The Prestige TV Podcast - Why We Love 'The Flight Attendant'

Episode Date: December 16, 2020

Chris Ryan and Juliet Litman talk about their love for the Kaley Cuoco show 'The Flight Attendant' ahead of the show's finale on Thursday night. Hosts: Chris Ryan and Juliet Litman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for flying with us. Thank you. I met Alex on the plane. Hi. Hey. We had dinner at Bangkok. We went back to his hotel. Oh.

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Hello, welcome to TV concierge. My name is Chris Ryan. I'm an editor at the ringer.com. And today I am joined by the lovely Juliet Litman. What's up? Hi, Chris. Great to talk to you. It's been so long. I'm so excited to be back on the mic with you. We haven't pot it in a while. And what a subject we have today. HBO Max's the flight attended. Starring. Kali Cuoco developed by Steve Yaki and Susanna Fogle and a bunch of other folks. And it's been on for the last, like basically the last month. I think they dropped a few episodes at once and now go one a week. And we're heading into the finale of its seven-episode run on Thursday night.

So we're going to chat a little bit about the season we've just seen Juliet. What are your overall impressions of flight attendant? I'm delighted. I'm really enjoying watching it. This is my first Kaylee Cuoco experience. Yeah. I'm thrilled to have New Dario, aka Michelle Weisman, back in my life. I'm also, I think this is like the perfect role for Zasha Manit.

So that's been exciting. and that's the lawyer friend and formerly known Shoshana on Girls. And I think the show has exceeded my very low expectations. And one of my general firmly held beliefs is that there should be a lot more television about

flight attendants. So I'm just really glad that we're getting into this space. I think that we're talking about a pretty rarefied class of flight attendant when you're talking about Cuoco. When we're talking about Cassie Bowden, the character she plays on flight attendant. Yes. She is very attractive.

And people who know me may not know this, but big Kelly Quoco fan. That doesn't surprise me at all. And I think it shows like a very like aspirational kind of flight attendee. Flight attendee. How do you say that? It's a very aspirational way of looking at flight attendant work. They basically like they look great. They fly to all the best locales around the world.

Never seem to have jet lag. No. Just immediately go clubbing. And the first few episodes of the show when she is really like at her sort of Antic Best are really, really fun because you get to kind of live through this, like, completely bullshit life that she's leading where she's just partying her brains out in Bangkok or Rome. Now, the bad side of that is that she is also embroiled in a murder mystery conspiracy involving international conglomerates and God knows what else.

I have to say, I've, like, been surprised by this show. I didn't really know much about it, but I just heard chatter. So I was like, I'll give it a shot. And I did not watch Russian doll on Netflix. but this is like what I think Russian doll should be like and this is like just a really fun show. This is very West Coast Russian doll, I would say. If the Russian doll is like got a real Manhattan sensibility, I feel like this has real like living outside of Santa Barbara with a horse farm sensibility. But it's at New York. I know, but like I just think that that's like where

Cuoco's coming from, you know, like emotionally. Let's talk a little bit about her. I know. I know this is going to sound like a hot take, and I don't mean it to sound this way. But I think in terms of comic timing and hair, Kaylee Quoco is the new Jennifer Aniston. That's a stunning take. Just an absolutely

stunning take. I'm taking this in. The hair piece is an important place to begin. So for like 40% of the show, when she's fulfilling her job obligations, she has this very unique updo. It's a bun with like long, feathered bangs in the front.

It's a bad hairstyle that she just makes look so good. And so natural and like she just rocks it in a way that you notice it, but you're not like, wow, that's bad. It's just sort of like, huh, this is working for her. It's very unique. So in that way, it definitely has some Rachel Green vibes. That's for sure. In terms of the comedic timing, it's funny.

Like, I think that Jen Branson is just so obviously aligned with playing Rachel Green that I don't even think about her as like a comedian more broadly. because I'm just like, she's just Rachel. Like, that's just who she is. I grew up watching it. I wonder if Kaylee Cuoco can carve out more of, like, a comedian lane for herself outside of the Big Bang Theory. Yeah, I mean, I think this is a really great step forward for her.

Look, I really enjoy this series. I think it doesn't, it barely makes any sense. And I think it's a series that was, you know, they were the first show back to shooting after COVID once they figured out the protocols for shooting on set. And I don't know how much narrative surgery they had to do to make it work once they came back. There's a lot of stuff

that takes place if people have watched the series, which I'm assuming they have if they're listening to this episode. A lot of it takes place in like Kali Koko's

Mind Palace, which is essentially the Bangkok Hotel where Michael Weisman's character, Alex, gets murdered. And they are just like rolling around

in this like Christopher Nolan-esque, you know, physical manifestation of her psyche. And a lot of it takes place in that. Yeah, I mean, I think it's pretty confusing

a lot of the time. Well, this was true of the undoing as well. When you get a flashback with someone who's like, memory is blurry or isn't quite, you know, coming together fully, I'm confused about the point of view and,

and what piece of this is supposed to be the reliable narrator? Like, is it her recovering her memories, then she becomes reliable or is she unreliable the whole time? Like, I'm obsessed with narration. One thing I like with this book is really novelistic. I mean, it's based on a book where they captured that feeling really well. But I'm just confused about the narrator and like, what extent you're supposed to trust anyone. Not like you can't trust him in like a crime type of way,

but like in just terms of the story they're telling you. I think they may have made him a slight mistake of the casting because Michael Weisman is too good to lose in the first episode. He's really good. But his death is essentially the first episode twist that you need to make this show work. But they then keep him around for the duration of the season as this kind of like chorus, like this Greek course that's following Kaylee Quico around and like kind of asking her questions. You know, I was going to ask, when something is so fun like this,

how do you feel about its detours into Freudian trauma? Because obviously her alcoholism is something that gets like pretty thoroughly unpacked. Sure. I mean, I think it's actually kind of similar to the Queen's Gambit with like a lot more extreme. Yeah. It definitely seems to be like a woman trope as well.

I don't think a lot of male characters get this kind of treatment. but I'm okay with it. It's so literary to me. It's like so Nabokovian that I'm like just sort of like accepted as like a part of a way of thinking about fiction and narrative. So I have no problem with it. I just like want it executed well. Like if you you need to tell me like who I should trust, who's my guide through the story or make it very clear who I can't trust. And I'm not sure about Kelly Cuoco's character.

Like is she reliable narrator or not as she's put piecing things together. Yeah. I mean, I think that that would be a bigger. concern if the plot itself was a little bit more discernible because they obviously have this great setup where it's just like this cosmopolitan sexy flight attendant wakes up next to the dead body of a one night stand and everything that follows is just this sort of comic Hitchcock show. I love it. I think that's great. Then they kind of layer on top of it this killing Eve-ish international espionage thing with this Miranda character.

And then on top of that, there's this Rosie Perez subplot of her stealing secrets from her husband's work computer and selling them to the North Koreans, which is how they are going to tie all three of these strands together. I'm not sure. And I'm also not sure. I think that this show is done fairly well. And I wouldn't be surprised if they try to bring it back. And if they try to come up with a different sort of iterations. of it. I hope she's still flight attending if they do bring it back. I hope it's not like ex-flight attendant. I really love the travel aspect of this. I do too. I also like, it's sort of like a situational program. It's not a sitcom. It's also

not like a drama, but like I like that her work is so firmly at the center of the show. It's a sit-dram. Yeah, it's a sitcom. Exactly. We just make that up? Yeah, we did. We're just creating here on this podcast. I like that about it a lot. I also, I mean, like I haven't thought about Rosie Perez in a while. What an absolute delight to have her on this show and just sort of be like the professional like work best friend or or whatnot.

And I don't know. I was like really delighted. Can I just tell you like I didn't know when I started watching that there was a like a murder? I didn't know this was like not like a light fluffy show with Kali Kouko and T.R. Knight. Like I just thought this is like going to be like a really fun watch and it is really fun. But there's a lot more to like follow and sink into sink your teeth into. And so stylized, right?

I think that's one of the reasons why it reminds me of, like, a Netflix show. And this is just sort of like the streaming style. But like the kind of like prestige production design has made its way to HBO Max with this show. Yeah, it has a really sleek look. I think it's borrowing liberally from kind of a sex in the city and big little lies vibe where everybody always looks incredible. Like she drinks so much on this show and never ever ever seems to. Yeah.

Like it has any kind of. like tough complexion issues. Do you like, what do you think of So is always a mammoth's apartment? I wanted to ask you about this. I do not care for it. I don't like this. I mean,

you walk in and the shower is just upfront. It's completely, you know, there's no privacy, which is really weird. It's definitely contributes, I think,

to like my misconception about Russian doll. So like, oh, it's like a downtown loft apartment converted into a living space. And it has this weird, shower right in the middle of the apartment. I think that's like one of the reasons because I know

that Russian Doll is like a New York centric like downtown show. So, so I really don't like it. I also don't think that character would live there. Let's talk with Zastra Mamet's character a little bit. Okay. She's a lawyer. Annie. She's a best friend. Apparently for mob wives. For mob wives, which is phenomenal. I think it's really good casting. I do feel like that's the kind of like sort of like woman Michael Cohen basically that you're you're dealing with here. But she or Or woman Michael Clayton. Or woman Michael Clayton, it's true. Yeah.

She would definitely not live in such a hip experimental apartment. Like that's someone who I feel like as a way more conventional thinker and ended up in like mob wife representation sort of by accident, not intentionally. And like to make up for it, like lives on like Park Avenue or something. Right. That's a really good point. I think that like she's someone who I don't think you're, I don't think anybody is ever supposed to be in that apartment but her.

Like you don't put the shower in the middle of the. apartment if you have guests or if you have parties. You're not supposed to have a boyfriend. That's why she didn't tell Cassie about it. Right. Also, like, does Cassie listen? Do you think you'd ever in another life be, would you be a good flight attendant? No, I would not. On the one hand, I love talking to strangers, but like, I wouldn't want to have to go back to a stranger if it was a bad interaction. You know, I just want to like cut it out. And like, if you're on like a 12 hour flight, you got to serve this guy, a lot of drinks, I don't think I'd be into that. Well, that's the thing is Cassie works in first class. So I think that they, they try to keep it like a little bit smoother up there. It's not like

anybody slamming double jack and coax until they pass out or start berating people. That's true. Can we talk about Cuoco's career? Like, as a cocoologist, like, what else does she do? Because I think you're right. She has like a real comedic presence to her. And she's now like, I think gradually moving beyond network fair. Not that there's anything wrong with network TV. I'm a huge proponent of such. like what does she do after this? She's obviously like following a little bit of the Reese playbook, right? Which is scouring the bookshelves,

the virtual bookshelves for stuff like flight attendant that she thinks that she can develop for herself. And I think that's like a smart way of going about doing things. And especially like, you know, she's used to making 22 episodes a year, which pretty much means, you know,

five days a week for 10 months of the year or whatever you're working on one show and one character. She can get in and out with something like flight attendant, and then like in a year she can do something else that kind of has the same vibe. But I think that TV needs more shows

that have this sort of tone. Like this feels like a slightly racier USA drama. Yes. Like Blue Sky's drama. This is what I want for Megan Markle. I want her to be in this kind of show where it's like really like straight down the middle for a lot of people,

but also really fun and entertaining. So maybe they can collaborate. I think it would be cool if Megan Markle did a show, where she played a tabloid journalist. That would be awesome. Yes, I think it's a great idea, Chris. Pitch it to Netflix and they can send it to her.

But I think also with Cuoco, like, she's kind of like come along the right time. Like the honest in comparison is a really good one. Like you wonder for people who are so closely aligned with specific parts, like the entire Friends cast, could they have made a different pivot if there were so much more television being made in so many more places that you could watch

scripted dramas. Very similar situations where I think that the people from Big Bang Theory, just like the people from friends, were just getting paid way too much to walk away. You know, and that they... And probably like, you think... I think it was with friends, and I think there's a little bit true with

Big Bank Theory. You just like settle into a routine. You know what to expect. You like your coworkers for the most part. And like, you're like, why would I stop this? Right. But even on Big Bang Theory, I think that she was essentially one of the nerds' girlfriends. You know, so it was like, that was like that kind of part. And this, she gets to try

out a lot of different stuff. And to her credit, she does try to do some dramatic, some dramatic work in this, in this show. It's probably fun for her to play, like, a messy character, too, after coming off a networks at Com. A CBS show? Yeah. So one thing that this show sort of lacks because the love interest gets killed in the first episode is a central love interest. Like, there's a couple of guys that kind of orbit her, but there is never a will, they won't they? There is never a, she, you know, she belongs with this person. Do you find that the show suffers at all from that? I don't. Because I think, it's like in the third episode. She really positions the dead guy, Alex, is like the love of interest. She's like, I met someone. And so she says that to another guy who's like courting her. And I thought

that was really interesting and actually like very relatable. Like this like the memory of someone being started than the present tense. Yeah. I mean, that's the, that's the premise of a few rom-coms out there. But I thought that actually was like one of the more plausible pieces of of this show. I mean, you know, you just kind of like go along with that. I don't, I don't hold the implausibility against it in anyway. But I actually thought that was like a really interesting insight into the character and like into humans. So going into the finale, which is airing on Thursday night, do you have anything that you really desperately need tied up for you in the show or are you kind of more ambiently enjoying it? Just the hair products that Kelly Quok was using. Just like a full refinery 29 mystical. Yeah.

Exactly. That's the main thing I need to know. Yeah. What about you? No, I think I'll be curious to see when I am always interested the same way that like Big Little Lies had this issue when they have like a quote unquote limited series. And I don't know if flight attendant was ever pitched this way is when they kind of have second thoughts. And they're like, no, no, no, let's keep making this. You know, and how they have to go about kind of making a bridge to a possible second season. So it'll be interesting to see how flight attendant handles that. Yeah. I also just like, I'm just curious about the HBO Max environment and what it develops into and just like how this became a show that landed there versus somewhere else. And, you know, it's still such a new

streaming network that I'm also curious. like how it becomes part of like this show definitely feels of a piece of love life to me like yeah i would buy these on the same channel if they were if if such a thing still existed i love HBO max also i'm i've got two more episodes to go on the murder in the middle beach so i'm just like rocking that rocking that app hard you've just you've pivoted from hulu to max well it's all crime you know they've got all the crime you need between the undoing flight attendant and the murder on middle beach so i'm i'm busy all right juliet um Thank you so much for talking to me.

The finale of the flight attendant airs on HBO Max on Thursday. I hope everybody enjoys. And thanks for listening to TV Concierge. We'll talk to you soon.