1370 replies to this topic

[PRgal]

(Mods: Feel free to give it a sub title...my creative mind isn't working right now)

What did people think of the premiere episode and Christina Ricci's entrance into series television (she hasn't been a regular on a series before, right?)?

ETA: Looks like someone else started a thread when I did. Feel free to delete this one!

Edited by PRgal, Sep 25, 2011 @ 10:38 PM.

[Giuliani2008]

From Wikipedia:

Pan Am is a television series centered around the iconic airline Pan American World Airways during the 1960s. The period drama, from writer Jack Orman (ER) and director Thomas Schlamme (The West Wing), will focus on the pilots and flight attendants working for the world-famous airline in 1963.

The series, produced by Sony Pictures Television, was picked up by ABC in May 2011 for the 2011–2012 television season.[1] Sony licensed the rights to the Pan Am name and logo from Pan Am Systems, a New Hampshire-based railroad company that acquired the Pan Am brand in 1998.

http://en.wikipedia...._Am_(TV_series)

So what did everyone think? I was pleasantly surprised - a fun Sunday night show.

Edited by TWoP Howard, Sep 26, 2011 @ 1:30 AM.
Added quote tags

[PRgal]

Looks like we both started threads at the same time. Those of us who weren't around when this show takes place were tweeting about how different it was to fly back then - how people looked like they were going to a nice restaurant when they were travelling, while today, most of us are happy in our Lululemon pants (yoga pants are your best friend in long haul flights).

[GeorgePBurdell]

I felt like I was watching two different TV shows - a comedy and a made-for-TV dramatic movie. I liked the show, but parts seemed disjointed to me. It would all seem light and breezy and then, suddenly, something dark would happen.

[Milburn Stone]

Well-produced, beautiful to look at, but empty.

[crystalsage]

How about Coffee, Te or Me based on the 1960s memoir of an airline stewardess?

[cmm226]

I would like to like this show but it's missing something. I'll keep watching, at least for a while.

[moodyblue]

It was decent. It gives me something to watch on Sunday nights. I'll stick around for a few more episodes to see if it continues to hold my interest.

[isiscloud]

I thought this was pretty good. EW gave it a B, while it gave Playboy club a C.

Laura - who me??? I can see a little why her sister gets annoyed at her but it doesn't seem like she's trying to outshine her sister
Collette - the wife had her number, but I liked her overall
Maggie - you didn't find out much about her but there'll be plenty of time for that, so far she doesn't seem to be the main focus for the show, or Christina overshadow the other actresses... Did she put a wig on, or just tie up her hair somehow to make it sleek?
Kate- is she supposed to be sympathetic because I didn't like her

Mystery with Brigitte.

The pilots seemed kind of young.

I stick with it for a while. Not a Mad Men fan, and it's nice to focus a bit more on the women for a change. Plus, it's only the first episode.

[ethanvahlere]

Wondering where this thread was going to be.

I thought it was an interesting start. I hope they manage to balance the lighter and the more dramatic parts as the show goes on; I read that review in The New York Times that argued the show was implicitly accepting the sexism of the time (which would definitely make it Mad Men lite), which would definitely mean the show wants to stay on the lighter side. I hope it does go beneath the trappings.

I must admit I watched this partly because I'm on a spy fiction kick (gearing up for the movie of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), and I had read there was an espionage subplot. I liked how that part was handled; I was able to figure out the guy on the plane wasn't really Russian, but it was a nice twist Bridget was once a courier (in retrospect, given what she was doing in Cuba, I should have guessed). And I liked that the training mission really seemed like a training mission, instead of a big thing.

The rest of it was okay. I would have liked to have seen more of Christina Ricci's character. And I recognize this is about people who have to keep a public smile on at all times, but it did seem like they could have gone deeper into some of the character's emotions, or at least cast actors who could express those churning emotions under the smiles better; I did like the actress who played Colette, and thought she was able to suggest a lot.

The actor who played the character who orders Ricci to be the purser on the flight is a customer at our store. I wonder if he's going to be in any more episodes.

I'll definitely tune in next week.

[A Little Edgy]

Well, damn. They really pulled out all the stops on that one, didn't they? It was glossy and gorgeous - no year in the history of humanity has looked as good as they made 1963 look. And the 707 is still the sleekest, most beautiful jetliner to take to the skies. It makes today's passenger jets look stubby and bloated.

The pilot and first officer seemed a bit young. I thought prestige routes usually went to older pilots.

I know British and American intelligence agencies have a long history of cooperation (the "special relationship"), but wouldn't an American agent being working for the Americans, even if the intelligence she gathered was shared with the British? The show made it seem that Kate (? the redheaded sister) was working directly for MI6.

How about Coffee, Te or Me based on the 1960s memoir of an airline stewardess?

I read it a few years ago. It paints a less glamorous and more salacious picture than Pam Am - a lot of the stories are clearly intended for shock/titillation - but still a lot more glamorous than 21st century air travel. Also, IIRC, the stewardesses in that book mostly worked domestic flights, which I assume were considered less prestigious.

Edited by A Little Edgy, Sep 25, 2011 @ 10:55 PM.

[crystalsage]

On the other thread, I suggested Coffee, Tea or Me which was a 1960s memoir of an airline stewardess. To us Baby Boomers, this is a nice dip into nostalgia. Don't know if it will resonate with the younger crowd. One thing is true: the skies were a lot friendlier back in the day. Stewardesses were goddesses of air traffic. Very difficult to pass muster and Pan Am was the top of the heap. At least two years of college were required; nursing knowledge or another language needed; no eye glasses; weight limits and everything must be perfect. I did like the closing shot where the four "stews" walked proudly to the plane while a young girl watched and probably wished to grow up to be an airline stewardess one day.

Edited by crystalsage, Sep 25, 2011 @ 10:55 PM.

[channelczar]

I quite enjoyed the Pilot; Pan Am is much better than the period drama alternative, Playboy Club. Being a child of the nineties I enjoy looking back seeing how air travel was in the sixties, or at least how we nostalgically visualize air travel in the 1960s and transfer that conception to screen. It seems people much more prim and proper, and had a sense of style and decorum. Of course this primness and decorum was behind the Iron Curtain and Cold War conformity, racism, and communist fear and reaction, but it's lovely to look at on screen. Besides It's the sixties and the times are a' changin'.

Anyways, about the pilot, I enjoy the lightness compared to Mad Men, though a sense of intrigue remains with what happened with Bridget and MI6 and what's currently happening with Kate and MI6 and the CIA. I can honestly say I have no complaints. However, the wife who reprimanded Colette for sleeping with her husband can shove it. Your husband is the philanderer. I hate when the mistress is always attacked. Your husband is the one in the relationship and it's his duty to maintain it.

Can't wait for the next episode, this will definitely satiate my Mad Men fix. By the way, with this show and Revenge, ABC is really reeling me in this season.

[name234]

Thomas Schlamme (The West Wing)

I was flipping through channels and this is why I stayed.

Well-produced, beautiful to look at, but empty.

The sets and costumes are amazing. Between the costumes, the affair and the espionage, this may sort of fill the void left by The Hour. I wasn't expecting West Wing on a plane, they had to get through a lot of exposition but I need to give it an episode or two before I judge the writing.

[evalusion]

I liked this episode overall-- the characters seem to have potential, and it's beautifully shot. The espionage/international politics elements felt like they were almost part of a different show at times, so I'm curious to see where they go with that-- whether this will be more of an ensemble drama, or have a mystery/thriller atmosphere-- but I'm in for the next few episodes at least. I don't watch Mad Men, so I don't know how much of a rip-off this is, but I like that the female characters are the center of the show and don't come off as weak or stupid-- sometimes shows in that era are written as though every woman pre 1960 was a simpering idiot. I wonder if, given its setting, the show will have any similar opportunity to develop minority characters, and not in a Very Special Episode kind of way.

[PRgal]

weight limits and everything must be perfect.

There still are weight limits, I think - you can't be too heavy for safety reasons. But it's heck of a lot more liberal.

[moose135]

It was pretty good - a pilot episode (no pun intended) is always going to spend some time setting up the story and the characters, but they did a good job here. I've been involved with aviation in one way or another for my whole life, and didn't see anything outrageously wrong on that end. Maybe one nit would be the Captain, who seemed a bit young for that position, but otherwise they got that stuff pretty close.

The "Cuba" scenes were filmed at my local air patch, Republic Airport on Long Island. They brought the DC-7 in back in March to film those scenes, and came back again in July to refilm some of them - unofficially, we heard they replaced one of the actors and had to reshoot his part. The C-47 in that scene belongs to the American Airpower Museum, where I'm a volunteer, and was something of a bonus for the film crew. And the control tower with the rotating beacon? I've been up there (and shot from there) many times! I had the opportunity to photograph the aircraft, including a few shots during production, when it was in town for the filming.

I'll stick around for a while.

[kiseki]

At least this didn't have a Don Draper Lite as a leading man.

I really liked it. The costumes and sets were gorgeous, the espionage plot is fun, and all four actresses were good and suggested that there were layers to their characters. It's no Mad Men but I don't think it's trying to be.

I'll keep watching.

Edited by kiseki, Sep 25, 2011 @ 11:02 PM.

[Redtracer]

I really liked it, probably the best network drama pilot I've seen so far. It's hard to develop every main character in a pilot, and I don't think they quite accomplished it here, but they gave us enough background on all of them to make us want to know more. And I thought the spy plotline was fairly well incorporated, which surprised me. I was expecting to be all WTF by the end of the hour. Some of the dialogue was a little on the nose ("Buckle up, adventure calls" and the first officer's little speech at the end), but that's a symptom of pilotitis.

Not that there's any reason to compare them other than the sixties thing, but since the media's been doing it anyway, this was far superior to The Playboy Club for me.

[A Little Edgy]

I had posted this in the other thread and see some viewers picked up on the same things I did.

They really pulled out all the stops on that one, didn't they? It was glossy and gorgeous - no year in the history of humanity has looked as good as they made 1963 look. And the 707 is still the sleekest, most beautiful jetliner to take to the skies. It makes today's passenger jets look stubby and bloated.

The pilots seemed kind of young.

I thought so, too. Don't prestige routes usually go to older pilots, and wouldn't Pam Am want someone seasoned - not a brand-new captain - at the controls of a new, high-end aircraft?

I had read there was an espionage subplot. I liked how that part was handled;

I know British and American intelligence agencies have a long history of cooperation (the "special relationship"), but wouldn't an American agent being working for the Americans, even if the intelligence she gathered was shared with the British? The show made it seem that Kate (? the redheaded sister) was working directly for MI6.

the show will have any similar opportunity to develop minority characters

Well, the navigator seemed to be Indian-American (his name was Sanjiv, but he spoke unaccented American English), which struck me as a little unusual for time, given the very small number of South Asians who had grown up in the US in the early 60s. Not that it couldn't have happened ...

One nitpick - the same as I had with The Playboy Club and really the only anachronism I noticed - is that the women's hair is too soft and loose. There was no styling gel in 1963. Those perfect pageboys had to be maintained with hairspray, so that it was rather stiff and smooth. A woman who was fussy about her appearance, as Pan Am stewardesses were required to be, wouldn't have had a hair out of place.

Edited by A Little Edgy, Sep 25, 2011 @ 11:10 PM.

[commentator]

The pilots seemed kind of young.

Yes, too young, by about 10-15 yrs. Smug, leering, older pilots would have worked better.

I loved the synchronized way the stewardesses walked in the airport. There was a shot of a little girl looking at them in awe – “ooohhhh, that’s what I wanna be!”

The wide-eyed “I wanna see the world, experience new exciting things” reminded me of Barbara Parkins voice-over in Valley of the Dolls.

Music is good (nostalgic). Kinda liked the show, so far.

Edited by commentator, Sep 25, 2011 @ 11:14 PM.

[thuganomics85]

A pleasant enough surprise so far. I wasn't expecting much, but I'll easily put in on the higher part of the pilot list this season. There are a few things that I'm a bit concern about (the whole MI6 plot and the Bridget mystery can easily end up being lame if the writers aren't on the ball), but I enjoyed it. Better then The Playboy Club at least. This was before my time, but it reminded me of the part in Catch Me If You Can, when Leo DiCaprio was pretending to be a pilot. The look and feel to it was the same.

Surprised that despite top billing and being the "name" actress, Christina Ricci/Maggie really didn't have that much to do compared to the other actresses/characters. I'm assuming she'll get more later on. Either way, I like her for the most part, and considering that her most recent movie was that awful looking Bucky Larson movie, maybe TV will be her best bet.

The sisters so far are decent characters, although I did find Kate kind of annoying, because Laura didn't seem to be trying to outshine her sister and seemed to really want to succeed at her job, but Kate was just kind of being mean to her. I hope she lightens up. And on a shallow note, I've never seen the actress who played Laura before, but wow, she is gorgeous. She's just as hot as Amber Heard was in The Playboy Club, only acted better (I usually like Heard, but I found her kind of bland on that show.) I'm a fan now.

Wished Collette would have smacked that woman who put on the blame on her for her husband cheating. But I'm sure Collette wouldn't have a job after if she did...

The pilot, Mike Vogel, is one of those guys I've seen in a few stuff. I think I recently saw him as Cecila's husband in The Help.

So, I'll see where it goes. But first impressions were pretty good. Not enough for me to forgive ABC for the Charlie's Angels reboot, but it's a start, heh.

[PRgal]

the show will have any similar opportunity to develop minority characters

Well, the navigator seemed to be Indian-American (his name was Sanjiv, but he spoke unaccented American English), which struck me as a little unusual for time, given the very small number of South Asians who had grown up in the US in the early 60s. Does that count?

There was a stewardess of Asian descent in the early scenes as well. I would have thought that they kept Asian stewardesses on the west coast for the Asian routes though.

[SiobhanJW]

I enjoyed it, I thought it was fun and different. I watched The Playboy Club as well, and I enjoyed this a lot more. That's 2 new shows ABC has gotten me hooked on this season. Lets see if it lasts!

[MuppetCoat]

I think it's smart that they went to a polar opposite of Mad Men and focused on four lead women - Obviously people are focusing on the sexism of the time, but this was far more believable as being an empowerment message... I was reading something that argued that the point isn't whether the job is empowering, it's that the women who held it felt empowered, which I think I buy.

Anyway, compared to The Playboy Club, this was a great pilot... it actually made me want to see more episodes. All four of the main female leads had backstories that made me want to learn more about them.

[PRgal]

I enjoyed it, I thought it was fun and different. I watched The Playboy Club as well, and I enjoyed this a lot more. That's 2 new shows ABC has gotten me hooked on this season. Lets see if it lasts!

If this show lasts for the full season, it's going to be going head-to-head with Mad Men once its fifth season premieres in 2012...

[randomchance]

I don't watch Mad Men and didn't watch the Playboy thing, so I can't compare, but I loved it. It was gorgeous and fun - perfect for a Sunday night.

And personally, I would rather that they not ruin a period piece by trying to PC it up.

[evalusion]

Well, the navigator seemed to be Indian-American (his name was Sanjiv, but he spoke unaccented American English), which struck me as a little unusual for time, given the very small number of South Asians who had grown up in the US in the early 60s. Does that count?

I noticed that too. I wasn't sure if he was a series regular or a major character, since we didn't really get to meet him, but I'd definitely be curious to see what they do with that character is he is going to have more of a role in future episodes. I know air travel, especially international air travel, was a luxury in the 60's, so it seems like it would not be realistic for the flights to be as diverse as American society, and since TV already has issues reflecting diversity, I wondered if that meant there just wouldn't ever be that many non-white characters on this show. I wasn't sure whether African-American or other minority women would have been permitted to be stewardesses back then, so I googled it, and in the process came across this article, which talks about some anachronistic elements that were conscious choices. Apparently they will be bringing on an African-American stewardess, even though African-American women weren't hired as stewardesses until several years later, and would likely have not been assigned such a prestigous flight route.

And personally, I would rather that they not ruin a period piece by trying to PC it up.

I don't think it's particularly "PC" to acknowledge that minorities exist in America and have interesting and compelling lives like everybody else. My problem with period pieces is that they tend to conveniently bring on minority characters and random racist characters in special episodes that have the feel of PSA's, instead of just writing fully developed characters and having them be regular people who, because of the nature of the time period, sometimes have to realistically cope with racism and discrimination.

Edited by TWoP Howard, Sep 26, 2011 @ 1:40 AM.
Unnecessary spoiler tags

[terxav]

It was interesting. The older sister, goodness she got on my nerves, snapping at her sister because she is freaking out trying to accomplish a spy assignment bothered me. Then using her to complete the mission really sucked. Then again maybe it showcased that she was made for the job, use whatever and whoever to accomplish the task.

The wife being so false during the entire flight so she could slam Collette at the end was sad. I wanted to Collette to say "Obviously your husband needs this picture so he remembers he has a wife and child. Have a pleasant stay in London, by the way are you staying at the ??????? hotel, I know he likes the rooms there."

[cmm226]

I'm watching for Christina Ricci so that's probably why it didn't completely grab me. It was beautifully shot but I don't like any of the characters yet.

It felt like there were way too many flashbacks. I get that they're trying to introduce the show and this was how we get to know how the characters are currently in their positions but I was bored and ff'd most of them.

I already decided to watch when I first saw the posters this summer so I'm in, I'm just wondering what they are going to do to sustain a story.