Monday, July 8, 2019

(TV SERIES) Manifest Season 1 - A Unique and Quite Intriguing Mystery Drama Series

This was quite a new series that immediately caught my attention when I read the synopsis. It had a really intriguing premise and a unique mystery that I was really interested in finding out. So when I finished catching up with other series on my list, I went ahead and started to watch this from early last week. OK, we shall go on now.

Brief Story Line

An Airplane of Montego airlines with flight number 828 was experiencing a heavy turbulence and finally reached their destination, only to find out that the plane had actually been missing for more than 5 years. Among the passengers were a police detective Michaela Stone (Melissa Roxburgh - Star Trek Beyond, Valor TV series etc), her older brother Ben (Josh Dallas - Once Upon a Time TV series etc), Ben's son Cal (Jack Messina) and many others, including a medical researcher Saanvi (Parveen Kaur).


The return of the flight made everything complicated as the passengers were presumed dead and some of their family and loved ones had moved on with their lives. Ben's wife Grace (Athena Karkanis - The Expanse TV series etc) and Cal's twin sister Olive (Luna Blaise) were also having this awkward moment when they met their family. Michaela's partner in NYPD named Jared (J. R. Ramirez - Power TV series etc) also had trouble with her return. Problems started to pile up when some of the returnees experienced something that would change their lives forever, not to mention the government's insistence in finding out the reasons for their return, which could endanger the passengers as well.

So how would the story proceed? Find them all in this first season of a quite interesting mystery drama series.

End of Brief Story Line

Now this was quite interesting. The pilot episode was the one that got me hooked. I admit that I am a sucker for series such as this one and with a unique premise, it was hard for me to resist watching what would happen next. The first 2 or 3 episodes were dealing with something mysterious and my curiosity grew more. But as the story progressed, I began to feel that the series seemed to be focusing a lot on the drama side and the mystery sometimes did not get the focus it should be.

Don't get me wrong though, I am fine with some drama since the series was categorized as supernatural drama anyway. However, if the amount of mystery was too brief, it kind of reduced the fun for me personally. The drama (which sometimes could be a bit emotional), were about the adaptation those passengers must do when they integrate themselves in a world where they had been presumed dead. You could definitely imagine how difficult it must be for them psychologically and physically (like in the case of Cal who was still a kid while his twin sister and friends had grown to be teenagers).

Towards the last few episodes, I thought the mystery grew larger in concept. This might be good or bad depending on the way you look at it. On the one hand, it seemed to be straying from the original mystery surrounding the flight, but on the other hand, it could also make it more interesting. The one thing that I felt missing was the involvement of the rest of the passengers, which was a bit weird considering there were > 100 of them in the plane where they could easily make a story on any one of them. Btw, of all the episodes in first season, my most favorite were definitely the pilot, episode 9 and the last 2 episodes. The season finale really made me excited to watch the second season (unfortunately it would only start in 2020).

I thought the main cast in the series were pretty decent in their roles. The only familiar faces in here for me were Josh Dallas (whom I immediately recognized as prince charming in Once Upon a Time TV series) and J. R. Ramirez whom I saw before in Jessica Jones season 2. Aside from the series regular, there were also some recurring roles and guest stars. One person that really caught my attention was Daryl Edwards as NSA Director Robert Vance whom I thought was an interesting character. There was also a familiar name in the series, i.e. Robert Zemeckis (director of movies like Back to the Future trilogy, Forrest Gump, The Polar Express, Contact and many more) as the executive producer.

As a supernatural drama series, this one was pretty good. The mystery was intriguing enough to keep me interested. The tone was a bit inconsistent at times but mostly they satisfied me. It might not be up to the level of that multiple awards winning series Lost which was loved by many, but for me this one was not bad. Overall this was quite fun. I liked watching the mystery unfolding a bit in every episode. So if you are looking for this kind of genre, then this could be an option. But if you are looking for a really deep mystery and not too much drama involved, then this might not be interesting enough. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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