Kaley Cuoco starred in many shows over the years, but she became famous when she landed the role of Penny on Big Bang Theory. The hot actress from Nebraska made a nerd’s dreams come true over the course of 12 seasons. Now she stars in her own series that launched on HBOMax called The Flight Attendant. The first three of eight episodes dropped over the Holiday weekend.

The Flight Attendant – Penny Gone Wrong

Cassie gets caught in the middle.
A night of fun goes terribly wrong.

I was flipping streaming services, looking for something to watch over the holiday and stumbled onto the avatar for this show. When you see and show about flight attendants and starring the cute, bubbly Kaley Cuoco, one would think ‘Hey. This should be a fun, humorous show to help pass the time. After all, the Steward(ess) profession carries with it some wild tales and adventures as they cross the globe. This should fit right into Kaley’s wheel house. Well, you would be right for about the first 10 minutes of the show.

Cuoco does play an alcoholic, free wheeling stewardess that has no qualms about who she goes home with after a fun night of drinking, but then things go terribly wrong. She wakes up the next morning but instead of getting ready for her flight, she looks over to find her boy-toy with a red smile from ear to ear and bed soaked in his blood. Being in east Asia and deathly afraid of their legal system, she tries to mask her presence there by cleaning up any evidence of her existence.

What ensues is part crime drama, part comedy as Feds try to piece together what happened and unfortunately, Cassie’s presence keeps popping up even though she is not the one who killed him. What makes things worse for Cassie is that the ghost of her dead lover now haunts her mind. Every scene where she needs to remember something has Alex, played by Michael Huisman, walking her through it.

The Flight Attendant – Stellar Casting

Cassis, Alex and Miranda
What is their connection?

With someone else in the lead, The Flight Attendant would take on a darker, more ominous tone, but with Cuoco in the lead the show starts drifting darker, but the light hearted ‘Penny’ side of her keeps bringing back the levity. Her interactions with her dead lover as they try to piece together what actually happened work really well. Cassie can be near a break down and he comes into the memory cracking jokes, or he gives Cassie the perfect chance to be her smart ass self.

Rosie Perez also stars in this show. She plays Megan, a fellow flight attendant. The funny thing with Megan’s character is the foreshadowing the show does in her set-up. Early on in the show when the Feds are questioning to themselves if Cassie could be involved, one makes the comment saying one of them is always an espionage agent. Sure enough Megan seems to be involved in some sort of espionage with her husband’s business.

The other face that pops out will be a real treat to Dr Who fans. We learn early on that Alex and Cassie met with a mysterious woman named Miranda, but Cassie was so drunk she could not picture Miranda’s face. When they finally reveal Miranda she turns out to be played by Michelle Gomez (Missy from Dr Who)!

The Flight Attendant – Final Thoughts

Through the first three episodes I am enjoying this show. Its part crime drama and mystery. But with the conclusion of the third episode it looks like we might see some action in the next few episodes. Where most of these show start to bog down in seriousness and darkness, Kaley keeps things light and pithy when possible. As solid as the rest of the cast is, Kaley is the endearing part of the show. She may start out feeling like Penny in her college days, but she does a good job rising to the role when she needs to start sleuthing out answers. The show also dances around Cassie’s alcoholism. I am sure this will be addressed at some point.

The show is rated TV-MA but for those hoping for some risque shots of Kaley, don’t hold your breath. While we see plenty of sex scenes, they all easily rate a PG-13/light R in movie terms. In fact I think the show got the TV-MA more for blood and language than anything. The first three episodes dropped over the holiday, and new episodes will drop every Thursday on HBOMax.