Hope takes flight but ride bumpy on NBC mystery

Redemption and second chances are born of a spooky aviation mystery in NBC’s “Manifest,” when a flight from Jamaica to New York goes missing somewhere over the Atlantic and then inexplicably touches down at its destination 5½ years later — plane, crew and passengers intact.

Authorities are flummoxed by the return of Montego Air Flight 828, and so are the 191 souls aboard when they learn it’s 2018. No wonder their Obamaera BlackBerrys won’t work.

The flight was uneventful, they later tell suspicious FBI agents, except for a brief, violent bout of turbulence due to a “sudden weather surge” undetectable by radar. Cue the ominous music.

The hourlong pilot episode, which premiered Sept. 24, initially captivates with “Lost”-like puzzles: Where were they all that time? Why have none of them aged?

But once on the ground, rote themes of redemption and faith dilute an otherwise intriguing supernatural occurrence and leave viewers with another puzzle to solve: why “Manifest’s” characters don’t seem all that interested in figuring out what the heck happened.

Instead, passengers Michaela Stone (Melissa Roxburgh), her brother Ben (Josh Dallas) and their loved ones talk about righting wrongs and fixing their lives. “The universe just gave all of us a doover,” marvels Ben’s wife, Grace (Athena Karkanis), while mankind’s biggest mystery looms small in the background.

More interesting is the plight of Ben and Grace’s young son Cal • "Manifest" can be seen at 10 p.m. Mondays on NBC, including WCMH-TV (Channel 4).

(Jack Messina), who also was on the flight. He has advanced childhood leukemia; when they left Jamaica, he had only six months to live. His cancer did not progress during the half-decade time lapse, but effective treatments for the disease did. Now Cal has a shot at beating the disease.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, the medical researcher behind the medical breakthrough, Saanvi (Parveen Kaur), was on the plane as well, and she returns to find her work has manifested into a miracle cure. Did their disappearance serve a higher purpose, and does their new lease on life come with the increased responsibility of saving others?

NYPD cop Michaela is starting to think so, even though her return has been less hopeful than her brother’s or Saanvi’s. Her fiance, Det. Jared Vasquez (J.R. Ramirez), married her best friend in her absence, and now she has no love, no job and no apartment. But she has gained a sixth sense that is geared toward protecting others from harm and worse, and she is beginning to think it’s coming from a higher power.

“Manifest,” which comes from executive producer and Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis, along with Jack Rapke, Jeff Rake and Jackie Levine, has all the right ingredients to develop into a sci-fi thriller or perhaps a divine-intervention drama.

It could turn into an addictive series if “Manifest” allows its gripping supernatural narrative to rise above its characters’ less interesting personal dramas.