TV Review: Pan Am 1.7, "Truth or Dare"

By Chris Swanson / November 7, 2011

rating: 2

Usually when I sit down to write up a review of something, I have a distinct impression, and that makes it easier for me to write. If it€™s something that left a good impression, I can work off that. If it left a bad one, oh, you better believe I can work with that. Just check out my work on agonybooth sometime. This episode of Pan Am left me with no impression at all. It wasn€™t good. It wasn€™t bad. It just was, and I had considerable trouble getting engaged. Our story begins with about thirty seconds of a party, and then before the credits even role, we go to an extended flashback with the stewardesses playing €œtruth or dare€. During this, Laura (Margot Robbie), reveals that she recently posed for some nude photos. Well, that€™s fun. Turns out that the staff are going to be flying a bunch of sailors home for a wedding. From what I can tell, it€™s about fifteen of them, and they€™re off a submarine. One would think that the Navy would just give them regular tickets, even first class ones, rather than charter an entire airplane, but whatever. During the flight, Laura starts spending quality time with a black sailor named Joe. This is happening about four years before Loving v Virginia made interracial marriage legal everywhere in the USA, so you know it€™s something that€™s bound to raise a few eyebrows. Things get especially complex when the two of them are alone together after the party. Meantime, Kate (Kelli Garner), is facing her own problems. The CIA wants her to recruit her Yugoslavian diplomat boyfriend and is unhappy to hear that he€™s about to go back home, possibly never to return. They figure that the best way to get him on their side is to kidnap him from her apartment while she screams at them. Yes, that makes complete and total sense. The only other subplot in this episode is Colette getting to take control of the airplane for a few minutes while in flight. And that€™s about as exciting as it sounds, though it did work better for me than the other two stories. This episode, really, was something of a snooze-fest, and at first I was getting confused by the way that it jumped around in time more than usual. Once you have something that€™s boring that becomes confusing, that€™s not a recipe for success. There were a few good things about this episode. First off, I€™m pleased that they€™ve finally got around to paying real attention to the racial issue, even if it is a bit ham-handed. Second, I liked that there wasn€™t any sort of exotic locale in this story; it was just the plane and then New York City (which might be fairly exotic to some, I suppose). Those things were both pretty great. But it was dragged down by the rest of the story. The spy plotline continues to falter. If they were going to have Kate snuggling up to the diplomat and trying to win him over, it would have been nice if they€™d let it build up for a few more episodes. Then the emotional payoffs we received would have made more sense. The racial thing was an even bigger problem, frankly. I mean, like I said, it was nice to see it addressed, but I get the distinct feeling it was brought up by someone saying, €œSo, we need to show racial tensions in this time. I know, let€™s have someone shag a black person!€ Again, this wasn€™t a bad episode, but it was by no means good. Pan Am, which should be great, continues to just be an endurance race.