“The Flight Attendant” Season 2 (HBO Max) is a brilliant portrayal of alcoholism and the problems it can cause with relationships, friends, family, jobs and life. Kaley Cuoco’s turn as the titular Cassie is the show’s provocative and enlightening core, but it’s surrounded by chaos.
I suppose the manic espionage-thriller stuff is fitting, as it’s a tonal match to Cassie’s problems. And the world-hopping is wonderful to look at, especially the jaunt to Iceland, where it’s dark in the daytime yet everyone is cheerful. But even after all eight episodes, I couldn’t tell you exactly what happened.
Working multiple jobs
I don’t necessarily take issue with the fact that four Los Angeles-based flight attendants also happen to be covert CIA agents (Cassie and Griffin Matthews’ Shane), an international secrets-trader (Rosie Perez’s Megan), or someone who might be running a frame-job on our heroine (Mae Martin’s Grace).
“The Flight Attendant” Season 2 (2022)
HBO Max, 8 episodes
Creator: Steve Yockey
Stars: Kaley Cuoco, Zosia Mamet, Griffin Matthews
That’s the conceit of Steve Yockey’s show. If you keep watching after episode one of the new campaign, you’ve basically signed a contract that you’ll go with it.
The least cogent arc is Megan’s. She makes enemies of both the North Koreans and her own country. Why is she selling secrets anyway? Season 1 probably told us, but Season 2 never reminds us, and that’s unfair in this era when we’re all watching a couple dozen prestige TV series in between.
Season 2 ends with a callback to Season 1, and my forgetfulness about the events lessened the impact. But I did enjoy watching Jenny (Jessie Ennis, “Better Call Saul”). She pops up at an AA meeting and immediately clings to the already overwhelmed Cassie and mimics her.
The smiley Ennis is naturally amusing, and Jenny fits with the season’s theme of doubling. A vicious killer couple includes Callie Hernandez’s Gabrielle, who chips away at framing Cassie for murder throughout the season. It’s fun in the moment, but ultimately forgettable.
Not an anonymous problem
One thing I won’t forget about “The Flight Attendant,” though, is Cassie herself. Between seasons, I got to know someone with alcohol problems. I developed sympathy for what she’s going through, and learned how alcohol rewires the brain so it craves alcohol. As Cassie says in millennial-speak, if she has one drink, she’ll end up having “all the drinks.”
Quitting is not as easy as deciding to do so, and it’s rare that a show illustrates this so well. Cuoco nails the portrayal of a hot mess, but it’s not for pure entertainment: She shifts the tragedy-comedy balance closer to tragic.
It’s like watching a train wreck as Cassie says exactly the wrong thing and drives off devoted boyfriend Marco (Santiago Cabrera). In another stark moment, Cassie’s mom (Sharon Stone) tells her daughter she loves her but doesn’t like her.
Where is her mind?
As a stylistic complement, we smash-cut to Cassie’s mind palace. She gets taunted by the devilish Past Cassie, a heavy drinker in a sequined party dress. Potential Future Cassie has her life together, but she isn’t a helpful angel: She is annoyed by Present Cassie.
Rounding out the quartet is Teen Cassie (Audrey Grace Marshall), who is irked by who she will become. Cuoco plays the other three Cassies herself, and amazing filmmaking trickery melds the performances. Three Cuocos share the screen, sometimes overlapping.
For support, Cassie does have Annie (Zosia Mamet) and Max (Deniz Akdeniz), an engagingly (and engaged) bantering couple. But the mind-palace sequences illustrate that friends can only help her so much; alcoholism is an internal battle.
Questionable commercial
One oddity about Cuoco playing an alcoholic should be mentioned. Concurrent with playing Cassie, she stars in Smirnoff Vodka commercials. The people I know with alcohol issues don’t complain about the ubiquitous booze ads in society, as they understand the world won’t cater to their problems.
But it borders on poor taste for Cuoco to take this particular commercial job at this time. Since she’s not financially desperate (the “Big Bang Theory” made her a multi-millionaire), I’d hope she’d be choosier.
That said, Cuoco’s dual boozy roles are a net gain for viewers. Cassie is worth rooting for, but I understand why characters are repulsed by her. “The Flight Attendant” Season 2 is messy, but not as messy as Cassie – and it’s the latter point that makes the show stand out.