Pan Am (2011 TV Series) Season 1 Review

Once again I have run out of shows to watch. Most of the new shows I'm watching are in a hiatus over the Christmas break and some even waiting to be released for the next season. Usually, when this happens, I look for random TV shows to watch, especially new ones, to see what's going on in the TV world. This is the kind of situation that gets me into watching Jersey Shore season 4.

And so I ended up checking the pilot episode of Pan Am, a show that focuses on the lives of some pilots and stewardesses of Pan American World Airway, one of the biggest air carriers before its collapse in 1991. It's interesting that it's one of the first companies to have widespread use of jumbo jets and other things that we all enjoy nowadays when we fly.

At first, I didn't really think I'll like it but the amount of historical references portrayed in the show surely got me hooked and surprised me. It wasn't really what I expected. The show is set during the cold war era, a very interesting part of our history. I thought it was going to be all drama and love story but then I was impressed by how deep the story and characters become. I'm actually five episodes in as of now so I can't really speak for the whole season as a whole but surely this show is built on good premises and has a lot of potential to become really awesome.

Aside from Christina Ricci (because she played that girl in Casper before), I wasn't really familiar with the other girls. Actually, one of the things that attracted me to the show would be that I expected it to have very attractive girls. I mean, surely a show about stewardesses will have attractive women in it. Especially during this time when they were very meticulous in hiring stewardesses. The show portrays how girls have weight limits and stuff like that. I figured that it would be nice to watch a show with beautiful girls while waiting for my others shows to release their episodes already. Turns out, this show is more than just that but of course it's always a bonus to have pretty girls in the show.

I'm not really fond of Christina Ricci. It's a personal preference issue. But as I have said, aside from that, I'm not really familiar with the other girls and they're all very pretty and play very interesting and dynamic roles.

My favorite would be the french chick played by Karine Vanasse. I'm actually checking out her other films and roles. All the stuff she chooses look very interesting. You know, those deep artsy trippy films that aren't really super mainstream.

Ultimately though, what sold the show to me would be the character Kate Cameron played by Kelli Garner. It's not really all about looks for me. In the show, she is hired by the CIA (stewardesses have a perfect cover and get to travel the whole world), to play certain roles like transporting documents or other classified stuff. This was really surprising. It adds a lot of depth to the plot of Pan Am. And obviously, I love spy stuff. The concept of espionage is something that has always intrigued me. Plus, the scenarios she has to play involve real events in history which makes it even more interesting.

So if you're out of shows to watch and you haven't seen Pan Am (2011 TV Series) then you surely have to check it out. Sometimes it's a good thing to run out of shows to watch because it forces you to look for other shows and explore new things. Sometimes it leads to really good shows.

I'm actually also going to check out Suits, recommended by some friends last night. What other TV shows do you think I should watch?