Welcome back to The nerd shelf!
This week was the premiere of Manifest which was one of the shows that I talked about in my My Eight Most Anticipated New Shows | Fall 2018 post. And I must say it didn't disappoint. It wasn't my favorite pilot but it also wasn't bad.
My first impression:
So first off I really liked this pilot. Pilots can be really hard to do and most of the time the show ends up changing a lot after the pilot. As I said it's not my favorite but I really enjoyed it. It was mysterious, emotional and it introduced me to the characters really well.
So first let's talk about Michaela. Michaela is portrayed by Melissa Roxburgh who I LOVED in Valor. She is an amazing actress so when I saw her in the trailer I was just like "yaaaaas".
So Michaela decides to stay back and wait for the other plane. She says something about not wanting to return to the real world. We find out later in the episode that she was in a car crash and that someone died. She feels really guilty about it and I want to know why. Was she drunk? Was she distracted by something? Or was it just because she was driving that she feels guilty? Her parents want her to say yes to her boyfriends, Jared (J.R. Ramirez), proposal. She seems like she is on the fence about it but maybe that's just her guilt telling her that she can't have anything good in her life.
When they land in New York and they get to see their family her father tells her that their mother died. This was so heartbreaking. Okay just imagine this. You go on to a flight, everything is normal, or at least seems to be. You go through some turbulence on the plane but other than that you land safely. You get off the plane and you find out that you have been missing and presumed dead for five years. For you, it has only been a couple of hours on a flight but for the rest of the world, it's been five fucking years. And then your father tells you that your mother died. But you just saw her and had a conversation about marriage and you wanted to tell her that she was right, and just like that, she's gone.
Her family has let go of her apartment and has basically sold all of her stuff. It's not weird when you think about it, it has been five years and they thought they were dead. So she stays with her brothers family in their basement. She has nothing to her name anymore. She has her job if she wants it, she's a police officer. Jared, her boyfriend, has been promoted to detective. He works at the same police station that she does. He is also married to her BEST FRIEND. Yes, exactly, what the fuck. On one hand, I get it. You share your grief with the people that were close to the person you lost, it makes sense if you end up in a romantic relationship, but again to Michaela, it has only been a couple of days.
Michaela starts hearing a voice in her head, telling her to do stuff like telling a bus driver to slow down and when she does she saves a kid from being run over, or telling her to free some dogs at a junkyard. When she tells Ben about it he dismisses it and tells her to keep it to herself. And then, later on, we find out that he has a voice in his head too.
There's is this amazing scene between Michaela and Jared when he confronts her about the break-in. They were caught on camera and Jared is trying to fix it. He asks her if it's about him, if she's trying to act out to get his attention. She has this amazing monologue about how fucked up this all is. It's not just about how he married her best friend, she was gone and she can't really blame them for that. But she has nothing to her name, no home, no telephone number, no possessions. Her mother is dead, she has lost five years of the world. She doesn't know if she should be happy to be back and alive or just feel guilty. This scene was my favorite from the whole episode.
Jared still wants an answer though, why did they do it. And of course, she can't explain it. How the fuck do you tell someone that you broke open a fence because a voice in your head told you to without them thinking that you've gone crazy?! Jared brings her to take the dogs back to the owner and to try to smooth things over. Michaela stays by the car as Jared goes in and the owner seems a little too forgiving. It felt like he wanted the police gone from his property as soon as possible. And then she hears the voice again, telling her to free them. So she goes in and looks around and she finds a shed that has a padlock on it and she picks up a pipe to break it. The owner and Jared come around the corner. She gets the door opened and the two girls that had been abducted, Jared's case, are in there. They arrest the owner and Michaela gets the credit. Later, when she is talking to Jared, he does this dumb thing. He tells her that she still takes his breath away. What the fuck dude. You're married to her best friend, and she just found out a day ago, she's heartbroken. She doesn't need you to say that.
Okay, let's get into Ben and his family. Ben and his wife, Grace (Athena Karkanis), have twins, Olive (Luna Blaise) and Cal (Jack Messina). Cal has leukemia and when we first meet them he doesn't have that much time left. Grace and Olive get on the first plane and Ben and Cal decides to stay behind with Michaela. The scene when the passengers reunite with their loved ones is so well written and acted. When Ben first sees Olive, now fifteen, all grown up, that broke me. I started crying. It's so beautiful. But just imagine that from both perspectives. You go on a plane and when you land your daughter is five fucking years older. Or your dad is missing and presumed dead for five years and then all of a sudden he's back with your twin brother who looks exactly the same as he did when she last saw him. Or all of a sudden your twin sister is a teenager. I can't wrap my head around it. I loved that they had Cal run away from Olive though. It has to be too much especially when you're that young.
Ben and Grace go to the doctor with Cal. They are looking over some tests and in those five years, there has been a breakthrough with a new treatment that could save his life. Ben is still trying to process everything and kind of forgets that it has been five years for the rest of the world. He's trying to not get too hopeful but Grace reminds him that it's a miracle that they came back to them in the first place. The doctor sends an application for Cal to get into the patient group.
Okay, let's talk about Saanvi (Parveen Kaur) for a minute. She is a medical researcher, and we first meet her on the plane. She is typing on her computer when the turbulence hits and her computer breaks. She comes back and finds out that her research wasn't just a theory, it works. And they have saved hundreds of lives already. She sits in on a meeting where they are reviewing new applicants. Cal's profile comes up, and Saanvi's boss, Dr. Cardoso (Joel de la Fuente), says that they can't put him in the trial because he has technically been living with his illness for five years. Saanvi speaks up and tells him that for Cal it hasn't been five years. If he needed the treatment before he got on the plane he needs it now. But Dr. Cardoso doesn't want to break protocol so they deny.
After the meeting, Saanvi goes to Dr. Cardoso to convince him to let Cal into the trial. She doesn't care about money, she is giving him a chance to live.
So Cal gets to be in the trial. He's at the hospital getting his treatment and Ben and Grace is there. They have a conversation about how Grace blamed Ben for five years. She blamed him for making Cal so desperate for his attention that he went on that plane. She blamed him for taking away the six months that she would have had with Cal. But now she sees that for him to survive and maybe beat his cancer he had to be on that plane. I think she feels guilty about it all.
We also have a beautiful scene between Ben and Olive. He goes to her football (or soccer if you're American, but I don't get why the fuck you call it that) practice to watch her. He found out earlier that Olive goes to therapy and I think he just feels guilty. He apologizes to her, telling her that he's sorry for everything. She tells him that it was a long time ago but it wasn't for him. He apologizes for being so caught up in Cal's life and how they could prolong it and in that process losing touch of her life. But he wants to fix it. He wants them to get to know each other. When she basically threw herself into his arms I started to cry again. Listen, I'm very fucking emotional, so I cry a lot, especially when it comes to tv shows. So if your reading this and is thinking "why the fuck is she crying at that" you're probably right.
The whole family is having a game night at the end of the episode. It's so nice because it feels like Cal and Olive have the same banter that they did before the plane. Even though she is five years older. And then we see that Grace is getting text messages from someone, I'm thinking a guy. This reminded me a lot of Homeland of how the wife is in a new relationship since it has been so long and all of a sudden her husband, who she thought was dead, is home. Olive knows about this guy and asks Grace what she is going to do. What I don't like about this is that it's going to be a huge secret and then it's probably going to blow up in their faces. I can see it coming from a mile away. And I really don't like that Olive has to keep this secret as well. She's fifteen, she's is not supposed to have to keep one parent's secrets from the other. That is horrible to do to your kid. Grace should just have a conversation with Ben as soon as possible, and she needs to figure out what she wants. Has she moved on from Ben? Does she still have feelings for him? Does she want to let this new guy go?
Let's talk about the FBI. They are investigating this whole thing. They interviewed everyone who was on that plane and they couldn't find anything. They searched the bags and the plane and still nothing. And then, in the end, the plane fucking blows up from out of nowhere. So what is going to happen? Is there going to be an FBI agent that is trying to figuring this out the whole season? Because honestly, I don't want that. I kind of want the people from the plane to try to figure it out instead.
Lastly, we have the whole group of people from the plane that has the same types of headaches and flashes of the plane. They are all there when the plane blows up. What does this mean? Are they going to try to figure this out together? They are bonded by this experience after all. And then when the plane blows up Cal wakes up. Does he also have the voices? I don't fucking know and I want answers. Also, the number 828 is everywhere. It's on the pillow that Ben and Michaela's mom made, it's a bible verse that their mom loved and it's on the outside of the junkyard. Will this be a recurring thing? Hmm... I have so many thoughts that I can't make sense of them all.
Okay, my last thoughts are these, I really enjoyed this pilot. It wasn't one of my all time favorites but it was really good. It was very emotional and my favorite scenes were the one with Michaela and Jared and the one with Ben and Olive. Just heartfelt moments that made me get to know the characters and what they were feeling better. I'm excited for the rest of the season!
/Johanna
So Manifest is a new NBC drama that centers around the passengers and crew of a commercial airliner who suddenly reappear after being presumed dead for five years. The pilot was really good. It was mysterious and made me want to know more.
The trailer for Manifest:
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
My first impression:
So first off I really liked this pilot. Pilots can be really hard to do and most of the time the show ends up changing a lot after the pilot. As I said it's not my favorite but I really enjoyed it. It was mysterious, emotional and it introduced me to the characters really well.
So first let's talk about Michaela. Michaela is portrayed by Melissa Roxburgh who I LOVED in Valor. She is an amazing actress so when I saw her in the trailer I was just like "yaaaaas".
So Michaela decides to stay back and wait for the other plane. She says something about not wanting to return to the real world. We find out later in the episode that she was in a car crash and that someone died. She feels really guilty about it and I want to know why. Was she drunk? Was she distracted by something? Or was it just because she was driving that she feels guilty? Her parents want her to say yes to her boyfriends, Jared (J.R. Ramirez), proposal. She seems like she is on the fence about it but maybe that's just her guilt telling her that she can't have anything good in her life.
When they land in New York and they get to see their family her father tells her that their mother died. This was so heartbreaking. Okay just imagine this. You go on to a flight, everything is normal, or at least seems to be. You go through some turbulence on the plane but other than that you land safely. You get off the plane and you find out that you have been missing and presumed dead for five years. For you, it has only been a couple of hours on a flight but for the rest of the world, it's been five fucking years. And then your father tells you that your mother died. But you just saw her and had a conversation about marriage and you wanted to tell her that she was right, and just like that, she's gone.
Her family has let go of her apartment and has basically sold all of her stuff. It's not weird when you think about it, it has been five years and they thought they were dead. So she stays with her brothers family in their basement. She has nothing to her name anymore. She has her job if she wants it, she's a police officer. Jared, her boyfriend, has been promoted to detective. He works at the same police station that she does. He is also married to her BEST FRIEND. Yes, exactly, what the fuck. On one hand, I get it. You share your grief with the people that were close to the person you lost, it makes sense if you end up in a romantic relationship, but again to Michaela, it has only been a couple of days.
Michaela starts hearing a voice in her head, telling her to do stuff like telling a bus driver to slow down and when she does she saves a kid from being run over, or telling her to free some dogs at a junkyard. When she tells Ben about it he dismisses it and tells her to keep it to herself. And then, later on, we find out that he has a voice in his head too.
There's is this amazing scene between Michaela and Jared when he confronts her about the break-in. They were caught on camera and Jared is trying to fix it. He asks her if it's about him, if she's trying to act out to get his attention. She has this amazing monologue about how fucked up this all is. It's not just about how he married her best friend, she was gone and she can't really blame them for that. But she has nothing to her name, no home, no telephone number, no possessions. Her mother is dead, she has lost five years of the world. She doesn't know if she should be happy to be back and alive or just feel guilty. This scene was my favorite from the whole episode.
Jared still wants an answer though, why did they do it. And of course, she can't explain it. How the fuck do you tell someone that you broke open a fence because a voice in your head told you to without them thinking that you've gone crazy?! Jared brings her to take the dogs back to the owner and to try to smooth things over. Michaela stays by the car as Jared goes in and the owner seems a little too forgiving. It felt like he wanted the police gone from his property as soon as possible. And then she hears the voice again, telling her to free them. So she goes in and looks around and she finds a shed that has a padlock on it and she picks up a pipe to break it. The owner and Jared come around the corner. She gets the door opened and the two girls that had been abducted, Jared's case, are in there. They arrest the owner and Michaela gets the credit. Later, when she is talking to Jared, he does this dumb thing. He tells her that she still takes his breath away. What the fuck dude. You're married to her best friend, and she just found out a day ago, she's heartbroken. She doesn't need you to say that.
Okay, let's get into Ben and his family. Ben and his wife, Grace (Athena Karkanis), have twins, Olive (Luna Blaise) and Cal (Jack Messina). Cal has leukemia and when we first meet them he doesn't have that much time left. Grace and Olive get on the first plane and Ben and Cal decides to stay behind with Michaela. The scene when the passengers reunite with their loved ones is so well written and acted. When Ben first sees Olive, now fifteen, all grown up, that broke me. I started crying. It's so beautiful. But just imagine that from both perspectives. You go on a plane and when you land your daughter is five fucking years older. Or your dad is missing and presumed dead for five years and then all of a sudden he's back with your twin brother who looks exactly the same as he did when she last saw him. Or all of a sudden your twin sister is a teenager. I can't wrap my head around it. I loved that they had Cal run away from Olive though. It has to be too much especially when you're that young.
Ben and Grace go to the doctor with Cal. They are looking over some tests and in those five years, there has been a breakthrough with a new treatment that could save his life. Ben is still trying to process everything and kind of forgets that it has been five years for the rest of the world. He's trying to not get too hopeful but Grace reminds him that it's a miracle that they came back to them in the first place. The doctor sends an application for Cal to get into the patient group.
Okay, let's talk about Saanvi (Parveen Kaur) for a minute. She is a medical researcher, and we first meet her on the plane. She is typing on her computer when the turbulence hits and her computer breaks. She comes back and finds out that her research wasn't just a theory, it works. And they have saved hundreds of lives already. She sits in on a meeting where they are reviewing new applicants. Cal's profile comes up, and Saanvi's boss, Dr. Cardoso (Joel de la Fuente), says that they can't put him in the trial because he has technically been living with his illness for five years. Saanvi speaks up and tells him that for Cal it hasn't been five years. If he needed the treatment before he got on the plane he needs it now. But Dr. Cardoso doesn't want to break protocol so they deny.
After the meeting, Saanvi goes to Dr. Cardoso to convince him to let Cal into the trial. She doesn't care about money, she is giving him a chance to live.
So Cal gets to be in the trial. He's at the hospital getting his treatment and Ben and Grace is there. They have a conversation about how Grace blamed Ben for five years. She blamed him for making Cal so desperate for his attention that he went on that plane. She blamed him for taking away the six months that she would have had with Cal. But now she sees that for him to survive and maybe beat his cancer he had to be on that plane. I think she feels guilty about it all.
We also have a beautiful scene between Ben and Olive. He goes to her football (or soccer if you're American, but I don't get why the fuck you call it that) practice to watch her. He found out earlier that Olive goes to therapy and I think he just feels guilty. He apologizes to her, telling her that he's sorry for everything. She tells him that it was a long time ago but it wasn't for him. He apologizes for being so caught up in Cal's life and how they could prolong it and in that process losing touch of her life. But he wants to fix it. He wants them to get to know each other. When she basically threw herself into his arms I started to cry again. Listen, I'm very fucking emotional, so I cry a lot, especially when it comes to tv shows. So if your reading this and is thinking "why the fuck is she crying at that" you're probably right.
The whole family is having a game night at the end of the episode. It's so nice because it feels like Cal and Olive have the same banter that they did before the plane. Even though she is five years older. And then we see that Grace is getting text messages from someone, I'm thinking a guy. This reminded me a lot of Homeland of how the wife is in a new relationship since it has been so long and all of a sudden her husband, who she thought was dead, is home. Olive knows about this guy and asks Grace what she is going to do. What I don't like about this is that it's going to be a huge secret and then it's probably going to blow up in their faces. I can see it coming from a mile away. And I really don't like that Olive has to keep this secret as well. She's fifteen, she's is not supposed to have to keep one parent's secrets from the other. That is horrible to do to your kid. Grace should just have a conversation with Ben as soon as possible, and she needs to figure out what she wants. Has she moved on from Ben? Does she still have feelings for him? Does she want to let this new guy go?
Let's talk about the FBI. They are investigating this whole thing. They interviewed everyone who was on that plane and they couldn't find anything. They searched the bags and the plane and still nothing. And then, in the end, the plane fucking blows up from out of nowhere. So what is going to happen? Is there going to be an FBI agent that is trying to figuring this out the whole season? Because honestly, I don't want that. I kind of want the people from the plane to try to figure it out instead.
Lastly, we have the whole group of people from the plane that has the same types of headaches and flashes of the plane. They are all there when the plane blows up. What does this mean? Are they going to try to figure this out together? They are bonded by this experience after all. And then when the plane blows up Cal wakes up. Does he also have the voices? I don't fucking know and I want answers. Also, the number 828 is everywhere. It's on the pillow that Ben and Michaela's mom made, it's a bible verse that their mom loved and it's on the outside of the junkyard. Will this be a recurring thing? Hmm... I have so many thoughts that I can't make sense of them all.
Okay, my last thoughts are these, I really enjoyed this pilot. It wasn't one of my all time favorites but it was really good. It was very emotional and my favorite scenes were the one with Michaela and Jared and the one with Ben and Olive. Just heartfelt moments that made me get to know the characters and what they were feeling better. I'm excited for the rest of the season!
/Johanna
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