Pan American World Airways on UK TV

[Louise Anne]

Any one watch this in the UK

US drama series set in the 1960s, centred around Pan American World Airways

What do you think about the fashions ?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016c1yf

 

[Grant Fan]

i watch it here in the states and love it all.

 

[PADDY]

Just watched it last night.

 

[AntonAAK]

I watched it last night and I'm afraid I thought it was pretty dreadful. Style over substance. Attractive people in nice clothes do not drama make. I watched the first episode and 10 minutes of the second before the bad dialogue and corny plotting got the better of me.

 

[Doctor Strange]

On this side of the pond, we've been discussing the show for a while:

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/show...ot-Pan-Am-quot-quot-Mad-Men-quot-in-the-skies

Personally, I'm on the verge of giving it up - I turned off this week's halfway through. The early sixties stylization is sloppy and inconsistent, the back-lot "exotic destinations" are lamely done, and the show's uneasy mix of romantic melodrama, espionage, being-there-at-historic-moments gawking, heroic cockpit maneuvers, and winking comedy isn't satisfying.

Mad Men it's definitely not! But the cast is certainly very attractive...

 

[Louise Anne]

that's why I started this off in the powder room with the question

What do you think about the fashions ?
I more interested in the style
To be hounest I not sure I am interest in who's attractive or not or even the story line.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Okay, sorry. This thread isn't in the Powder Room now, so I didn't realize.

I'm old enough to recall the early sixties, and the show's look is mostly right. But the stuff it gets wrong, like the longish hair on the pilot (who's also much too young: these brand-new jets were being flown by seasoned WWII pilots, not kids) and the use of the term "groovy" several years before it became known, is really annoying. The show is clearly nostalgic for a generic sixties that includes stuff from both the still-fifties-ish early years and the full-blown sixties of the second half of the decade. I guess if you didn't live through it and see things change gradually over those years, it evokes the period reasonably well.

In keeping with this, the clothes seem vaguely accurate for the time, but are nowhere near the Mad Men level of research/detail.

 

[Louise Anne]

like the longish hair on the pilot (who's also much too young: these brand-new jets were being flown by seasoned WWII pilots, not kids)

I thought that also

 

[AntonAAK]

that's why I started this off in the powder room with the question

What do you think about the fashions ?
I more interested in the style
To be hounest I not sure I am interest in who's attractive or not or even the story line.

Ah, sorry Paul. This wasn't in the Powder Room so I thought it was open season on commenting on the show.

Didn't mean to hijack your thread.

 

[Louise Anne]

Ah, sorry Paul. This wasn't in the Powder Room so I thought it was open season on commenting on the show.

Didn't mean to hijack your thread.

Well it's not the fault of the poeple who have posted above but I will not now be starting off any more new topics ,( in the powder room or any where for that matter).

 

[Miss Golightly]

I've watched a few episodes and the style is only ok - sometimes they seem to have gotten it right but other times people hair/clothes just seem "off" to me - like some new accessories have been added to some vintage clothing - it just doesn't look right. In one episode one ladies hair seemed like she had been dragged through a bush - just not as polished as you would expect (I could swear I also saw a Stop Staring dress in there somewhere - this may not bother someone who isn't into vintage which is fair enough but it just didn't look authentic to me.)

I think we were spoiled by Mad Men as it's so accurate that anything else just seems like a poor man's Mad Men.

 

[PADDY]

The young Captain - I'm dying to give that man a haircut appropriate to the era!! I just cannot believe they've allowed him to sport that 1970's abhorrent stying, as 'he is' one of the main characters and by default, many eyes are upon him. Such a shame.

Still...a retroesque series is better than 'none' at all.

Anyway - I've just gone into 'suspend belief' mode and watch it as a 'chill out' session with a glass of wine, whereby I don't have to think.

 

[Louise Anne]

I've watched a few episodes and the style is only ok - sometimes they seem to have gotten it right but other times people hair/clothes just seem "off" to me - like some new accessories have been added to some vintage clothing - it just doesn't look right. In one episode one ladies hair seemed like she had been dragged through a bush - just not as polished as you would expect (I could swear I also saw a Stop Staring dress in there somewhere - this may not bother someone who isn't into vintage which is fair enough but it just didn't look authentic to me.)

I think we were spoiled by Mad Men as it's so accurate that anything else just seems like a poor man's Mad Men.

I am not really surprised at your view as one of my freinds in real life was a BBC make up artist working on the vintage period programes and what she say is that she got out of that area was becuse the standard in period correctness was dropping, I know this is a US production but if your going to spend all the money on it surly getting the detail just right is not going to take much more money, how much does a lipstick cost or a hair brush?

Also I only watched the first two but I sis not see a pair of seamed stocking at all, they did say the word Girdle a few times and I think there was a sight of one in a bed room. $10 for a pair of seams stocking is not beyond them either. Stop Staring dresses cost more than real vintage ones!


Thank you also Miss Golightly for binging this thread back onto topic, (about what the ladies are wearing)
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/member.php?6212-Miss-Golightly

 

[Miss Golightly]

I am not really surprised at your view as one of my freinds in real life was a BBC make up artist working on the vintage period programes and what she say is that she got out of that area was becuse the standard in period correctness was dropping, I know this is a US production but if your going to spend all the money on it surly getting the detail just right is not going to take much more money, how much does a lipstick cost or a hair brush?

Also I only watched the first two but I sis not see a pair of seamed stocking at all, they did say the word Girdle a few times and I think there was a sight of one in a bed room. $10 for a pair of seams stocking is not beyond them either. Stop Staring dresses cost more than real vintage ones!

That's very interesting about your friend in the BBC - it's nice to hear someone being so passionate about getting things right when it comes to vintage/historical clothing. It was like The Hour - I saw a couple of episodes and it was all wrong - I think many people on the FL who saw it felt the same - just a lack of eye for detail and general carelessness (this was even reflected in the dialogue - many modern phrases were used throughout which breaks the spell as it were) when it came to getting period details right. To me, Pan Am seems like "dress-up" and has no genuine authentic feel (and this is before I even start on the storylines!).

 

[Philip Adams]

The young Captain - I'm dying to give that man a haircut appropriate to the era!! I just cannot believe they've allowed him to sport that 1970's abhorrent stying, as 'he is' one of the main characters and by default, many eyes are upon him. Such a shame.

Still...a retroesque series is better than 'none' at all.

Anyway - I've just gone into 'suspend belief' mode and watch it as a 'chill out' session with a glass of wine, whereby I don't have to think.

I'd like to echo these thoughts. Like so many others have said - we've been spoilt by Mad Men.

I may be wrong, but I get the feeling that the producers set out to attract a younger audience with this series.

 

[scottyrocks]

What got me interested in this show was seeing Christina Ricci, from The Addams Family (1991). I wanted to see how she had made the acting transformation from child to grown up on screen, something that interests me in general.

I watched two episodes and that was it. The premise was too dull, and the whole thing looked too forced.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Scotty - I've been relentlessly unimpressed with Christina Ricci's going-through-the-motions performance on Pan Am, but geez, she's done lots of worthy film peformances since The Addams Family! Recommended:

The Ice Storm - 1997 (transitioning to more adult roles as a 70s teen; a pretty depressing flick, but I dig it)
The Opposite of Sex - 1998 (she plays quite the conniving bitch)
Pecker - 1998 (intersting John Waters film about the shallowness of art-world celebrity)
Sleepy Hollow - 1999 (Tim Burton's overcooked film doesn't quite work, but she makes a lovely blonde)
The Man Who Cried - 2000 (I just saw this; if you want to see Ricci and Cate Blanchett as Russian[!] showgirl roommates in 1930s Paris, pounce... she looks amazing in 30s styles)
Anything Else - 2003 (one of Woody Allen's worst films, but she plays an awesome bitch)
Penelope - 2006 (not a good film either, but she looks adorable with a pig nose)
Speed Racer - 2008 (yeah, it's quite silly, but she's the best thing in it: totally believable as an anime heroine come to life)