WEIRD LAYOVER,
Passengers and 5 1/2 years in future in 'Manifest'
“MAanifest” might just have the greatest hook of any new fall series. And then it loses its grip. An airplane takes off from Jamaica to New York City in April 2013. It arrives 5 years later in November 2018. Imagine that jet lag.
What happened to the flight? Where were the passengers? Why hasn't anyone aged a day?
“Manifest,” from executive producer Robert Zemeckis (“Back to the Future”), gets off to a bumpy start. As the Stone family waits in a Jamaica airport in 2013, a voice-over dumps more exposition than you'd expect in a month of stories. You learn about a family, a married couple, their terminally ill child, a fractured engagement, a car accident.
This all comes in the first 70 seconds, give or take.
What, no pets with prostate problems? Due to the airline overbooking, the family separates.
“Funny how one little decision can ruin your life. And also save it,” police officer Michaela Stone (Melissa Roxburgh, “Valor”) shares in a voice-over.
She, her brother, Ben (Josh Dallas, “Once Upon a Time”), and his 10-year-old son, Cal (Jack Messina), who is losing his struggle with leukemia, board Montego Airways flight 828.
Also traveling, pediatric cancer researcher Saanvi Bahl (Parveen Kaur, “The Strain”). That seems ... convenient.
The plane hits some terrifying turbulence. When the pilot radios to air traffic control for landing instructions, he gets a response that is anything but routine.
Before you can say “X-Files,” the Stone siblings reunite with Ben's wife, Grace (Athena Karkanis, “Low Winter Sun”). Cal is terrified by the sight of his twin sister, Olive (Luna Blaise), now a gangly teen.
There are other changes to their family that leave both Michaela and Ben reeling.
In addition, Michaela learns that her fiance, Jarrod (J.R. Ramirez, “Power”), was promoted to police detective and is married to her best friend.
As Michaela tries to pick up the threads of her life, she starts hearing a voice — her own: “Set them free.”
And “Manifest” takes a hard turn into a police procedural with a seed from “Field of Dreams.”
She's not the only one with an inner nag.
“I don't want to be a circus freak.
I don't have the time for this,” Ben says, in one of the few funny moments, probably an unintentional one at that.
NBC only made the pilot available for review. I have a theory as to what's going on, but it's such an easy guess, I'm hoping it's a red herring.
Nothing onscreen gives much confidence.
“Manifest” moves fast, but it plays like a ticket to nowhere.