TV Series Review: The Flight Attendant
What’s Going on?
Let me began by prefacing a few things. The first thing that I need to get off my chest is that I did not watch past the first episode. I understand everything they are going for with this series just from the first 40 minutes of one episode. Second, I listened to the audiobook and was pleased with the overall story that the author wrote. I thought it was a book that would make a great movie, maybe a decent mini-series, but a whole season wasn’t something I thought the book could carry. I also heard that they are going for a second season; how is this even possible?
The whole book is only 370 pages, and I want to say the audiobook was right around the 10-hour mark….are you starting to see the main issue? How are they taking the book’s overall concept, which I liked, and stretching it out into two seasons of a show? What is the point of this? I guess it must be a money grab by HBO max is the only thing that makes sense to me. The book was good, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think it was two seasons worth of viewing pleasure.
I was thinking more about the first and only episode that I will watch. The first episode felt like five movies that were all edited together to make one nightmare-fueled fever dream that I don’t think happened in the book. Like, I don’t remember anything about the main character’s childhood in the book, dead deer, or anything else like that. I think the series and the book made a weird departure from one another.
Heading back to the second reason about the differences, I just did a little internet sleuthing and was able to find that almost everything from the book is different in this “comedy-drama.” That’s another thing that bugs me; I don’t remember the book’s main character being so funny or trying to be funny. Because of who was cast as the main lead and her previous role, I think she is trying to be funny. Maybe it’s just me, though, and not her.
The overall takeaway from the book for me was more of an ARGO feeling. Something that felt a little too real, like someone had witnessed this take place in real life. I wanted the series to have all the passion and drive that the book had, but what you get is the girl from Big Bang Theory doing the same character and hoping that no one will notice. I don’t think she was the right call for this role.
I picture the main character being more of a wild girl who can’t get her life together. Maybe a chick that has fallen on hard times, I imagine more of a Lindsey Lohan or someone in real life that has hit rock bottom. That way, the acting might be believable for once. That is one reason why I don’t think Kaley Coco is the right choice for this role. She is worth like a trillion dollars, and I’m not buying this whole blackout drunk girl persona that the main character has in the book. I don’t picture her as this character.
I know that most people will say that the book is always better, but I would disagree. If a movie or show can teleport you to the world from the book, the movie or show will always be better. If it can bring whatever made the book so unique to the screen, it can have a power that the book doesn’t possess. It can show the audience what the characters look like, the scenery, and how everything flows.
This series couldn’t capture that same vision that the book had, and it’s regrettable. I hope that in the future, when a story is bought and turned into a series, either the author is more involved or name it something else altogether. The book Flight Attendant and the HBO series Flight Attendant aren’t close to being the same thing, and it’s a bummer. I would give the HBO series one fever dream intro out of five.