stefan_s-493-927974 First, let me say that I very rarely watch any network TV programming. For those of you that thrive on prime time programming seven nights a week, your tastes may differ substantially from mine.Having said that, however, I will also say that I have bought the entire season from Amazon. That is the first time I have ever done that. This should say quite a bit about how much I like Pan Am.Several people have had their nit picks about various details. Remember that they are trying to recreate something from half a century ago, and it isn't just a matter of building a set in a studio plus a few exterior shots around town. Recreating the interior of a Boeing 707 and the entirety of Pan Am's Worldport must have been extremely challenging. It looks convincing enough, as do the uniforms.Yes, the pilots were way too young to be believable, that just wouldn't have happened in reality. The best I can say about that is that the main plots don't really revolve around them all that much. I can mentally substitute someone 20 years older and it pretty much still works.Yes, just about everyone smoked back then. Mad Men accurately reflects that, Pan Am doesn't. Being a non-smoker myself, maybe Pan Am depicts the way I wish things were instead of the way they really were.Overseas airline travel, especially on Pan Am, really was as exciting and glamorous as depicted. I never had the opportunity to fly on Pan Am myself, but you read things and you heard stories from people that had been lucky enough to do so. What is depicted in the television show seems to ring true.Pan Am stewardesses really were a special breed and icons of their era. The show revolves around them, and I suppose that their characterization and depiction is about as good as can be expected. There really was a lot of sexism in those days, and if anything what is depicted in the show is probably toned down a bit from the way it actually was. I doubt if Maggie would have actually been able to get away with as much as she does in the show. Of course we never heard anything about Pan Am stewardesses being CIA or MI6 operatives at the time, but in retrospect this makes perfect sense, and I don't doubt that it did happen. I do suspect that it would all have been done with a lot more care and lot less haphazard improvisation than is depicted - the airline's reputation was itself an important national asset, and neither the US government nor Juan Trippe would have wanted anything done that would have messed that up.As for the various plots: I've gotten hooked on the series, but some plot lines were more believable and entertaining than others. I actually did like the various clandestine missions that Kate was sent on. Collete is an attractive character, but would have been made more interesting if a deeper multi-dimensionality to her personality and back story could have been brought out. I actually found Maggie to be more than a little annoying; I frankly kept wishing that she would have gotten the firing that she richly deserved. Laura also left a little to be desired, and I would have liked to have seen a little more depth to her character rather than just seeing her panic through the endless successions of little crises that her immaturity keeps leading her into. Bridget actually gave the impression of being a very deep and interesting character - it is a shame that she was kept mostly in the background for the entire series. As other posters have pointed out, it really was unreal to have the same four main characters (plus the pilot and co-pilot) constantly flying together; we all knew that stewardesses were constantly being rotated around. I guess some artistic liberties were needed in order to build a series, but this was a very big one. In later episodes you do start seeing some of the characters taking time off and not being on board with the others, so that partially brings back some semi-reality. Still, the reality actually was that crew members working for Pan Am got to work with and know a lot of other Pan Am crew members; not exactly one big happy family, but it was a much wider network of relationships than what is depicted in the show.I do agree with many other posters that the pilot and co-pilot were unbelievably young, and I was not very impressed with or interested in their stories. The episode where the pilot decides to go ahead with an emergency landing in Haiti, of all places, and then barely takes off on a too-short runway minus the luggage and one dead passenger and plus one stowaway is just too unbelievable to allow even the usual suspension of belief. That he is still allowed to be in the cockpit in future episodes really does take us into never-never land. The pilots really were highly experienced and older, mostly ex-military WWII era. They really were called "Skygods", and for a reason. Even the older pilot that they introduce for the Moscow episode is only barely believable. The Pan Am pilots of that era were the best in the business and they didn't mess around, inside the cockpit at least.In summary, Pan Am isn't perfect - it has its flaws both when it comes to historical accuracy and as a television drama. Nevertheless, it did succeed for me in recreating what it was like to fly with and work for an iconic Pan Am in the early 1960s, and I enjoyed watching it.

Xmichala317 Pan Am is a great show. I am obsessed with learning about past decades, especially the 50's and 60's. I was really excited when the show started and every week I'm anxiously waiting to watch the next episode. I think the whole plot is really interesting. Some people have said it doesn't show how Pan Am truly was in the 60's, but the show wasn't meant to give everyone a history lesson. It is meant to give people an idea of what life was like back then for people, mostly focusing on the lives of Pan Am stewardesses and pilots. I'm sure most people know that not all of Pan Am's employees behaved the same way or had the same lifestyles as the characters in the show. This show is really good and I hope it gets brought back for another season. If it doesn't I will be really disappointed. It is a lot better than some other shows out there. And for the people who complain that it's on too late, you can watch it anytime on ABC.com or on demand. I think the show is good for pretty much any age group over 12 years old.

Zulu42 I've tuned into this show since it's inception and I'm glad I did because it's one of the few shows on network TV that isn't following the usual cookie-cutter plots and story lines that so many of the other indistinguishable hospital-based/dysfunctional-family-driven/crime-of-the-week stuff that's out there. Not that any show dealing with those topics is bad, it's just getting tired and unoriginal. That's why Pan Am was such a breath of fresh air when it aired.Unfortunately, sometimes the plots felt like they were thrown together last minute to give each character their moment in the spotlight instead of concentrating on building the back stories of the flight crew through more group situations. The cast is great but while I found myself engrossed in some of the sub story lines (like Maggie's growing involvement in ethically questionable stuff or Laura's figurative jailbreak from a previously boring life with a new taste for adventure as a flight attendant and novice photographer, for instance), others kind of bored me. Kellie Garner's role as Kate and her adventures as a CIA courier/soon to be spy in training were just too forced and silly. When I DVR'ed the show, I'd fast forward through those particular parts because they just didn't mesh well. No offense to Ms. Garner, who is a top notch actress, but the part of the CIA trainee would've been more believable to me if any one of the other women in the cast played the role. Maybe it's because Ms. Garner looks too sweet and seems uncomfortable playing that part. I don't know. On a better note, the romantic entanglements are pretty cool and I'm loving the match ups. Mike Vogel's pretty boy Dean is an unlikely yet perfect match for the cool and mysterious Collette (Karine Vannasse), and the nice slow burn romance that's building between naive Laura (Margot Robbie) and hotshot pilot Ted (Michael Mosely) is charming. It would be cool to see Maggie and Kate get some constant companionship too. Finally, it would be nice to have a little more of the travel scene stuff because, hell, they're an airline crew and they go to some great places. Start to show some more of the places and sites and less of the inside of the terminal or their apartments so much. I hope this show makes it because it's good and, despite some disjointed stuff that seems to happen in many of the episodes, I still like it. Maybe ABC will take a chance and renew it and give it a better slot. Here's hoping.

keziahspafa This show is unique from other shows. His has a mix of history and how it is like to live as a stewardess. I like this show because of how they mention historical facts, which makes me feel like I'm there with them, rather than reading it from a history book. Also, I like how it shows how back in the day the bias people had if you want to become a stewardess. And the strict rules they had to go through. The show does not glamorize the life of being stewardess or pilots, rather it makes us see difficulties they would have experienced. I also like how the characters all come from different places, and had different up bringing. It adds to the show, and shapes their characters. In each episode you never know, how its going to end. I can't wait to see more episodes from the show.