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Pam Am - Review
Sep. 27th, 2011 08:44 pmJust finished watching Pam Am - the third of the Mad Men copy cats. There have been three, The Playboy Club, and The Hour were the first two. Of the three, only the BBC's The Hour is worth a look. The Hour is a twisty noir spy thriller meets Broadcast News - with interesting characters, and the same attention to detail/social criticism that made Mad Men so popular. It's not quite on the same level of Mad Men, but of the copy-cats it comes the closest and is the only one I can recommend. The Playboy Club - which attempts to do what The Hour does but in a nightclub, is one cliche after another, and well, unwatchable. The less said about it, the better.
Pam Am
PAM AM a television serial based rather loosely on the early days of the American airline industry, or more specifically the airline stewardesses and pilots - is a somewhat glamorized account of both that industry and time period. At times it felt like a commercial for PAM AM or TWA. I remember TWA better, PAM AM went bankrupt earlier. Both are defunct. Neither were as glamorous or luxurious as the television series makes them out to be. Any more than that time period was. A gal at work was ranking on this - stating she remembered flying PAM AM in 1963 to South Africa, and she was death for three days - they didn't pressurize the cabin well in those days, so whenever you flew - you'd chew gum in order to get your ears to pop upon landing. And described the flight as shaky, cramped, and hellish. Wouldn't know that by watching this series. Realism this isn't.
Unlike MAD MEN, PAM AM is neither interested in historical accuracy or for that matter social criticism or satire, rather it is interested in nostalgia or the glamorization of an earlier age.
1960s brought to you by the Walt Disney Company.
It's a pretty and somewhat stylized production. All the actresses playing the stewardesses have exactly the same hair style and hair color. Dark reddish brown or auburn, cut in the Jackie Kennedy styled bob. All the male actors also have the same hair color, square jaw, and style.
It's almost as if they flipped through the old PAM AM ads in Life magazine and cast everyone to look like the dusty blond and square-jawed pilots and the auburn flight stewardesses.
The story itself is told in a series of flashbacks while they are on the plane or wandering about the airport. And it is reminiscent of those old 1950s movies, such as Three Coins in a Fountain or When in Rome..., complete with Frank Sinatra, Frankie Avalon, and Bobby Darin tunes crooning in the background. In some respects it feels like a 1950s version of The Love Boat except on an airplane.
The character's back stories are pretty sketchy and somewhat cliche. We have the runaway bride who always did whatever her parents wanted but decides on a whim to run off with her sister to become a PAM AM stewardess either after she got married or just before (it's not clear and we never meet the groom, just the annoyed mother and the sister). The Bride's sister - is picked to be a spy by someone who says they are American Intelligence - and in a bar of all places. (It's right out of a 1950s movie, except usually the intelligence operative wasn't really American and she was duped.)
I can't quite decide if she is really stupid, or the story is. Also it's hard to follow, since each story threads in and out of the other one via flashbacks. Passive as opposed to active tense.
Interesting narrative style - but a tad jarring and confusing, particularly when everyone looks, speaks, dresses, and acts alike. Also the characters themselves aren't interesting enough to follow. We have the French stewardess who meets the wife and family of the man she had a fling with during a separate lay-over (which we get a flashback on). And the pilot hunting his fiancee, Bridget, who has disappeared. Plus the bohemian, rule-breaker, Maggie, who takes Bridget's place on board the flight at the last minute.
The plot jumps all over the place, and never quite builds our interest in the characters nor are their stories all that interesting or innovative. I felt like I'd seen it all done before, one too many times. Specifically in those old, lukewarm, harmless 1950s Sandra Day films, post Gidget,
or more recently, in The Love Boat...except we have an Army of Julies, instead of just one, all with her pristine smile, and fetching hair style.
I can't see PAM AM making it to mid-season. Feels too much like watching an airline recruiting commercial for stewardesses...come fly with us, see the world, and fall in love. Assuming of course you have a time machine.
Overall rating? D
Skip it and rent The Hour, once it comes out on DVD, instead.
Pam Am
PAM AM a television serial based rather loosely on the early days of the American airline industry, or more specifically the airline stewardesses and pilots - is a somewhat glamorized account of both that industry and time period. At times it felt like a commercial for PAM AM or TWA. I remember TWA better, PAM AM went bankrupt earlier. Both are defunct. Neither were as glamorous or luxurious as the television series makes them out to be. Any more than that time period was. A gal at work was ranking on this - stating she remembered flying PAM AM in 1963 to South Africa, and she was death for three days - they didn't pressurize the cabin well in those days, so whenever you flew - you'd chew gum in order to get your ears to pop upon landing. And described the flight as shaky, cramped, and hellish. Wouldn't know that by watching this series. Realism this isn't.
Unlike MAD MEN, PAM AM is neither interested in historical accuracy or for that matter social criticism or satire, rather it is interested in nostalgia or the glamorization of an earlier age.
1960s brought to you by the Walt Disney Company.
It's a pretty and somewhat stylized production. All the actresses playing the stewardesses have exactly the same hair style and hair color. Dark reddish brown or auburn, cut in the Jackie Kennedy styled bob. All the male actors also have the same hair color, square jaw, and style.
It's almost as if they flipped through the old PAM AM ads in Life magazine and cast everyone to look like the dusty blond and square-jawed pilots and the auburn flight stewardesses.
The story itself is told in a series of flashbacks while they are on the plane or wandering about the airport. And it is reminiscent of those old 1950s movies, such as Three Coins in a Fountain or When in Rome..., complete with Frank Sinatra, Frankie Avalon, and Bobby Darin tunes crooning in the background. In some respects it feels like a 1950s version of The Love Boat except on an airplane.
The character's back stories are pretty sketchy and somewhat cliche. We have the runaway bride who always did whatever her parents wanted but decides on a whim to run off with her sister to become a PAM AM stewardess either after she got married or just before (it's not clear and we never meet the groom, just the annoyed mother and the sister). The Bride's sister - is picked to be a spy by someone who says they are American Intelligence - and in a bar of all places. (It's right out of a 1950s movie, except usually the intelligence operative wasn't really American and she was duped.)
I can't quite decide if she is really stupid, or the story is. Also it's hard to follow, since each story threads in and out of the other one via flashbacks. Passive as opposed to active tense.
Interesting narrative style - but a tad jarring and confusing, particularly when everyone looks, speaks, dresses, and acts alike. Also the characters themselves aren't interesting enough to follow. We have the French stewardess who meets the wife and family of the man she had a fling with during a separate lay-over (which we get a flashback on). And the pilot hunting his fiancee, Bridget, who has disappeared. Plus the bohemian, rule-breaker, Maggie, who takes Bridget's place on board the flight at the last minute.
The plot jumps all over the place, and never quite builds our interest in the characters nor are their stories all that interesting or innovative. I felt like I'd seen it all done before, one too many times. Specifically in those old, lukewarm, harmless 1950s Sandra Day films, post Gidget,
or more recently, in The Love Boat...except we have an Army of Julies, instead of just one, all with her pristine smile, and fetching hair style.
I can't see PAM AM making it to mid-season. Feels too much like watching an airline recruiting commercial for stewardesses...come fly with us, see the world, and fall in love. Assuming of course you have a time machine.
Overall rating? D
Skip it and rent The Hour, once it comes out on DVD, instead.