Manifest - TV series - Review

Oddly, the first, second and fourth series is on Netflix but the third series was on Sky/Now TV (in the UK). 

Should you watch Manifest? Read below and decide.

It started as a mystery - a plane and its passengers disappeared, to arrive five years later. Unlike the people who had been mourning them, assuming them to be dead, the passengers hadn't aged. It was as if they had been in suspended animation for that time. Most noticeable were the twins - a girl aged about 15 (who was not on the flight) and her twin brother (who was on the flight) had remained about ten years old.

The passengers were unaware of anything being amiss until they landed. For them, it was a normal flight, a few hours in the air.

As the story progressed, it became more surreal. "God" was setting tasks for the passengers, who received their 'callings' in their heads, sometimes shared with others, as vague puzzles to be solved. Driving the quest to resolve the 'callings' was Ben (father of the aforementioned twins) and his sister, Mick (Michaela).

There were three other instances of people cheating death, temporarily, which led to the conslusion that the world would end in a finite time.

Skipping ahead to the fourth series, we are now familiar with all the characters. Key to resolving the mystery are: Ben and Mick Stone (mentioned above), Ben's family, especially his son, Cal, and Dr Saanvi Bahl. Additionally, non-passengers, Jared, Drea and Vance, provide help and support with the tasks. Last, but not least, is Zeke, an anomaly.

To quote K from Men In Black, "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals ..."

Mob mentality means that a growing number of people mistrust the people from the plane, many think that they are aliens. Others consider that they perform miracles and they form cults (remember, this is America). The Government, which has been conducting illegal experiments on some passengers to see if the callings can be replicated and possibly weaponised, eventually treats them as criminals.

Obviously, without proof, the 'outside world' does not buy in to "the world will end tomorrow" theory. It's down to the Stone family to defeat the odds. 

The end of the series will be: (1) the good guys save the world, (2) they got it wrong and life goes on, possibly without them, or (3) the world ends. If you plan to watch it but don't want spoilers, stop reading. Otherwise... 

 

Conclusion.

1. The story would have been better in three series rather than four, which dragged it out a bit. However, those four seasons covered five years so, arguably, it could have been dragged out even longer. 

2. I've omitted some of the major plot details, such as Cal's leukaemia and a main player, Angelina. This will leave something to discover for those who plan to watch the series. Zeke is also difficult to classify here so viewers will have his character to look forward to.

3. SPOILER ALERT: The ending was inevitable - but nicely tied up the loose ends. Except for Cal, whose journey was slightly different from the others, most of the passengers who survived did so with their memories intact. 

4. MAJOR SPOILER ALERT: The flight landed as scheduled, five years before the main story took place. People were reunited. Lives continued, possibly better than they woud have done. Mick found Zeke.