This series is so informative and so well laid out with impeccable graphics that I'd really like to give it a higher score.
I can't, though. The narration sounds like an overwrought announcer at a high school football game. "The hot lead from Avgolemono's six powerful .50 calibers chopped the Me-109 to pieces and sent it down in flames." There's also a problem with the images. Airplanes are constantly speeding directly into the "camera" while action music pounds in the background. It's unnecessary and distracting. Every episode I've seen has these same obvious flaws. It's as if the producers had an audience of fifteen-year-olds in mind. And our side ALWAYS WINS.
The irony is that the agitprop approach isn't really required. The P-51Ds were excellent airplanes, with great range and nice maneuverability. It can stand on its own two legs without the pomp.
The frequent remarks that it was the best fighter of World War II are bombast as well. There is probably no such thing as a "best" airplane. It depends on the mission and on an entire pattern of juxtaposed features. The long-nosed version of the Focke Wolf was faster at high altitudes. The Me-262 was faster. The Zero was certainly more nimble. The P-51's liquid-cooled in-line engine could sustain less damage than the P-47s radial.
Again, I'm not being critical of the P-51 but of the teen-age enthusiasm that informs the narration and the superlatives that the airplane itself never needed.
For all that, for all the weaknesses of the series, its clarity of images can't be faulted, or its description of the actions we're witnessing. They're convincing, thrilling, and ultimately sad.
I can't, though. The narration sounds like an overwrought announcer at a high school football game. "The hot lead from Avgolemono's six powerful .50 calibers chopped the Me-109 to pieces and sent it down in flames." There's also a problem with the images. Airplanes are constantly speeding directly into the "camera" while action music pounds in the background. It's unnecessary and distracting. Every episode I've seen has these same obvious flaws. It's as if the producers had an audience of fifteen-year-olds in mind. And our side ALWAYS WINS.
The irony is that the agitprop approach isn't really required. The P-51Ds were excellent airplanes, with great range and nice maneuverability. It can stand on its own two legs without the pomp.
The frequent remarks that it was the best fighter of World War II are bombast as well. There is probably no such thing as a "best" airplane. It depends on the mission and on an entire pattern of juxtaposed features. The long-nosed version of the Focke Wolf was faster at high altitudes. The Me-262 was faster. The Zero was certainly more nimble. The P-51's liquid-cooled in-line engine could sustain less damage than the P-47s radial.
Again, I'm not being critical of the P-51 but of the teen-age enthusiasm that informs the narration and the superlatives that the airplane itself never needed.
For all that, for all the weaknesses of the series, its clarity of images can't be faulted, or its description of the actions we're witnessing. They're convincing, thrilling, and ultimately sad.