On cloud nine
Panam
invites you to the jet-setting lives of pilots and flight attendants.
SET in pre-feminist 1960s, Pan Am invites you to the dizzying world of pilots and flight attendants at an age when preflight weigh-ins and mandatory girdle-checks were the norm. Enter the happy, shiny and breathtakingly beautiful Pan Am stewardess, who purportedly transgress all of that and embody a new breed of strong, independent women.
The era also marked the beginning of the commercial jet age, a time when air travel itself was as exciting as the destinations and passengers are dressed up to fly. Named after the iconic Pan American World Airways, the series focuses on the pretty ladies who have tended to many a smoking and drinking passenger on the airline. The Pan Am girls, who were among the first women to see the world, personified glamour and freedom that were restricted to most women and were also deemed the hallmarks of beauty and grace.
Created by Jack Orman, the series took off with the fast-paced commotion on the airline’s new Clipper Majestic jet. Ironically, the show’s retro vibes provides a somewhat refreshing twist to modern TV.
Pan Am offers a peek into the in-flight experiences of the affluent as they lapped-up seven-course meals that came with turtle soup and caviar. Soap opera drama hinges on its glossy surface of the period drama, which is often convoluted with bouts of flashbacks.
The prepped-and-prettied cast is led by Christina Ricci’s hot-headed and pottymouthed Maggie Ryan. Following a hurdle in her career, the tenacious and stubborn Ryan is finally flying high and is determined not to screw up. Ricci lends much of her feisty persona to Ryan, whose life and zest fills up her coin-sized eyes in every scene.
She is joined by the stunning Collete Valois (Karine Vanasse), a zany French woman with the propensity to date (and bed) the wrong man.
Redhead Kelli Garner fires up the clique as the competitive and rebellious Kate Cameron. She left the sheltered enclave of her smalltown home to brave a brand new world of self-sufficiency and liberty, which was then foreign and out-of-bars to most young women. They were more interested in (as the show connotes) snagging a rich husband. Her world is thrown into jeopardy when she is engaged to be a secret agent for the CIA.
Her impossibly beautiful blonde younger sister Laura (Margot Robbie) is the filial daughter turned runaway bride who is on her way to exciting new adventures. Unlike her sister, Laura is cheery and easily excitable.
Navigating the skies and through the bubbling sea of estrogen is the Clipper Majestic’s pilot Dean Lowrey (Mike Vogel). His madefor-television good looks no doubt compensate for the fewer and less prominent male characters in the show.
Lowrey is assisted by the crew’s first officer Ted Vanderway (Michael Mosley), a former Navy test pilot who was honourably discharged after a Naval tribunal blamed him for the crash of an aircraft he was piloting. In between trying to regain his reputation and prove his worth as an aviator, Vanderway busies himself with a myriad of skirt-chasing attempts.
The series has its fair share of corny moments, with hard-hitting messages that tries almost too desperately to generate a sense of feminine empowerment.
But perhaps more importantly is that Pan Am pushes women to the forefront and highlights an amalgam of social injustices the flight attendants had to face. They include the no-marriage rule, sexism and sexual harassment that were challenged by these outspoken and intelligent women.
The ladies, clad in their iconic sky-blue uniforms, are figures of empowerment. Smiling and self-assured, they are often seen in between flights strutting side-by-side in synchrony, with their heads held high and an arm raised ever so slightly as though to convey a sense of purpose and command.
My verdict? This beautiful cast is likely to keep viewers (particularly the female variety) tuning in, if only to marvel at the glamorous outfits and the glory of a bygone era. n Pan Am airs every Saturday at 9.50pm on AXN Beyond HD (Astro B.yond Ch 720).