A Good Hate Watch:‘The Flight Attendant’
TW//: Substance Abuse
HBO Max premieres new mystery series The Flight Attendant , based on Chris Bohajalian’s novel of the same name. Kaley Cuoco plays a boozy flight attendant, who experiences a life altering moment, after one forgettable night in Bangkok. This six episode series was available to stream on Thanksgiving Day ( Nov. 26, 2020)
Cassie (Cuoco) is an edgy yet charismatic fly attendant, who when not spending her moments in the sky, spends them carousing the city until she is back in the air. She spends most of her days hardcore binging and even at work she can not fully abandon her uncontrollable reckless behavior. On the latest trip to Bangkok, she bonds with a charming passenger, Alex (Husiman) and they spend the time they had together in Bangkok drinking and sexing. What seems like a lively moment of entertainment, was abruptly cut short when Cassie woke up in a hotel room, and discovered the dead body of Alex with his throat slit. In a panic, and no memory of the events that transpired the night previously, Cassie loses control, cleans the crime scene and flies back to New York.
The Flight Attendant is a series that is spent going through the process of simultaneously uncovering Alex’s murder and Cassies Alcoholic addiction. Each episode entails a moment of new information, that would initially clear Cassie of all suspicion for Alex's murder, but also drifts reluctantly into an abyss. The overall plot is muddy, with each episode pilling onto one another rather than merging and formulating a cohesive storyline. There are moments, where Cassie is subconsciously absent from reality, and she falls into either a traumatic memory she had tucked away, or intrusive thoughts that involve Alex.
Trying to keep up with these three subplots can be beneficial if it is introduced correctly and fairly paced, but this series did neither. Speaking of pacing, they finished the entire storyline in Season One. Not only were we introduced to the climatic moment of Alex’s cruel death, but by episode six, the killer was revealed AND done away with. At this point it's like what is the point of a Season renewal, when the salient part has been solved?
Like many TV Shows and Movies that were released in 2020, The Flight Attendant too fell victim to a faulty production. There were some lazy elements throughout the series that were difficult to ignore. For example, the CGI bunnies, planes in the air, “action packed moments” and so much more. It's one thing if on camera chemistry between real life actors is off, but computerized bunnies that are noticeably technologically designed?
Nonetheless, the show is not entirely terrible. In a time where there is nothing to watch and nowhere to go, it is only fair to give The Flight Attendant one chance. It's a show that does not require a ton of effort nor attention, and is easy to get through with it being a shorter series.
