Both in movies and on television,stories set in airplanes— or that are tied to events in an airplane — tend to be thrilling and spark viewers' curiosity. The last hit show that featured an airborne plot wasManifest, a 2018 thriller and mystery series that saw a group of passengers simply disappear mid-flight and land five and a half years later as if no time had passed. In light of its possibility,Peacockquickly added to its catalog a show with a similar potential that was almost equally popular. Now that it’s premiered onNetflix, the Canadian seriesDepartureis once again seeing a rise in its popularity.
Depending on how you look at it,Departurecan even be considered a sort of “sister” series toManifest. The story centers around the TSIF (Transport Safety and Investigations Bureau), an entity that investigates and tries to understand the cause ofmajor airline disasters. In Season 1, for example, the team led by Kendra Malley(Archie Panjabi) tries to figure out what happened with Flight 716, a passenger plane that simply disappearedwhile flying over the Atlantic Ocean. So, it wouldn’t be too hard to imagine that the TSIF would end up investigating Montego Air Flight 828 fromManifest.
Per FlixPatrol, the series has managed to cling to Netflix’s top 10 most-watched titles in several countries for about a month. And it looks like the thrills and mysteries are worth your time: Season 1 has a solid 80% score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, opinions ofthe story and how it’s handledwildly diverge, since the audience score of the series' debut season is a dismal 35%. Judging by Netflix’s viewership numbers, though, the show at the very least has somethingthat keeps you hookedand pressing play on new episodes.
Who Is in the Cast of ‘Departure’?
Aside from Panjabi, the cast ofDeparturealso featuresKris Holden-Ried(The Umbrella Academy),Mark Rendall(The Apprentice),Peter Mensah(GladiatorII),Claire Forlani(Black Beauty),Dougray Scott(Sherlock& Daughter),Jason O’Mara(The Man in the High Castle),Kelly McCormack(Another Simple Favor),Wendy Crewson(We Were Liars),Eric McCormack(Will & Grace), and the lateChristopher Plummer(Knives Out). The actor’s work on Season 2 was his final onscreen performance beforehis death in 2021.
Departureis created byVince Shiao, who also wrote forV WarsandRansom. The success of the mystery series on Netflix mirrors its popularity at the time of its premiere — each episode was bringing in over one millionviewers to Canadian network Global.
