What I’m Watching: Manifest

Manifest: Season 1, Episode 9 “Dead Reckoning” (C)

This show is going off the air for about six weeks, and I’m not sure I’m going to tune back in when it returns. I had expected it to peter out eventually, but instead it’s just proceeding along at a glacial pace without any intriguing elements. Flashing back to the original interviews with the passengers which resulted in Autumn being told that she has a record and then showing up looking very shaken to Ben’s house. One of my pet peeves when it comes to watching television is unnecessary replay of scenes, and it wasn’t much of a stretch to imagine that Autumn was actually sent by Laurence to spy on them. I wish there was more sophistication than her unsubtle text of “What now?” back to him. Just as Vance was becoming a strong ally for Ben and Michaela, he got himself killed, while Jared might have been spared thanks to Michaela deciding to ask the voice in her head for help for the first time. While Jared dying would be tragic, Ben has a more concrete loss that isn’t based on the end of a life but instead a relationship that has been far too strained by the fact that he wants his wife to understand what it was like to be on the plane while all she sees is a scared child who shouldn’t be put in harm’s way so frequently. While I’d hope there’s something worthwhile left to discover when this show returns in January, I’m not optimistic at all.