ADVANCE PREVIEW: Manifest Needs a Little More Lift to Stay in the Air

NBC premieres their new drama, Manifest tonight, September 24. A group of individuals, who after boarding Flight 828 from Jamaica, encounter intense turbulence on their flight. When they finally land back in New York City, the passengers learn 5 and a half years have passed since they took off from Jamaica and a number of their family and friends have moved on in unexpected ways.

The show focuses on a few of the plane’s passengers to start, including Ben and Melissa Stone, portrayed by Josh Dallas and Melissa Roxburgh. The siblings learn their families and friends have moved on since their plane disappeared. The couple are surprised to see some of the paths their loved ones have travelled in their absence. While this is fairly interesting it may not be enticing enough to hook audiences. However, the storylines surrounding the passengers and how they are affected because of their time on the missing plane are the most intriguing part of the pilot.

Joining Josh and Melissa in the show are Parveen Kaur as Saanvi, a doctor, J.R. Ramirez as Detective Jared Williams, and Athena Karkanis as Ben’s wife Grace. Each of these characters play a part in the pilot, but they do not delve deep enough into their stories to make the watcher invested.. Ben and Melissa are the characters most focused on in the pilot, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out across the season and how these characters lives all intertwine.

Being described as a mix between This Is Us and Lost, Manifest will have to work a little harder to hook audiences. The pilot is decent but it may not lay enough groundwork for people to stick around for episode 2. The second episode is at least worth a chance because the pilot may not be the perfect representation of how this show’s first season will play out.

Grade: B-