Patrick Harbron / ABC

Sisters Kate (Kellie Garner, left) and Laura (Margot Robbie) are conception of the gathering during the missy grace of the Clipper Majestic in the execute of "Pan Am."

The bounteous discourse most ABC's "Pan Am," premiering after heaps and heaps of hype on Sun night, is whether the exhibit crapper give to reassert the impressive countenance of the execute episode. Seriously. This abstract staleness hit outlay more than the case gift for a clam luggage on a grace to Europe.

In "Pan Am," God is rattling such in the info - not to name the punctuation fashion and iconic Pan Am trademark - as we are whisked backwards to 1963, when the storied planetary line is most to beam the newborn Clipper Majestic soured on its prototypal journey.

Not exclusive was Pan dweller World Airways the epitome of airborne call and richness in its day, but air was actually a smart state then. Hard to believe, I know, but grouping would coiffe up to commission a plane, airlines didn't calculate you per youngster in every bag, the matter didn't countenance same cold, unclassifiable roadkill and the stewardesses (this was when it was a employ for teen women) were abundant, knightly and ever decked discover in smart uniforms.

Sony Pictures Television has unsealed the vaults on this program and it shows. But looks lonely aren't sufficiency to alter viewers' eyes backwards hebdomad after week, which is ground creators saint Schlamme ("The West Wing") and Jack Orman ("ER") hit secured an captivating patch and sketched discover a sort of potentially pat news lines around them.

Although every form has a airman and co-pilot, "Pan Am" is such more most the stewardesses than the phallic grace crew. Like the lesser retrospective show, "The Playboy Club" on NBC, we intend a sort of types among the stewardesses. Christina Ricci is Maggie, the ruiner who gets grounded for imperfectness to dress a girdle, Karine Vanasse is author - she's French, of instruction - the woman who water for mated men, Kelli Garner is Kate, the take-charge all-American with a desire for movement and adventure, and Margot Robbie is Laura, Kate's sister, who leaves her betrothed at the table to wager a lowercase taste of the concern before sinking down.

As captivating as these actresses are, in this show, it's the guys who are the receptor candy, not meet because actors same Mike Vogel (the raffish teen pilot, Dean) are handsome, but because they don't do such beyond embellish the cockpit - at small in the prototypal episode. The women do the onerous lifting this instance around, but will there be sufficiency lifting to uphold the program beyond its seeable appeal?

That's a bounteous question. There is a full subplot most planetary espionage (this does verify locate during the Cold War, after all) that has potential, albeit of the inevitable variety. But the show's writers requirement to change case types for the women with credible, nuanced and captivating characters per se. We requirement to tending more most their individualized lives and who they are as individuals. Beneath every the seeable blind of the execute episode, a taste of the groundwork is there, but Schlamme and Orman requirement to physique on it rattling soon.

Pan Am: Dramatic series. 10 p.m. Sun. on ABC.

This article appeared on tender E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle