'The Flight Attendant' Review: A gripping dark tale with potential, here's why murder mystery didn't take off
Spoilers for 'The Flight Attendant'
The HBO Max series 'The Flight Attendant' is an adaptation, to some extent, of Chris Bohjalian's 2018 novel of the same name. If you've read the book, you might be disappointed with the series, mainly because your imagination was probably better compared to the adaption. This is not to say that the series isn't gripping or has glimpses of the darkness the novel provides, but just like sometimes remakes of original series are better not made, novels should be left for better scripts.
The premise is as captivating as it can get when it comes to a murder mystery — alcohol-loving Imperial Airlines flight attendant Cassie Bowden (Kaley Cuoco) goes back to a Bangkok hotel room with a charming businessman named Alex (Michiel Huisman), whom she met on a plane.
While the night was joyously pleasurable, the morning after had Cassie dealing with more than just a hangover — she wakes up to Alex's dead body covered in the glorious white sheets next to her. So you see, the premise makes for great potential for a murder mystery, but besides the storyline, we mostly found Cassie obscenely annoying when it came to her rash decisions.
Her first stupid move? She cleans up the crime scene and goes right back to her hotel as though she didn't just leave a dead body behind. To make things worse, Cassie is haunted by Alex making her doubt herself as she shifts through flickers of undependable memories of the night. The audience is left quickly wondering if Cassie, whose drunk nights seem to be signature behavior as she travels the globe, had actually murdered Alex?
The premise then slowly looses is oh-my-what's-next attitude because Cassie seems to have huge amounts of convenient help as she wades through murky water dodging the FBI and trying to piece together the case herself. By convenience, we mean that her best friend Annie (Zosia Mamet) — our favorite character/actress in the series — is a badass lawyer who just so happens to have a computer hacker boyfriend named Max (Deniz Akdeniz).
The series could have done a lot better had it focused more on Cassie's personality and answered the question of why she is the way she is? but rather it focused on her horrendously dumb decisions when it came to her deciding that she would find out who Miranda (Michelle Gomez), the woman (who she had no idea about) she met in Bangkok.
Not to mention, she further thinks it's a grand idea to flee the airport, and also to attend Alex's memorial to try and piece her Rendez-vous night together with him.
While we agree that Cuoco did a respectable job portraying a propagandist, we don't think that she was the best choice for the role. Honestly, Mamet would have made a better choice. But, overall the character chemistry did fare well when parallel to the story — it's a good watch, just not a great one. If you've read the book, you may have tried to drown yourself into thinking you know what's about to happen.
You're probably right in most things, but the series does have perks of its own. While we understand an adaptation is just that, the series could have taken frivolous liberties that could have enhanced the watch. It is fast-paced, and for the sole reason that it is a murder mystery, it will keep you on your toes but is a disposable, one-time watch. You're not going to be telling your friend, "oh you should watch this", rather we'd suggest you tell your friends to read Bohjalian's excellence instead.
The first three episodes of 'The Flight Attendant' premiered on HBO Max on Thursday, November 26, and it will be followed by the launch of two new episodes on December 3, two episodes on December 10, and the finale episode on December 17.