S01.E01: Pilot

[Sakura12]

It seems like this show was so eager to get to love triangles and family drama, they skipped over everything else. 

The Good Place put some thought into their stories, plus it's a comedy. If this show is going with Spirital over sci fi, then yes they have to put more thought into their stories and not go with just because. I hope they go sci fi, the writing isnt strong enough to be deeper. 

Edited September 25, 2018 by Sakura12

[Orillia]

I think this showed some potential. It's only the first episode so time will tell. I agree with everyone about the passengers. If this happened in real life it would be the biggest story in the world. I highly doubt it would just be welcome back, see you around.

When the detective and his ex went back to the dog owner , I had a feeling that "set them free " referred to the kidnapped girls. She solved that crime in record time.    

[lostmydamnmind]

Kind of stumbled on this when The Voice ended. I was intrigued, will watch again. I think the premise has potential and hope it's more of an ensemble cast and not just focused on this very boring family.

[stealinghome]

2 minutes ago, Orillia said:

When the detective and his ex went back to the dog owner , I had a feeling that "set them free " referred to the kidnapped girls. She solved that crime in record time.    

I also called that "set them free" would lead to the discovery of the kidnapped girls, but I thought setting the dogs free would more indirectly cause the girls to be found--like, the dogs run away and bite the man who kidnapped the girls, which causes him to go to the hospital and as a result the police end up going to his apartment and finding the girls. I thought it would be more a "touching off a series of events" thing, not Michaela herself finding the girls. Though it is interesting that the messages seem to be somewhat location-specific--Ben and Michaela both said that they heard the messages when they passed by the place, and not before then; Michaela isn't seeing kids on the other side of the city getting hit with a bus, she sees the kid 500 feet away from her.

I do agree that the pilot really underplayed how massive these people coming back would be, but the promos for episode 2 seem to indicate worldwide fascination with the returned plane (as there should be), so I'm wondering if we'll see something of a really soft reboot in episode 2 now that the pilot has set up the initial premise, with these episodes circling back around to cover ground that the pilot just didn't have the time to.

[ams1001]

15 minutes ago, Orillia said:

When the detective and his ex went back to the dog owner , I had a feeling that "set them free " referred to the kidnapped girls. She solved that crime in record time.    

Same here; when she heard the voice again while he was walking the dogs back in, I was like, "ohhh, it's not the dogs that need to be set free!" Was a little annoyed I didn't figure it out sooner.

Edited September 25, 2018 by ams1001

[crashdown]

It's a shame that they took such an interesting premise and made it into the dullest possible story--none of the characters are interesting; the pop spirituality is a real turnoff; and turning it into a quasi-cop procedural is a terrible decision. I'm very disappointed. I'll give it an episode or two to prove me wrong, but I predict this one will be a quick cancellation.

[Enigma X]

I won't be able to watch until tonight but the mix reviews are confusing me. If it has a 4400 vibe, I am in. If this is centered around religion, I am out. 

[ams1001]

2 minutes ago, stealinghome said:

I also called that "set them free" would lead to the discovery of the kidnapped girls, but I thought setting the dogs free would more indirectly cause the girls to be found--like, the dogs run away and bite the man who kidnapped the girls, which causes him to go to the hospital and as a result the police end up going to his apartment and finding the girls. I thought it would be more a "touching off a series of events" thing, not Michaela herself finding the girls. Though it is interesting that the messages seem to be somewhat location-specific--Ben and Michaela both said that they heard the messages when they passed by the place, and not before then; Michaela isn't seeing kids on the other side of the city getting hit with a bus, she sees the kid 500 feet away from her.

I do agree that the pilot really underplayed how massive these people coming back would be, but the promos for episode 2 seem to indicate worldwide fascination with the returned plane (as there should be), so I'm wondering if we'll see something of a really soft reboot in episode 2 now that the pilot has set up the initial premise, with these episodes circling back around to cover ground that the pilot just didn't have the time to.

I was thinking along the same lines, re: finding the girls. The dogs would run off somewhere and lead to something else, etc. A little too obvious that the owner had the girls right there (which is maybe why I didn't figure it out sooner...I guess I was expecting more nuance).

I found myself wondering how much time the pilot actually covered. It seemed like everything happened within a short period of time (days?) but maybe it was skipping ahead in time and they'll go back and fill in the details?

[BitterApple]

1 hour ago, mertensia said:

Someone in that group has to be in hysterics that the Cubs finally won a World Series and they didn't get a chance to watch it live.

Also, the insurance companies must be going crazy.

The lead actress is very flat.

Lulz! My husband is originally from Chicago, and if he landed and found out he missed the World Series win, he'd probably have to be institutionalized for the rest of his life. 

[Empress1]

I'm with those of you who wonder why Ben's wife doesn't just tell her husband that she moved on. She didn't do anything wrong. Five and a half years is a long time and she thought he was dead; it's odd to me that Ben didn't even ask the question. The daughter clearly knows, and it's not fair to put her in a position of having to lie to her father. I'm guessing that she has feelings for her husband, which is complicating her new relationship, but she should just say that.

2 hours ago, green said:

I agree with those who said they glossed over the "been gone for 5 years" fallout way too quickly. Everyone on that plane should be WAY more freaked out and confused. Instead, it seems like most of them have just accepted it like, "Oh gosh, that's so weird. Hey is my job still available?" Nobody's asking any questions! Nobody seems scared. Nobody seems skeptical. Yes, I know it's just the pilot, and maybe these scenes are yet to come, but I thought that should have been more the focus of the pilot than what we actually got.

I agree. If nothing else, the paperwork involved to get all of them re-declared legally alive would be copious and a giant pain in the ass. You can't just slip back into your life because your life technically ended. Like the main character said, she doesn't have ANYTHING.

And I mean ... it's time travel. This should be like The Leftovers (for those who didn't see the series or read the book, in that story 2% of the world's population just vanishes into thin air), where it's the only story on CNN, religious leaders are opining, the people on the plane are being hounded by the press. The twins who are now five years apart would get offers to be on every morning show in the country. 

I was not moved by the main character's acting. I always give new shows two episodes (pilots have to lay a lot of groundwork and sometimes they do so clunkily), so I'll try the second and see.

Edited September 25, 2018 by Empress1

[Dejana]

I saw Twitter speculation last night that Grace's new boo is a woman, not sure if that's based on anything but it would differentiate the story from the Michaela/Jared/BFF triangle.

[ams1001]

5 minutes ago, Dejana said:

I saw Twitter speculation last night that Grace's new boo is a woman, not sure if that's based on anything but it would differentiate the story from the Michaela/Jared/BFF triangle.

That would be a somewhat refreshing twist, at least. I didn't notice a name on the text conversation, come to think of it...(though they could have used a unisex name if there was one).

[sempervivum]

This is being compared to The 4400, The Crossing, etc.- I'm going to say it reminded me of Wayward Pines, which had a very intriguing premise, but which totally fell apart once you started thinking about the logistics of moving a chunk of 21st century Oregon (I think it was) via time travel. (Add in some weird Handmaiden-style sexual politics, and pfft). A lot of these shows seem to be written by 22 year olds who know very little history and don't have any practical experience in life. Here they fail to think through how a government and society would react to a stunning occurence like this one. 

I also have to take issue with the comparison to Timeless, which (IMO) has strong characters with a sense of humour about themselves. 

[shapeshifter]

7 minutes ago, sempervivum said:

I also have to take issue with the comparison to Timeless, which (IMO) has strong characters with a sense of humour about themselves.

My issue is that the premise is nothing like that of Timeless.
Just in case anyone was wondering if the Manifest airplane was a time traveling device, it went kablooey in the first episode.

[snarkylady]

Imagine what would happen if flight MH370 suddenly appeared on radar and requested permission to land somewhere and once on the ground it's determined that no one has aged at all.  Would get some attention, wouldn't it?

[krankydoodle]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

12 hours ago, ams1001 said:

12 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

I am intrigued how that woman's research got to her boss back home. Wasn't it only on her laptop? Did it get zapped to him when they went through the turbulence or had she actually sent it before the flight?

I was wondering the same thing about the research. Did it get emailed somehow? Did the "force" or whatever cause it to be sent?

Yeah, I just hope it's a plot hole rather than the show adding Medical Drama to its résumé.

Since she specified that she had been trying to pull her research from the portal, I figured it was in the cloud storage of whatever org she works for and her colleagues were able to get access to it after she went missing.

I also thought Grace's reluctance to admit that she's moved on has at least as much to do with her fear over how her son will react as it is over how Ben might.

Apart from Saanvi, I don't find any of the characters/actors very interesting or appealing. But the plot has potential and pilots can be rough, so I'll give it a few more episodes.

[tennisgurl]

I love seeing Josh Dallas again, so I will be with this for awhile no matter what. The poor guy just cannot stop being separated from his daughter and missing time with her due to supernatural shenanigans! Always great to see Charming though.

I think this has potential, if they explore it enough (like the worlds reaction to this) and dont fall into the police procedural trap. The cop sister is probably the least interesting character now, so it sucks that it looks like she is going to be our main character. I want to explore the other people from the plane, and see what they are dealing with. They seem interesting in the bits that we got. Definitely think the researcher and cancer treatment is going to become a big deal in why this happened. 

Ben's wife just needs to be honest that she found someone else. Yeah its a weird, sucky situation, and I get why she didnt open with "hey baby, welcome back! I know we were happily married about an hour ago, but now its been five years, and I found a new boo! Bye!" but she didnt really do anything wrong, and hiding this will just make everything more awkward. 

I figured out she was going to be setting the missing girls free, and not the dogs. Not sure if the whispers will be saving people all the time, or if other stuff will go down, but I am interested in seeing where it goes.

[shantown]

3 hours ago, mertensia said:

Someone in that group has to be in hysterics that the Cubs finally won a World Series and they didn't get a chance to watch it live.

Also, the insurance companies must be going crazy.

 

2 hours ago, stealinghome said:

Forget sports, can you imagine disappearing under Obama and reappearing under Trump??

See this is what I want to see more of - things have changed a ton in the past 5 years! Sports, politics, technology, culture, etc. I'm not sold on a spiritual mystery of the week cheesy drama. I would be sold on the fish-out-of-water, political/sci-fi mix, alternate timeline sort of show. Agreeing with those who also hoped for somewhat of a soft reboot now that all the exposition is out there.

[Skycatcher]

2 hours ago, ams1001 said:

..I guess I was expecting more nuance).

 After watching the show all I can add is....

LOLOLLOL..... How naive can WE be?

[ams1001]

2 minutes ago, Skycatcher said:

 After watching the show all I can add is....

LOLOLLOL..... How naive can WE be?

I know, I know. I'm trying to be more optimistic about things.

[Skycatcher]

3 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

I know, I know. I'm trying to be more optimistic about things.

 I'm the same way, but years of hopes dashed has left its share of scar tissue.

Edited September 25, 2018 by Skycatcher

[Lily H]

I'm put off by the strong religious overtones to this, which I wasn't expecting. I knew right away that "Set them free"  was referring to the kidnapped girls  being there and that the dogs were just a red herring. It was kind of ludicrous that they were going over the plane with hazmat suits, but all the passengers had already gone home. They mentioned the girl's apartment being let go, but presumably everything in it, everything she owned, was also gone, and I didn't notice any reaction from her about this. That would bother me a whole lot. There's been a lot of comparisons between this and Lost, but..... no.

[Pop Tart]

1 hour ago, tennisgurl said:

I figured out she was going to be setting the missing girls free, and not the dogs. Not sure if the whispers will be saving people all the time, or if other stuff will go down, but I am interested in seeing where it goes.

I figured the dogs were connected to the missing girls in some way, given how many times the detective's case was mentioned, but I thought the reveal worked okay. 

I did find it interesting that it seemed in the last scene, where they've all been drawn in the middle of the night to the plane and they watch it blow up, the one not there is the boy with leukemia who only wakes and sits up in bed when the plane explodes. So I'm guessing the "mystery" of all of this will be closely tied to him in some way.

I liked the pilot well enough to stick with it for the hour (which really does say something, I promise) and though it seems I'm in the minority, I liked the female cop character as well as I did anyone else in the episode. Well except for her ex-boyfriend - him I found blah and wouldn't care if I never saw again and actually in terms of his character all I really care about is his wife, Michaela's best friend Lourdes. I'd rather see what happens with that relationship, Michaela/Lourdes, then I am in Michaela and the ex-boyfriend. 

Though I'll watch for another couple episodes, I don't have high hopes for this, mostly based on how the other shows that were like this fared over time. Often it seems the writers don't themselves have a true handle on what the "mystery" answer is, so shows become muddled messes.

edited to fix the name of the female cop - thanks Biggie B

Edited September 25, 2018 by Pop Tart

[Biggie B]

Pop Tart, the female cop is Michaela. Grace is her sister in law, I believe - married to Michaela's brother.

[Jenniferbug]

I liked it. It reminds me strongly of The 4400, but I loved that show so I'm ok with this one being similar. 

I thought they were hinting Cal had also developed abilities in the scene near the end where the family was playing some sort of game with dominoes. They all exclaimed how quick he was at it and had just learned the game.

[Netfoot]

15 hours ago, Dejana said:

I guess all the luggage is being held for investigation? That would suck.

Just think of all that inaccessible duty-free Jamaican rum!  But it could be much worse - it could be inaccessible duty-free Bajan rum!

13 hours ago, Lakebum said:

there is NO WAY that the passengers would have been released so soon (if ever.)

They are already legally dead, and have been for years.  They'd be in a concentration camp somewhere, with 100 miles of desert between them and the nearest main road,  with electrodes up the wazoo and boffins saying things like "Turn up the voltage!" and "We only need to dissect a few of them."  Meanwhile, armed psychopaths and hungry Dobermans would patrol outside the wire for their protection....

[MadyGirl1987]

1 hour ago, tennisgurl said:

Ben's wife just needs to be honest that she found someone else. Yeah its a weird, sucky situation, and I get why she didnt open with "hey baby, welcome back! I know we were happily married about an hour ago, but now its been five years, and I found a new boo! Bye!" but she didnt really do anything wrong, and hiding this will just make everything more awkward. 

Is she hiding or is it more a case of not knowing what to say or how she feels about the situation? I mean, how would you even bring that up? What if she now wants to leave her new love interest? I can see her needing time to process everything.

[Pop Tart]

23 minutes ago, Biggie B said:

Pop Tart, the female cop is Michaela. Grace is her sister in law, I believe - married to Michaela's brother.

Thanks Biggie, I fixed it. 

[green]

3 hours ago, sempervivum said:

 A lot of these shows seem to be written by 22 year olds who know very little history and don't have any practical experience in life. Here they fail to think through how a government and society would react to a stunning occurence like this one.

Wow, you nailed it.  Compare this to Mr Robot where the three main players ("Mr Robot", E Corp and "Whiterose") have so many layers and nuances and the latter two major connections with governments and secret armies etc.  But what really made Mr Robot hit the home run was pulling the cameras back and showing the results of the greatest hack in history that was meant to help the 99% of us escape the domination of the 1% ers but ends up with fuel and food shortages, few jobs left and half of NYC (where most of it is set) shown living on the streets keeping warm at night by barrel fires while the elite keep celebrating.

You have to show the consequences, intended or unintended, ripple out from an initial "big event" and show it quickly or it no longer is a big event and it is life as usual.  A time traveling magic plane should not fall into the category of life as usual. 

And the people trying to figure this out need to be main characters sharing at least half the air time asap.  Or at least some rogue scientist distrusting the gov't spin or an investigative journalist or even a conspiracy nut actually finding a real conspiracy at last needs to be part of this.  I mean how much more fun would it have been if the conspiracy nut was part of this "chosen" manifest instead of that boring cop woman.

Edited September 25, 2018 by green

[meep.meep]

1 hour ago, shantown said:

 

See this is what I want to see more of - things have changed a ton in the past 5 years! Sports, politics, technology, culture, etc. I'm not sold on a spiritual mystery of the week cheesy drama. I would be sold on the fish-out-of-water, political/sci-fi mix, alternate timeline sort of show. Agreeing with those who also hoped for somewhat of a soft reboot now that all the exposition is out there.

But they couldn't get any cell reception!!!!

What was curiously not mentioned during the entire episode?  The actual manifest!

If this turns into a "do good deeds" show, I'm out.  I'm fine with mysteries, but I have my limits.

[BitterApple]

11 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

Just think of all that inaccessible duty-free Jamaican rum!  But it could be much worse - it could be inaccessible duty-free Bajan rum!

They are already legally dead, and have been for years.  They'd be in a concentration camp somewhere, with 100 miles of desert between them and the nearest main road,  with electrodes up the wazoo and boffins saying things like "Turn up the voltage!" and "We only need to dissect a few of them."  Meanwhile, armed psychopaths and hungry Dobermans would patrol outside the wire for their protection....

The funny thing is, a more aesthetically pleasing version of what you described would've been the better way to go. If the first couple episodes featured the passengers in quarantine we could've seen the major players interact, question what was going on, get their back stories, etc. 

I think the audience being expected to handwave so much with regards to the immediate aftermath is what has a lot of people doubting the prospects for this show. "Oh, you've dropped out of the sky after five years? No biggie. You're still on desk duty, but we'll see if we can get you a new badge and service weapon by next week." I mean, come on.

All that aside though, I did think there were enough interesting elements to give it a chance.

[Bobcatkitten]

I loved the dichotomy that some people's lives improved and others lost everything. The concept is novel and one I'm definitely interested to explore. 

On a shallow note, I can't stand the main characters eyebrows. They are distracting me. Tweeze them. 

[DanielleBowden]

4 hours ago, ams1001 said:

I saw Twitter speculation last night that Grace's new boo is a woman, not sure if that's based on anything but it would differentiate the story from the Michaela/Jared/BFF triangle.

I got the same vibe but not sure why.  It would distinguish one love triangle from other.  Did anyone catch what Micheala heard when she went to hug her sister in law in the basement? 

[ketchuplover]

I woke up at 8:28

[ams1001]

8 minutes ago, ketchuplover said:

I woke up at 8:28

What year was it when you went to sleep?

[stealinghome]

1 hour ago, meep.meep said:

What was curiously not mentioned during the entire episode?  The actual manifest!

Do you mean the contents of the manifest or the manifest itself? If the latter, it actually was mentioned—the air traffic controller at JFK asked for their manifest.

42 minutes ago, cecehe said:

Did anyone catch what Micheala heard when she went to hug her sister in law in the basement? 

I thought it was “all things”—the first two words of the Bible verse her mom loved, that are on the pillow.

[willco]

It was alright, didn't knock me down with greatness, but I didn't hate it. I'm intrigued enough to see where the mystery goes from here.

 

The lead actress is attractive & has exotic feautures-- I had to go & see if she was any relation to the Hemingway's , with those eyebrows I wouldn't have been surprised. But no.

 

I think I have to keep watching, I feel a kinship with the passengers-- if you've ever been with my sisters to a Goodwill store, you WILL feel like you've lost 5 1/2 years ! Only difference is, they didn't notice the time & I really did.

[biakbiak]

4 hours ago, Lily H said:

They mentioned the girl's apartment being let go, but presumably everything in it, everything she owned, was also gone, and I didn't notice any reaction from her about this.

I think she is still in shock; however, she specifically mentioned that everything she owned was gone when she was talking to her ex.

[Matt K]

I found it kind of bad.  The main characters are all dull and we get like no personality to anyone.  Plus there's so little chemistry between characters.  The show deciding to gloss over the transition of these people into regular society again is a real shame as that's something that can't really be fixed after this episode.  The voice over was also kind of bad (the main actress has such an emotionless delivery).  Plus all these love triangles are not something I'm looking forward to for upcoming episodes. 

 

What they should have done is have use spend time with the characters (or at least the main ones) before they boarded the flight.  The 2 min (at most and all through voice over) they gave us did a poor job of letting us get to know the characters.  How do I know how these characters have changed when we never got to know them. 

 

That said, I find the basic premise to be interesting enough so I'm willing to give it another episode or two especially as pilots are not necessarily indicitive of the quality of the series.  But it does need to fix a lot in the next few episodes.

[green]

34 minutes ago, Matt K said:

What they should have done is have use spend time with the characters (or at least the main ones) before they boarded the flight.  The 2 min (at most and all through voice over) they gave us did a poor job of letting us get to know the characters.  How do I know how these characters have changed when we never got to know them.

Another good point.  Episode 1 should have ended where the passengers disembark and hear that it is five and a half years later.  Shot of shocked faces with quick fade out.  Tune in next week to see what will happen.

[eel2178]

4 hours ago, Netfoot said:

They are already legally dead, and have been for years.  

You have to be missing for 7 years before you can be declared legally dead; hence, the plot-point of it has only been 5 and a half years.

[Lady Calypso]

So, I think this series does have potential. For a pilot, it was still rough but interesting enough where I do want to see where they go. I still expect the season to completely fizzle sooner, but if they have a season long endgame, then maybe I'll be able to stand it.

They did some decent stuff in this pilot. I think they fleshed out the characters enough after the time travel. They're still a bit bland, but they have potential.

I think they could have benefitted from expanding on the characters more before the plane crash. Also, they could have potentially waited until the end of the pilot or until the next episode until the supernatural hearing voices stuff. They could have utilized this phenomenon for a little bit and allowed the story to breathe. 

Even though these flaws, they're minor enough where I want to watch another episode, and that's a good sign. I'm still cautious about where things are going, and probably will remain that way until the end of the season. 

[Netfoot]

8 minutes ago, eel2178 said:

You have to be missing for 7 years before you can be declared legally dead.....

Granted.  The phrase used in the show was "missing, presumed dead."  

In either case, if they languished in an internment camp for the remainder of their lives, nobody would have come looking for them.

[preeya]

There was an episode of Twilight Zone (way back when) that this show is likely based upon.

Also, the ending (fade to black) sounded a bit like "LOST"

[meep.meep]

Flight 828 is definitely not as interesting as Flight 815. 

What is up with flights numbered in the 800's?  If I ever get assigned to one of those, I'm not boarding!

[QuePasa]

I could do without the voices stuff.  There is enough potential there with adjusting to life after being “gone” that long.  I will stick with it for now, but I am not interested in a primarily sci-fi show.  If every episode is about what the voices tell them, I am out.

[biakbiak]

2 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

am wondering if the force some how determined which passengers took the flight and which persons took the money instead.

They are the same people. They got a $400 voucher and booked on the later flight. It seems the crew who would have been scheduled to be on the flight were also effected.

Pure speculation on my part but I imagine the reason we didn’t see their lives before the incident is that we are going to be seeing flashbacks.

Surprised to see all the love for Josh Dallas, I have never seen him in anything but thought he was just as dull and uncompellong as his sister.

[candall]

It's okay.  May have potential.  Lots of people on the plane, so plenty of opportunity for many of them to have interesting stories, or new powers, or whatever.  We already have the pilot and a couple of other recognizable passengers warming up to pitch.

 

It's true that we're asked to handwave the quick assimilation back into society, but for me the issues related to everyone assuming you're dead for five years is more interesting than the squick of government anal probes and organ dissection.  (Weird to let everyone go home and then investigate the plane in hazmat suits, though.  Heh.)

 

Small potatoes, but the main thing that made me tired was Michaela wordlessly shrugging away her urgent need to release the dogs because she couldn't spit out "Hey, that same voice already helped me save a kid!"--even though she's talking to the brother who had an astral shift on the same damn plane.  Main characters need to use their words and not just be all "Derrrr. . . ."

[Dejana]

49 minutes ago, eel2178 said:

You have to be missing for 7 years before you can be declared legally dead; hence, the plot-point of it has only been 5 and a half years.

I think that is only for individual rather than a collective disappearance due to some sort of cataclysmic event like a missing plane, and even that can vary by jurisdiction.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declared_death_in_absentia

Apparently, death certificates were issued days after the Titanic sank and 9/11, though in those events, there were remains to be found right away, so the presumption of other deaths would be easier to make.

 

Looking back, I thought Olive was a bit hesitant where her father was concerned, beyond the enormity of their predicament, then we learned that she knows all about her mom moving on with someone else.

[Lady Calypso]

17 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

Because he already has to deal with the amount of time he has missed.  Not only is he coming back five years later, he also lost his spouse to someone else through not fault of his own  .I am not blaming her for moving on, but she hasn't had to deal with  a time shift.  Everyone else in his life has moved on as well.  That said, she has to tell him soon.

I know that TV shows really thrive on secrets in order to elicit drama and tension, which is why I'm giving this show until the third episode to have her tell Ben. If not, then it's just going to be another badly written television cliche.