At first glance, Peacock’s series Departure seems to be taking a page from shows like Lost or Manifest in which passenger planes similarly vanish without a trace. Yet unlike those shows, Departure focuses on the investigation around what happened to the missing flight, and from the start, is firmly grounded in reality. As a result, there’s a reasonable explanation for everything (at least in TV terms), it’s just a matter of figuring out what it is. This makes for a twisty, turny mystery, although the show also largely adheres to the conventions of a typical TV thriller in which a dogged investigator seeks the truth.
The series centers on Kendra Malley (Archie Panjabi), a brilliant crash investigator who’s on leave following the untimely death of her husband when Flight 716 disappears over the Atlantic Ocean. Her boss and mentor, Howard Lawson (Christopher Plummer) asks her to come back to lead the investigation into what happened. With a team of experts, Kendra races against time to track down the missing plane while also determining why it went down in the first place.
The first episode stumbles a bit as it dramatizes the search for the plane while simultaneously introducing the show’s large cast of characters and their relationships along with its central mystery and possible solutions. Fortunately, that sprawl is gone by the second episode, when the unexpected discovery of a single surviving passenger helps focus the story on the investigation and drive the action forward.
As can be expected from any show focused on an overarching mystery, Departure's investigation is anything but straightforward. As Kendra follows every lead, entertaining explanations from terrorism to conspiracy to pilot suicide, shadowy forces attempt to thwart her. Meanwhile, she's dealing with issues in her personal life as well. Her stepson, AJ (Alexandre Bourgeois), a troubled 18 year old who is still grieving the death of his father, returns home on the same day Flight 716 goes down, causing additional challenges for Kendra.
It’s this last storyline that’s the show’s weakest link. AJ is more annoying than sympathetic, especially as he uses his impressive computer hacking skills to insert himself into Kendra’s investigation. And while the show drags out the mystery of what really happened to Kendra’s husband, the sub-plot isn’t especially intriguing, something the show itself seems to acknowledge with its cursory coverage of the storyline.
Like many shows in this genre, the characters aren’t particularly well developed. They're mostly a collection of familiar archetypes, including Kendra, whose combination of upstanding determination and basic goodness are the standard characteristics of many TV investigators. Nonetheless, the cast does what it can with the material over the show's slim six episodes. Unsurprisingly, Panjabi and Plummer are interesting to watch despite these limitations, and Kris Holden-Ried, as Kendra’s rival turned biggest ally, Dom, is a standout who manages to add at least a little nuance to his character.
Really, though, the reason to watch Departure begins and ends with the mystery of why Flight 716 disappeared, and even though the show never transcends the conventions of its genre, it's at its strongest when it focuses on following the clues. If grounded TV thrillers led by strong, determined central characters are your thing, you’ll enjoy this show. The twists in the investigation keep things exciting and will leave viewers guessing until the end. Although the addition of a last-minute wrinkle in the final few minutes of the season has less impact -- perhaps a bid to leave some plot threads dangling for a possible second season -- overall, Departure is an engrossing diversion.
Departure, starring Archie Panjabi, Christopher Plummer, Kris Holden-Ried, Peter Mensah, Sasha Roiz, Rebecca Liddiard, Shazad Latif, Mark Rendall, Tamara Duarte, Alexandre Bourgeois and Claire Forlani, premieres on Thursday, Sept. 17 on Peacock.