Pan Am (TV)

Check out those outfits in the picture above! Those were the days!

Pan Am, a new series on TV, takes us back to the early 60's, when flying was a total experience. Back then, you got served a delightful meal (several, in fact), wandered over to the bar to meet fellow flyers, lit up a cigarette wherever you chose, and, if you were a male, gawked at the lovely ladies in their matching blue suits.

The fun of the film, like Mad Men, is in the flavor of the 60's. Back then, sexism was rampant. In-flight servers were called stewardesses. They had to be single, pretty, poised, and maybe more. They were the admiration of many young women, who dreamed of seeing the world and living in style. Pilots and passengers could hit on the young ladies as much as they wished, for those were the days of NO awareness of women's issues.

Two of the female leads, Christina Ricci and Margot Robbie, are excellent. Christina's best role in the movies was as the girlfriend of Charlize Theron in Monster. She was appropriately down-and-out, equally as troubled as the prostitute who would end up killing clients. Margot Robbie is a little known actress, but so pretty that she lights up the screen. Among the men, Mike Vogel, who plays the young pilot, is to women what Margot Robbie is to men: cool and hunky.

Plot: Well, not so gripping. And here is the problem with the series. No spoiler, of course, but the little twists and turns of the story are not too believable nor too powerful. Alas, the 60's redux, Pan Am wannabe Mad Men, might well falter simply for lack of a good, solid tale.

Let's see where this one takes us. It may soar (pun intended). At least, this reviewer hopes so.