ABC’s New ‘Pan Am’ Falls Flat

Published in The Circle, Marist's student newspaper

http://www.maristcircle.com/arts/abc-s-new-pan-am-falls-flat-1.2634637#.Tqnl3JviGU8

With America's economy plummeting and the boycotts on Wall Street, people find themselves feeling nostalgic for better times as an escape from the present. ABC finds itself reminiscing on primetime television through the network's new show, "Pan Am."

In 1963, Pan American World Airways was one of the highest grossing airlines in America. ABC has created a drama series based upon four Pan Am stewardesses who find themselves getting into trouble during their escapades all over the world while still finding time to be the pristine ladies they were trained to be.

The show illustrates that the 1960s created a new brand of women who chose careers over husbands. Those women wanted jobs that no longer bound them to the vacuum and kitchen. Women who chose a career as a Pan Am stewardess worked to get their passengers dinner and drinks while learning the art of flirtation.

"Pan Am" shows how in the 1960s, the women didn't care about what the profession actually entailed because they were traveling the world. The Pan Am stewardesses were truly envied.

The show follows Kate, Laura, Colette and Maggie, four Pan Am stewardesses who want to travel the world in style.

Kate finds Pan Am as a way to branch off from the Connecticut norm and find her importance across the planet. Kate's sister Laura,"followed her into a uniform," after deciding to run away from her own wedding.

Colette's character is a woman who wants to travel the world and doesn't mind leaving her home in Paris behind.

Maggie is the opposite of the accommodating and cooperative stewardess who just wants to search the world. Maggie refuses to wear her girdle, does not wear her proper attire onboard, and isn't afraid to talk back to her superiors.

As a portrayal of the times, the show demonstrates women's roles in the 1960s as being degraded, but that being a stewardess was a job that women dreamed of having from a young age. With just one shot of a young girl staring at the smiling stewardesses, the show embodies these women as rock stars.

The series makes other not-so-subtle allusions to the decade by adding hints of the Cold War and portraying a flight during the Bay of Pigs. Other than the cars and the costumes though, the series makes a failed attempt of going back to the 1960s.

The show attempts to be a drama dedicated to the nostalgia generations feel for their past, as well as bring the people who have never lived in the times to appreciate the clothing and the actual lives of the decade. The only trouble is that the series doesn't seem dramatic enough to keep the viewers coming back each week. The show tries to write scandal into the script, like adding elements of the Cold War and spies recruiting a stewardess to do their dirty work across the country. "Pan Am" includes a story line about love in a forbidden relationship between a Pan Am pilot and an undercover spy who plays a stewardess. It is not believable or passionate enough to make the audience attentive. The script and the premise have a lot of potential, but until the writing gets better and more believable, there won't be much of a following.