting to Bucky, as he resorts to playing imaginary games of baseball while tempers flare among the prisoners. As more pilots come in and the commander of the camp is replaced, they make the decision to start the preparation for an escape attempt.

Finally, we get to see the Tuskegee Airmen in action. While running attack missions in Italy, 2nd Lieutenant Alex Jefferson (Branden Cook) clamors for more action, and he finally gets his wish. The 99th Pursuit Squadron, better known as the famous Redtails, get to participate in Operation Dragoon, a mission to assault three cities in southern France using their brand new P51s.

I mentioned in a previous review the movie Redtails, but I really wish there were more films or series dedicated to the Tuskegee Airmen, as some of their stories are incredible. These guys still dealt with segregation and being considered second-class citizens, but they still fought like hell to defend their country. Jefferson has an interesting conversation about ⅔ of the way through the episode that I won’t reveal, but it raises some valid questions. I’m glad the showrunners made the decision to at least include them, and hopefully it inspires people to do further research about them; their stories need to be remembered.

There’s a lot I can’t get into so as to avoid spoilers, but there isn’t a whole lot of combat. There are a few scenes involving the Redtails, but they mostly gloss over the D-Day landings, which I found unfortunate. Since we already saw the story through the eyes of the 101st, it would have been nice to see it from the perspective of the men who stayed in planes that day. They do show one absolutely stunning shot of the invasion. It’s not easy to envision the scope of the landings, but this scene provides a glimpse.

Only one episode remains as the end of the war draws closer, I’m mostly going to do a recap of the season in its entirety to avoid any spoilers regarding who survives the war. Part 8 is solid, if not spectacular. They made the wise decision to keep the focus on only a few different groups and even though they introduced new pilots in the Redtails, they kept the number to a minimum; they’re still represented well, but Jefferson easily stands out.

Part 8 gets a B-