Pan Am...did anyone watch?
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
I was totally impressed with the 3rd episode. Three winners so far. This is stunning work, and it's setting a new bar, not just for network TV, but for TV in general. I expected them to crash and burn by now, no pun intended. Honestly this show is starting to feel like a trapeze act without a net at the circus. They just did a triple somersault! They're going again now!! What's next?
Yeah, I agree. This could easily be an HBO show. To me, it's the hit of the new season. which is surprising considering almost everyone seemed to think that the show would crash and burn. It's just about done a 180 in terms of having people interested in it.
Temis, Laura may not have loved the guy and realized the only way out was to run. Furthermore, we can't put our definition of liberated to the late 1950s and early 1960s. Even a liberated woman couldn't come out as a lesbian that early. Women did largely what was expected of them back then.
I haven't seen the show, but I know when Dad started flying commercial in 1978 he was definitely the oldest in his class and we think the oldest new hire the airline had ever hired. He was 31.
He did have boat loads of experience though.
Temis, I agree with Pumpkin Wookiee. Although I wasn't even born until '66, that moment rang completely true to all of the other stories I've been exposed to set in that period.
The most common complaint is about "getting tied down", in being expected to become a stay-at-home mother and homemaker. You must know that that was the commonly expected role of the wife in a marriage at that period of time. Also, and not to be understated, perhaps she would have felt guilty, or felt like she were abandoning her family, if she started a family but then frequently left them to roam the world. In other words, maybe she didn't strive to manipulate her situations solely to facilitate her own selfish ends; maybe she's not selfish. Additionally, becoming a stewardess enabled her to support herself and pursue her dream of traveling abroad independently of her mother or of her husband.
I'm surprised you didn't pick up on these things.
The most common complaint is about "getting tied down", in being expected to become a stay-at-home mother and homemaker. You must know that that was the commonly expected role of the wife in a marriage at that period of time. Also, and not to be understated, perhaps she would have felt guilty, or felt like she were abandoning her family, if she started a family but then frequently left them to roam the world. In other words, maybe she didn't strive to manipulate her situations solely to facilitate her own selfish ends; maybe she's not selfish. Additionally, becoming a stewardess enabled her to support herself and pursue her dream of traveling abroad independently of her mother or of her husband.
I'm surprised you didn't pick up on these things.
I picked up on it, I just find it boring and trite. (Actually, this is a replay of the Betty Draper arguments from when I used to watch Mad Men - I never found her problems to be of the least interest either.)
However, I haven't gotten the sense that she's thinking far enough ahead to see stewardessing as a career that will support her indefinitely. The whole attitude that the airline takes towards them suggests that when they get old and wrinkly, they'd get the boot. Then what's Laura going to do? She may be in it for adventure right now, but I don't get the feeling she's thinking of the future at all.
I don't like Laura because she seems to be mindless, especially in comparison with the other three. What would be a saving grace is if she's not mindless, but supressing something she can't admit to herself, much less anyone else. I hope that blank expression of hers isn't an indication of an empty skull, so I'm inventing reasons why it isn't. May be wishful thinking but let's see.
But everything else in the show seems to be working great! This weeks' episode had loads of charm and excitement, and the characters are being developed nicely, and quickly.
Good idea about the black attendant. Maybe next season?
However, I haven't gotten the sense that she's thinking far enough ahead to see stewardessing as a career that will support her indefinitely. The whole attitude that the airline takes towards them suggests that when they get old and wrinkly, they'd get the boot. Then what's Laura going to do? She may be in it for adventure right now, but I don't get the feeling she's thinking of the future at all.
I don't like Laura because she seems to be mindless, especially in comparison with the other three. What would be a saving grace is if she's not mindless, but supressing something she can't admit to herself, much less anyone else. I hope that blank expression of hers isn't an indication of an empty skull, so I'm inventing reasons why it isn't. May be wishful thinking but let's see.
But everything else in the show seems to be working great! This weeks' episode had loads of charm and excitement, and the characters are being developed nicely, and quickly.
Good idea about the black attendant. Maybe next season?
Uh-oh...trouble on the ratings front! 
If Pan Am and Terra Nova also go down in flames like Playboy Club did, that's a very bad sign for broadcast networks. The message is loud and clear: you're relegated to cop shows and sitcoms, and you can continue to watch your audience flee to cable. There's nothing you can do about it.
Pan Am style shows work on cable because of the additional revenue from cable subscriptions means that 6M viewers is a healthy audience. Maybe we're seeing the beginning of the end for free TV altogether. We might eventually see perhaps two free channels, with a CBS-style very narrow range of show types, while the others go out of business and are reconstituted as basic cable channels. After all, everything's digital now, so the distinction between broadcast and cable is immaterial.
Maybe this show does belong on cable, in the sense that it can't pull network-survival numbers. But if a smart, entertaining, classy show can't make it on broadcast, then maybe broadcast itself is the problem (its business model only allows the survival of the most broad-taste types of shows).
If Pan Am and Terra Nova also go down in flames like Playboy Club did, that's a very bad sign for broadcast networks. The message is loud and clear: you're relegated to cop shows and sitcoms, and you can continue to watch your audience flee to cable. There's nothing you can do about it.
Pan Am style shows work on cable because of the additional revenue from cable subscriptions means that 6M viewers is a healthy audience. Maybe we're seeing the beginning of the end for free TV altogether. We might eventually see perhaps two free channels, with a CBS-style very narrow range of show types, while the others go out of business and are reconstituted as basic cable channels. After all, everything's digital now, so the distinction between broadcast and cable is immaterial.
Definitely. I was going to say in an earlier post that this show is too good for TV, but I didn't want to jinx it.
It's too good for broadcast. Maybe we can start a campaign to get a cable network to save it?
I'll definitely go on the record as a committed viewer! 
Heck, I'd pay to see a feature film, and I'd commit to buy DVDs/Blu-rays.
Committing to subscribe to a premium channel is a little more iffy, though. I'm disinclined to increase my cable bill. I've had the Showtime package free for a year, due to some promotion thrust upon me, and that year is up in two weeks; it's getting the ax, because it's a wasteland.
AMC and USA are hitting the sweet spot, because they're on basic cable. I'm still recording Body of Proof but that show is skating on thin ice. I'm watching Covert Affairs and will be tuning into Necessary Roughness next season.
Heck, I'd pay to see a feature film, and I'd commit to buy DVDs/Blu-rays. Committing to subscribe to a premium channel is a little more iffy, though. I'm disinclined to increase my cable bill. I've had the Showtime package free for a year, due to some promotion thrust upon me, and that year is up in two weeks; it's getting the ax, because it's a wasteland.
AMC and USA are hitting the sweet spot, because they're on basic cable. I'm still recording Body of Proof but that show is skating on thin ice. I'm watching Covert Affairs and will be tuning into Necessary Roughness next season.
Pan Am does have a lot of prestige factor. Sometimes that salvages a show or at least gets it placed elsewhere (Friday Night Lights).
Pan Am's Live+7 ratings bump it 32%. At least for previous weeks. Maybe all is not lost?
I dropped Showtime, too. I can Netflix whatever I'm missing there.
Pan Am's Live+7 ratings bump it 32%. At least for previous weeks. Maybe all is not lost?
I dropped Showtime, too. I can Netflix whatever I'm missing there.
On the morning news the locl TV critic (is that still a television job?) was discussing the season and referenced Pan Am as having tumbling ratings, but it's "safe" in his eyes because enough people are DVRing it to watch later. He said that Sunday was far too crowded as a viewing night and people are shifting towards comedies and police procedurals because you can watch them without thinking; then you record the FUN stuff for watching when you can sit and enjoy them. He also referenced Fringe as being successful BECAUSE it's on the Friday death slot, but half of the audience DVRs it. Apparently, the networks have finally woken up to the value of +7 ratings and of streaming media.
Truth?
Mark
Truth?
Mark
Of course I'm DVR-ing Pan Am. (a) I'm not sitting through commercials, (b) pausing at will to live the rest of my life is essential, and (c) this show is worth rewatching.
I even DVR LO:SVU reruns I'm watching live. As soon as the commercial break comes, I'm off to do something else, and I finish on the recorded version.
DVR is here to stay and it changes everything.
I even DVR LO:SVU reruns I'm watching live. As soon as the commercial break comes, I'm off to do something else, and I finish on the recorded version.
DVR is here to stay and it changes everything.
Yeah, I agree with that. Sunday nights are very crowded. I record a lot of stuff such as Boardwalk Empire and Pan-Am, and I think there's something else too. I was having a bit of recording conflicts this Sunday because of so much stuff.
I think so. I've heard that Chuck, Fringe and Grimm (debuting towards the end of this month) are all regarded as cult-show fodder that will work best in the Friday night deathslot because at least people will DVR them, but nobody watches anything live on Friday anymore. It's a way to keep Friday from becoming a wasteland like Saturday.
Temis, "boring and trite" it might be to you, but again, think of the time period. Women were expected to be wives and mothers. One way to escape was to be a stewardess. Laura will begin to think of it. Her character hasn't been fully developed yet.
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