ABC's "Pan Am" took to the skies Sunday night and, though there was a bit of turbulence midair, there is hope for a smoother ride going forward.
Let's get this fact out of the way up front: "Pan Am" is not "Mad Men." The comparison was inevitable.
But it's not necessarily a bad thing. Unlike NBC's widely panned "The Playboy Club," "Pan Am" does not pretend to be high art. It's bubblegum. It's a glossy, well researched, and fairly well-executed piece of nostalgic candy.
Whereas "Mad Men" stews in morose melodrama, "Pan Am" serves up a cheery slice of retro pop culture pie. "Mad Men" mocks the antiquated mores of the past, while "Pan Am" romanticizes them.
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The heavily stylized show does, however, struggle to find its tone. It seems more interested in surfaces than emotional interiors. While the visuals are at times dazzling -- and at times laughably idyllic -- an emotional core is needed if the show hopes to have any staying power.
The pilot opens in an ode to the glory days of the jet setters. It's travel porn. The camera pans across a sleek new Clipper, the stewardesses march through the airport like the Radio City Rockettes, and the plane's takeoff is underscored by absurdly triumphant music. Everything is shiny, sundrenched, and perfect.
Of course, behind the shiny veneer, each of Pan Am's gorgeous stewardesses is hiding a secret.
After fleeing from her husband-to-be on their wedding day, Laura (Margo Robbie) runs off with her rebellious sister Kate (Kelli Garner) to become a Pan Am stewardess. Little does she know that she will become the face of the company after a photographer from Life magazine snaps a candid shot of her in the new blue outfit.
This doesn't sit well with her jealous sister Kate, who has a secret of her own: she's working undercover for the CIA.
Poor Collette (Karine Varnasse). The French beauty finds out mid-flight that her new love interest is actually married with children.
Yet, the most engaging -- and least-featured -- is Maggie, played by the doe-eyed Christina Ricci. A stewardess with a working knowledge of Marxism, she sees through the conspicuous consumption in her job, but revels in the chance to travel the world.
And then there's Bridget Pierce (Annabelle Wallis). Did the CIA or some foreign spy service have something to do with her mysterious disappearance? Who is Bridget? We still don't really know.
The writers insert some history amidst the soapy fluff. A trip back to the Bay of Pigs leads to one of the episode's cheesier plotlines as hunky pilot Dean (Mike Vogel) has his marriage proposal turned down by the cagey Pierce.
