Shoshana Kessler finds that Pan Am's 'First Class' service is not quite what it said in the brochure

The pilot (no pun intended) episode of Pan Am begins smoothly, and there is a noticeable atmosphere of excitement and adventure, reinforced (unsubtly, and yet sweetly) by a little boy looking to the plane, as if wonders are about to emerge from it. For all of us used to plane travel, and who find it a dull and less than enthralling experience, there is a certain nostalgia to the idea of the excitement that planes used to hold, and there is a real feeling of exhilaration when we watch the captain fly his plane for the first time.

However, the problems far outweigh the good. The script is clunky and awkward. In particular, the scene when archetypal dominant female Maggie (Christina Ricci) arrives on board is one that I can only assume left viewers in a cringing shock at the clichéd phrases and poor acting. This is characterised by her wonderfully forced line on love-smitten captain Dean Lowrey (Mike Vogel); “he won’t be doing any actual flying, will he?”, spoken with bizarrely huge eyes and overly mechanical sass.

The links between flashback and actual time can be confusing, and one can end up unsure how you got from a plane journey to six months ago to then wandering around somewhere (London/Paris/Rome?) with no explanation. Further, and for no good reason other than that spy stories are just cool, they chuck in a good bit of espionage. Being a Pan Am girl, you see, is ‘the perfect cover’.

The second episode fares little better, throwing bedroom eyes between Captain Dean and Collette (whose only news is that she got a fringe) into the mix, whilst Dean is still hopelessly in love with Bridget, who has disappeared. She then reappears, then goes to church (a typical spy haunt) with Kate, then disappears again, hopefully for good this time.

The main problem I feel, is that Pan Am has marketed itself as Mad Men in the skies, and it just doesn’t fill those (huge) shoes. Adding to this hype, the fact that director Thomas Schlamme also directed the critically acclaimed and just plain brilliant series The West Wing, heightens the expectations of the show, and so if one expects something of similar standing they are bound to be disappointed.

Pan Am got off to a turbulent start, entering a rough patch of cloud over episode 1. But it looks set to chart a path over clearer skies providing that the script begins to flow and the storylines are more focused. You never know, it could well... take off.