The Flight Attendant - In Case of Emergency

The opening episode of The Flight Attendant introduces us to stewardess Cassie Bowden (Kaley Cuoco) who works and plays hard. After a fun night out in Thailand, Cassie wakes up next to a dead body of a passenger (Michiel Huisman) from their flight to Bangkok and spends the rest of the episode frantic while attempting to cover her tracks and jumping another flight back to the United States before the body can be discovered. Only able to remember fragments of the night, Cassie's freak-out isn't helped by the arrival of the FBI to talk with all members of the flight crew.

Adapted from the novel by Chris Bohjalian, the first episode gets Cassie quickly into panic mode and leaves her there for the rest of the episode. Cuoco plays this well, but I'll admit I'm not too keen on watching her freak-out for eight straight hours (and we see little evidence in the first episode that Cassie is capable of anything else, although the plot seems to suggest the ill-prepared Cassie may look for answers on her own). The set-up allows Huisman to continue in his role, despite his character's death, not only in fragmented flashbacks but also in vivid hallucinations with Cassie offering her someone to talk with about the worst morning of her life.