The Flight Attendant spoilers observe, however they’re very minor.

Be aware: The primary 4 episodes had been made obtainable for assessment.

“Taking a break would undoubtedly scare me,” Kaley Cuoco lately advised The Hollywood Reporter. “You are simply forgotten, too. You have to keep related. But additionally know when an excessive amount of is an excessive amount of. It is sort of a wonderful line.”

The Massive Bang Concept was profitable for an entire bunch of causes, however one key ingredient was Penny, a personality who Cuoco herself says “represented the viewers” by offering us with a transparent entry level into this geeky world.

Now that the present’s over, there’s numerous stress on Kaley’s TV comeback to drop with a bang of its personal.

Certain, Harley Quinn technically acquired there first, however The Flight Attendant arrives with the added stress of being Cuoco’s return to live-action TV. Along with being the star, Kaley additionally works as an government producer on the present, diving straight into this position when The Massive Bang Concept got here to an finish.

Alongside the best way, Cuoco has additionally needed to take care of manufacturing delays together with unintentional hearth mishaps on set. After which on prime of all that, she even needed to inform a “little white lie” to green-light the present within the first place. So is The Flight Attendant value all that stress and drama?

Fortunately, it’s, and if something, all this chaos that performed out off-camera really helped make Kaley’s TV comeback much more of successful by feeding into what’s already a reasonably chaotic premise.

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Similar to Chris Bohjalian’s 2018 novel, HBO Max’s adaptation of The Flight Attendant follows an air hostess known as Cassie Bowden who wakes up subsequent to a lifeless physique in a Bangkok lodge.

Due to a heavy case of alcohol-induced amnesia, Cassie cannot bear in mind what led thus far, so she decides to wash up the blood and run again to her house in New York. Whereas making an attempt to piece collectively what occurred, Cassie additionally has to face suspicious FBI brokers and an odd lady who could or will not be making an attempt to kill her…

Throughout a CTAM digital panel held again in August, Kaley stated Cassie has “a rollercoaster of points however a coronary heart of gold”, and it is on this juxtaposition that Kaley mines gold of her personal, reworking what might have been a paper-thin position into one thing with much more depth. As extra implausible twists begin to pile up, Cuoco grounds the story by subverting the cheer of her Massive Bang Concept persona with a personality who appears comparable however is slowly cracking beneath this facade.

The Flight Attendant relishes the camp absurdity of the supply materials, veering between comedy and darker thrills with gleeful abandon, however the scenes the place Cassie hangs out with the homicide sufferer in her head should still be an excessive amount of for some, pushing the already unfastened limits of believability right here.

Nonetheless, it is a credit score to Cuoco and the writing that these moments nearly work regardless, offering Cassie with somebody to speak via the madness of her life with at a second’s discover.

And Cassie actually does want a sympathetic shoulder to lean on. Between her alcoholism and intrusive flashbacks that stem from long-buried childhood trauma, Kaley’s character isn’t faring too nicely with life as a homicide suspect.

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Protagonists usually make dumb choices in these conditions, and that is true of Cassie too, however right here, it is fully plausible that she would not know what to do, and the present commonly reminds us of her anxieties in surprisingly reasonable methods.

Within the 4 episodes made obtainable to assessment, issues shut in on Cassie with a welcome pace, selecting up the tempo in ways in which we do not see usually sufficient nowadays within the “golden age” of streaming. And that is accentuated additional by the present’s dynamic course, which makes use of a mixture of split-screens, stylised credit, and razor-sharp dialogue to evoke the Hitchcockian thrillers of outdated in a recent, fashionable means.

After all, the complexities of this whodunnit would not work if the supporting forged did not do their justifiable share of heavy lifting both. Fortunately, the assorted individuals who orbit Cassie’s ordeal are additionally well-rounded for probably the most half, slotting completely into this enjoyable however more and more paranoid world.

Explicit standouts embrace Rosie Perez and Zosia Mamet as two buddies who assist Cassie with various levels of success, to not point out Michelle Gomez, who channels the identical depraved vibes we love her for in Sabrina (Hail Lilith!).

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Nevertheless, even with the present’s quick tempo, episodes three and 4 begin to lose some momentum by threading in superfluous storylines designed to maintain issues going a tad longer than essential. Nonetheless, it is arduous to complain when the central thriller is that this partaking, and simply as issues begin to decelerate, every episode ends with a figuring out cliffhanger that calls for you retain watching to seek out out what occurs subsequent.

4 episodes in, it is unclear how The Flight Attendant might maintain this narrative for a second season, however that does not imply we do not need one. Kaley and showrunner Steve Yockey are already eager to push the present additional past the supply materials, and in the event that they succeed, it implies that Cuoco will do extra than simply “keep related”. She’ll set up herself as a bona fide star, hovering past her position as Penny in The Massive Bang Concept to one thing even better.

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The Flight Attendant premieres November 26 on HBO Max. No UK airdate has been introduced thus far.

The Massive Bang Concept aired on CBS and CBS All Entry within the US. You should buy the entire boxset now on DVD and Blu-ray.