As the captain of Montego Air Flight 828A between Kingston, Jamaica and New York requests clearance for landing, so a sequence of events follow that have massive repercussions for the 191 passengers and crew alike. Turns out the plane has been missing for five years.
A routine albeit fairly turblent four hour flight turns into a nightmare for all those onboard – families returning home, holidays over or business trips concluded. But the world outside of the cabin has moved on five years. With the flight diverted to a secure military base, Homeland Security headed by Robert Vance (Daryl Edwards) needs to ascertain exactly what is going on.
That’s no easy task – especially when passengers include brother and sister duo Ben (Josh Dallas) and Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh) Stone. An NYPD detective, Michaela travelled with her family to consider the marriage proposal by colleague and long time partner, Jared Vasquez (J.R. Ramirez). With a cash incentive, Ben, young son Cal (Jack Messina) and Michaela separated themselves from the rest of the family when their scheduled earlier flight was overbooked. But disembarkation from Flight 828A onto military tarmac a, for them, few hours later is not what was expected.
What unfolds over the next four seasons and 62 episodes is an attempt to understand what happened. As the alpha male strut from Dallas, the self appointed leader of the group, grows, there’s inevitably many a theory as government agencies become involved, conspiracy theories arise and the 828ers as they become known are marginalised with their ‘point of difference’ seen as a threat. But over the course of the four seasons, the theories become more and more outlandish incorporating the supernatural, spiritualism, paganism and Christian doctrine – particularly when the passengers start to develp ‘callings’. A momentary ‘vision’, a flash of an unfolding event (usually involving two or more 828ers) results usually in Dallas jumping to massive conclusions in their meaning, riding roughshod over any rule or regulation and dashing across the city to ‘solve’ (luckily virtually everything of significance takes place in and around New York).
Originally scheduled for six seasons, but cancelled after three, Netflix stepped in to support one final season to allow the narrative to be suitably closed. After dealing with the threat of the end of the world, the Angel of Mercy, a surviving fragment of Noah’s Ark, officially endorsed secret lab rat experiments, numerous personal threats to the various survivors and Josh Dallas laughable as the leader of the pack, Manifest could not come to an end quickly enough. That so-appealling initial premise at the beginning of season one became completely lost. But it’s inexplicable as to why we stuck with it until the bitter end!
(And I never want to hear the word ‘lifeboat’ again)
Rating: 40%
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