Manifest 1.4: Precious Little Time Travel

Well, as of Manifest 1.4 tonight, the series about a plane that jumped five years into the future continues to meander around with stories that advance the time travel story not one bit.

Tonight's big deal was discovery of a stowaway passenger with mental problems.  That, and the visions our passengers see involve a grey woman with wings (for one of the viewers) and feet that make wet footprints (for the other viewer).  Not the stuff that great or even good time-travel science fiction is made of.

Indeed, the most interesting part of the episode is passenger Ben Stone's continuing struggle to get close to his wife and his daughter, each of whom aged five years while he was on that "magical" flight.  But this is a dysfunctional family dynamic not dependent on time travel - Stone could be facing the same problems if he were away from his family for any reason, having nothing to do with time travel.

All of which is to say: the only reason I'm watching this series is because I'm a devotee anything concerning time travel.  In fact, I just gave a talk about why time travel is so enjoyable as a form of fiction at the New York State Communications Association 76th Annual Conference on Saturday.  You can see the video below.





But there's precious little time travel in Manifest, and I don't know how much more time I'll give it.

See also Manifest 1.1: Canterbury Voices ... Manifest 1.2: Arthur C. Clarke's Magic ... Manifest 1.3: The Murdered Passenger


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