You just finished the finale of Masters of the Air. Your ears are still ringing from the simulated roar of those Wright R-1820 Cyclone engines. Maybe you’re feeling that specific kind of hollow ache that comes when a massive, high-budget historical epic ends and leaves you staring at a blank Netflix or Apple TV+ dashboard.
It’s a tough spot.
Austin Butler, Callum Turner, and Barry Keoghan brought a certain swagger to the 100th Bomb Group that feels impossible to replicate. But honestly, the "Big Three" of WWII television—Band of Brothers, The Pacific, and now Masters of the Air—aren't the only games in town. If you’re hunting for shows like Masters of the Air, you’re probably looking for more than just planes and explosions. You want that visceral sense of dread. The brotherhood. The "how did anyone actually survive this?" factor.
The truth is, high-altitude bombing was uniquely terrifying. Statistics from the Eighth Air Force are staggering; you were more likely to survive a stint in the infantry than a full tour of 25 missions in a B-17 during the early years of the war. That psychological toll is what made the show work.
The Gold Standards You Might Have Skipped
Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first. If you haven't seen Band of Brothers, stop reading this and go watch it. I’m serious. It’s the blueprint. Produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, it follows Easy Company from jump school to the Eagle's Nest. While Masters focuses on the "Bloody Hundredth" in the clouds, Band of Brothers is about the mud and the trees of Bastogne. It’s more intimate. You feel like you know Damian Lewis's Major Winters better than you know your own cousins.
Then there is The Pacific.
It’s the middle child of the trilogy and, frankly, the hardest to watch. It’s brutal. If Masters of the Air felt like a high-stakes adventure at times, The Pacific feels like a fever dream in a jungle. It explores the psychological disintegration of men like Eugene Sledge and Robert Leckie. It lacks the "glamour" of the Air Force uniforms, replacing it with rot, malaria, and a level of grit that makes you want to take a shower after every episode. It’s essential viewing because it balances the aerial heroism of the 100th with the sheer, grinding misery of the ground war against Imperial Japan.
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Why Catch-22 is Actually a Perfect Companion
People often overlook the 2019 Hulu limited series Catch-22. Maybe because the Joseph Heller novel is so famously "unfilmable" or because people expected a slapstick comedy.
They were wrong.
Christopher Abbott plays John Yossarian, a bombardier in Italy who is trapped by the exact same bureaucratic nightmare that haunted the men in Masters of the Air. Every time Yossarian gets close to his required mission count, the brass raises the number. It captures the absurdity of the air war. While Masters focuses on the "Duty and Honor" aspect, Catch-22 focuses on the "I would like to stay alive, please" aspect. The flight sequences are surprisingly high-quality, and the tone oscillates between hilarious and devastating in a way that feels incredibly human.
George Clooney directed a few episodes, and you can see the influence of big-budget filmmaking in every frame. It’s a cynical, necessary counterpoint to the more traditional heroism of the 100th Bomb Group.
The Forgotten Fronts: World on Fire
If what you loved about Masters of the Air was the global scale—the way the war touched everyone from the pilots to the French Resistance and the civilians in London—then World on Fire is your next stop. This is a BBC production that doesn't get enough love in the States.
It doesn't just stay in a cockpit.
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It jumps between Manchester, Warsaw, Berlin, and Paris. It shows the start of the war through the eyes of ordinary people. You get the perspective of a translator in Poland, a jazz singer in France, and a British officer at Dunkirk. It’s sweeping. It’s romantic. It’s tragic. It reminds us that while the B-17s were dropping payloads, the world underneath them was shattering in a million different directions. The second season even dives into the North African campaign, which is a theater of war we rarely see rendered with this much care.
Generation Kill: The Modern Parallel
You might think a show about the 2003 invasion of Iraq wouldn't fit on a list of shows like Masters of the Air, but hear me out. Generation Kill, created by David Simon (the mind behind The Wire), is perhaps the most accurate depiction of the "hurry up and wait" nature of military life ever put to film.
It’s based on Evan Wright’s book. He was an embedded reporter with the 1st Recon Battalion.
The banter? It’s identical to the chatter between Buck and Bucky. The frustration with incompetent leadership? Exactly the same. The bond between men who are bored out of their minds one second and fighting for their lives the next? Peerless. It lacks the soaring orchestral scores of a Spielberg production, opting instead for a raw, radio-chatter-heavy soundscape that feels incredibly immersive. It’s a masterclass in character writing. Alexander Skarsgård is hauntingly good as "Iceman" Colbert.
Das Boot: The Perspective of the "Enemy"
To truly understand the air war, it helps to understand the perspective of those on the other side of the Atlantic struggle. The 2018 series Das Boot (not to be confused with the 1981 film, though that is also a masterpiece) is a claustrophobic, intense look at U-boat warfare.
Think about it.
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The crews of the B-17s and the crews of the U-boats were essentially living in the same nightmare: trapped in a metal tube, surrounded by an environment that wants to kill them, waiting for a predator they often can't see to end their lives. Das Boot captures that tension. It’s a dual-narrative show, splitting time between the cramped quarters of a submarine and the shore-based world of spies and the French Resistance in La Rochelle. It’s dark. It’s gritty. It avoids the "clean" feeling of some historical dramas.
The Men Who Built the Legend: SAS Rogue Heroes
If you liked the "cool factor" of the pilots—the sheepskin jackets, the nicknames, the rebellious streak—you need to watch SAS Rogue Heroes.
Created by Steven Knight (the guy who gave us Peaky Blinders), it tells the story of how the Special Air Service was formed during the Western Desert Campaign of WWII. It’s stylish. It uses a modern soundtrack (lots of AC/DC and punk) over 1940s visuals, which sounds like it shouldn't work, but it absolutely does. These guys were the eccentrics and the outcasts of the British Army. They decided that instead of fighting traditionally, they’d just parachute behind enemy lines and blow up German planes on the ground.
It’s got that same "young men against the world" energy that propelled the first few episodes of Masters of the Air.
A Note on the "Spielberg Style"
What makes Masters of the Air feel the way it does is the "Amblin" touch. It’s a mix of reverence for the "Greatest Generation" and a refusal to look away from the gore. If you’re looking for that specific aesthetic, you should also check out Greyhound, the Tom Hanks-led film on Apple TV+. I know, it’s a movie, not a show, but it’s basically a two-hour distilled shot of the same adrenaline. It focuses entirely on a Destroyer captain protecting a convoy from a U-boat "wolf pack." No subplots. No fluff. Just 90 minutes of sonar pings and depth charges.
Actionable Insights for Your Next Watch
Finding a new show is an investment of time. If you’re undecided, here’s how to choose based on what you specifically liked about the 100th Bomb Group’s story:
- For the "Band of Brothers" feeling: Watch The Pacific. It’s the direct sibling. Just be prepared for a much darker emotional journey.
- For the aerial combat and technical detail: Check out Catch-22. The B-25 Mitchells are beautiful, and the tension of the bomb run is handled with incredible realism.
- For the "Band of Rebels" vibe: Go with SAS Rogue Heroes. It’s fast-paced, loud, and incredibly fun while staying rooted in insane true events.
- For a wider look at the war's impact: World on Fire provides the civilian and multi-national perspective that Masters only briefly touched on with the characters in the Stalag Luft III or the Resistance fighters.
The legacy of these men isn't just in the history books; it's in the way we continue to tell their stories. Masters of the Air opened a door to a very specific, very dangerous part of the war. These other series help fill in the rest of the map. Whether you want the gritty realism of the infantry, the absurdity of the bureaucracy, or the high-stakes world of special operations, the "World War II Cinematic Universe" (if we can call it that) has plenty more to offer.
Start with Band of Brothers if you've missed it. Move to SAS Rogue Heroes if you want a jolt of energy. Your seat in the cockpit might be empty for now, but the ground war is just as compelling.