*Episode premise spoilers, which will include some spoilers from earlier episodes.*
Steven Spielberg returns to one of his favorite historical settings for this miniseries, about a group of “Flying Fortress” bomber pilots during WWII. Ncuti Gatwa appears in the last two episodes of the series, which means the Tuskegee Airmen have entered the chat!
The 100th Bomber Group is gearing up for D-Day, and lead navigator Crosby is running himself ragged trying to chart all the routes. The Tuskegee Airmen have a lot of successful missions under their belt, but some of them are itching to get closer to the real action. When they get a chance to do just that, three of them are shot down over Germany, where they’re taken to the same POW camp where Majors Buck and Bucky are being held. As Allied Forces close in on Germany from both sides, the prisoners plan for every contingency.
Before I get into the episode at hand, I’ll speak generally about the miniseries. I’ve already watched the first seven episodes, and while I think it’s a solid WWII drama, it’s not the most gripping one I’ve seen. I am glad I’m watching the whole thing, though—nine episodes total isn’t a huge commitment, and I think I would’ve been pretty hard-pressed to keep the characters straight if I’d jumped into this one to begin with. This way, I’m familiar with the major characters in the 100th and can mostly keep track of the goings-on.
Crosby, the narrator of the series, gets it into his head that the best way to get everything ready for D-Day is to stay awake for 72 straight hours ahead of the invasion. But it’s evident that this is something he’s elected to do on his own, not based on any instructions from the top brass. This is a really dumb, ill-advised thing for him to be doing (especially since bombers’ survival may depend on the careful routes he maps out based on precise calculations.) Multiple people around him tell him to just go to sleep already, but he refuses, working until he literally drops.
In an odd storytelling choice, we don’t really see the 100th flying their mission for D-Day. A good chunk of the episode is structured around it, but we mostly skip the actual invasion. Maybe the show decided it’s a subject that’s already been depicted enough, or maybe it’s because the most prominent characters of the show aren’t in the action for it—Crosby is back at base, while Buck and Bucky are in a POW camp.
(BTW, this is how you know this show is telling the story of real people—a TV show wouldn’t make up two best friends with almost identical nicknames.)
Over at the camp, Bucky is despairing, going stir-crazy. He’s either hellbent on getting out or ready to give up altogether, lurching between the two extremes. Buck tries to keep him focused. Now that U.S. force have invaded Europe and the Russians are marching in from the east, they’ve never been closer to liberation. But at the same time, Buck and some of the other prisoners realize that the Germans won’t just sit back and let them be rescued. They plan and train to be ready for whatever might get thrown at them.
Bucky is played by Callum Turner, who appeared in The Last Letter from Your Lover, another project Ncuti Gatwa was in. Buck is played by Austin Butler, and the two play off each other very well. We also get to see Stephen Campbell Moore, who I’ll always remember best as Adam from Bright Young Things. Previous episodes of the miniseries have featured Barry Keoghan and Freddy Carter (a.k.a. Kaz Brekker!)
This episode is the first appearance of the Tuskegee Airmen on the show, and jumping into their story makes me wish they’d had a dual narrative all along. We’re thrown into their situation where lots of things that are already in motion. A thoughtful, savvy pilot named Alex is tired of flying missions so far behind the lines—he wants to really prove himself. This is a dynamic that could’ve been set up throughout the miniseries, with the 100th doing lots of daring bomber missions while the airmen are increasingly frustrated at being held back. That would’ve given us a good payoff for them here. As it is, we set up these longstanding frustrations that are resolved within a handful of scenes.
We only see the airmen flying briefly before three of them are captured by the Germans, Alex among them. The show does a pretty good job with the dynamic here. The German officer interrogating them prods them with questions like, “Why do you fight for a country who treats you like that?” Another one of the captured airmen, Richard, responds, “I know what my country’s shortcomings are, and I know it’s tried hard to become what it says it’s supposed to be. And when I get back, I’m gonna help them do that a lot faster.” And when the three airmen arrive at the POW camp, we hear one of the white American soldiers shouting, “They all belong somewhere else!”, while another immediately gives them a warm welcome, talking about how many times the Red Tails have saved his ass.
Ncuti Gatwa plays Lt. Robert H. Daniels, the third captured airman. Unfortunately, he has the least screentime of the three. Daniels is the only one we don’t see in the interrogation montage, and he’s the only one who isn’t assigned to the same barracks as Buck and Bucky. Obviously, being positioned farther from the show’s leads is going to mean less screentime, but that would’ve been an interesting subplot in itself—Alex and Richard are together, while Daniels is off in another barracks as the only Black soldier there. What’s he going through?
Still, Gatwa gets a few moments within the episode. As Daniels and Alex carry the injured Richard into the camp, Richard complains, “I look like a goddamn cripple!” Daniels firmly replies, “You look like a goddamn soldier.” Later, the three of them discuss potential ideas for escape and debate how much to involve any of the white prisoners in their plans.
Initial thoughts:
Accent Watch
American, possibly a little bit southern? Gatwa doesn’t have a lot of lines, and it’s hard to tell. It also sounds like his own accent is maybe bleeding through a little.
Recommend?
In General – A cautious maybe. I wouldn’t put it up there with the best WWII stories, but it’s pretty well made.
Ncuti Gatwa – Maybe. I think it’ll depend on how much he gets to do in episode 9.
Warnings
Violence, swearing, drinking/smoking, and thematic elements.
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