- Network: ABC
- Series Premiere Date: Sep 25, 2011
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Critic Reviews
- Critic score
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A gorgeous production, though the story sometimes keeps it on the tarmac.
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So far, so great.
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Pan Am is nostalgic bonbons for the mind, made with the finest ingredients.
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The glamour in Pan Am may indeed be manufactured--doubly manufactured, given the re-created places and planes--but it's not empty: The show says, yes, this is as good as it looks, and it looks very good
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Derivative Pan Am may be, but that doesn't make it any less watchable.
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It's definitely a flight worth booking.
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Pan Am's easy whirl fits the bill, when its chatter is snappy and also when it's not.
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Watching Pan Am is like getting a free upgrade to escapist class.
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Right now Pan Am doesn't seem to know exactly what it wants to be; it's experimenting with tone, and seeing what works and what doesn't. That's the kind of attitude that, if done right, should lead to an interesting series. [30 Sep 2011, p.62]
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The female leads are appealing, the world promising and the pilot much more clear-eyed and less compromised in its view of the era than "Playboy Club" is.
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For shows that play to our longing for America's lost days of glory, the sky's the limit.
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This is a series where surface is substance, and surfaces don't come much dreamier than in this beautifully realized flight fantasy, from its lovely, terror-free airport to its even lovelier cast.
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The action is set to the beat of "Mack the Knife" and other swingin' songs that, along with some stunning production design, help the show deliver a hefty dose of '60s nostalgia.
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The show is fueled with so much soap-operatic hot air that it takes off. [26 Sep 2011, p.54]
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The romance and the attractively stylized innocence of the era is addictive, but the espionage plot, with its link to political history, is absurd.
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My favorite so far of the fall's two "Mad Men" wannabes and a show with more moving parts than a jumbo jet.
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Every television series launches on a wing and a prayer, perhaps none more than this entertaining, glossy drama.
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Take the back stories, add the unfolding drama of love, loss, disappearances and danger, shake it all up with exotic locales from Paris and Berlin to Monaco and Rio--and it could be a tasty cocktail
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The new shows are more concerned with hitting their marks and getting the sociology right than with character, but Pan Am has a bit of style to it, and a note of darkness, and the formula might just work.
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Set in 1963, Pan Am's production is highly stylized, neat, and dreamy, perfectly suited to the nostalgia it is eager to evoke.
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There's soap here, and the liberated-woman part sometimes feels like a reach. But the show is fun, it makes flying look like fun, and yes, that line of stewardesses does look good enough to stop an airport.
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Beneath all the visual dazzle of the premiere episode, a bit of the groundwork is there, but Schlamme and Orman need to build on it very soon.
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Beyond selling the glamour of it all, Pan Am may be very hard-pressed to come up with weekly storylines that impel viewers to climb aboard.
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The show's extravagant, aggressive joy about the friendly skies sometimes makes even that pinnacle of historical romance seem like a Lars Von Trier film in comparison.
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If only for the costumes and '60s music, Pan Am is amusing to see at least once, but if it has any instructive benefit at all, it's as a mood indicator for these times, not those.
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It's a handsome study in perfect mediocrity.
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Even so, the disjointed, choppy approach leaves this meticulously outfitted production looking overdressed for the occasion, and while there are enough moving parts to potentially turn up something interesting, turbulent takeoffs seldom bode well for the rest of the trip.
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It has neither the exactitude of the times nor the talent of the writers to get at the issues, ala Mad Men, that illuminate the issues of the day.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 62 out of 87
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Mixed: 19 out of 87
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Negative: 6 out of 87
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Oct 3, 2011
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Nov 6, 2011
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Sep 27, 2011