Follow-up to ‘Band of Brothers’ and ‘Pacific Rim’ tells a new WW2 story LONDON: There’s a familiar sentiment running throughout “Masters of the Air,” the new Apple TV miniseries: They don’t make ’em like this anymore. For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @arabnews.lifestyle It could be applied to any number of elements of this big-budget follow-up to the World War II miniseries “Band of Brothers” and “Pacific Rim.” We could be talking about the characters (the pilots and support crew of the US Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group, initially full of naïve idealism and soon forced to confront the bloody realities of the war), we could be referring to the planes themselves (the mighty Flying Fortresses used by the flight crews during the monumental air campaign against the Nazi forces), or we could even be talking about the show itself. “Masters of the Air” is not a narratively complex beast, replete with twists and turns. Rather, it’s a show that seems to belong to a bygone era: a lovingly made, epic chronicle of remarkable people doing remarkable things during remarkable times. That it’s fondly and sensitively made should come as no surprise. After all, it’s produced by “Band of Brothers” and “Pacific Rim” masterminds Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. And their steady hand certainly pays dividends. A host of directing talent (including “No Time To Die” helmer Cary Joji Fukunaga and “Empire” director Dee Rees) are given the time, space, and — clearly — the budget, to tell the stories of these airmen, who went up on near-suicidal missions time after freezing, perilous time. Headlining the huge cast are big names Austin Butler, Barry Keoghan and Callum Turner (with Josiah Cross and Ncuti Gatwa among those expected in later installments, following the two-episode premiere), but there are no weak turns here, despite the size of the ensemble. Much like its predecessors, “Masters of the Air” makes you care about characters who might be snatched away at any moment. And as with all of these Spielberg/Hanks WW2 projects, the rawness of the conflict is never hidden, nor downplayed. It all makes for an uncomfortable, yet utterly riveting watch. They don’t (often) make shows like this anymore, which makes this one all the more important.