Pan Am: First Look

Nowadays air travel is a bit of a nightmare. If you’re not having to swipe a credit card before using the lavortory, you’re having to put up with the pretty useless steward service. Of course, we live in an age of Ryanair and Easyjet, an age of the so called ‘budget airline’. Pan Am deals with a time when flying was a nice experience, 1963 to be exact. Of course this was also a time when the Cold War was heating up and when people were still getting over the Second World War. This show deals with those things as well as showing us how air travel should be.
     It was billed as 'Mad Men in Flight’. I’ll admit with some shame that I’m yet to watch Mad Men and so couldn’t really to the whole comparrison thing between the two. What I will say though is that this show is excellent. I read a review by Richard Arnold in The People in which he heavily critisised the show and he couldn’t be more wrong. The man is an idiot, I’m going to leave it at that.
     Firstly, the 1960’s setting means that we get a great soundtrack of a lot of 60’s swing straight out of The Great American Songbook. We also get the classic 60’s glamour and there isn’t a swear word in sight. It’s really easy viewing. Of course it is a little far fetched at times. One of the stewardesses has been employed by the Secret Service for example. There are some really intelligent and touching moments too though. One of the stewardeses is French and has to go to Berlin on a flight in a more recent episode. Seeing her trying to deal with being on German soil when her parents were killed by the Nazis when they occupied her country was actually quite emotional.
     The show is currently airing every Sunday on ABC in the states and every Saturday on BBC2 over here.