Peacock’s New Original Show Continues NBC’s Obsession With Endangered Planes

How many times will NBC create a TV show featuring a plane that mysteriously disappears in an attempt to copy the success of Lost? If the trailer for the upcoming Peacock original series Departure is something to say, the answer is “at least three times in less than a decade”.

Departure, a six-episode miniseries which will be released on September 17, tells the story of the airliner flight 716, which “shockingly” disappears in mid-flight, forcing a team of investigators to attempt to unravel the plot before another plane hits the ground running. disappears. It may also seem like a little familiar if you’ve watched network TV for the past decade and a half.

In 2004, Lost debuted on ABC, telling the story of Oceanic Airline flight 815, which vanishes into thin air on a routine flight and crashes on a mysterious tropical island, kicking off a TV series flashback-based blockbuster and loaded with conspiracy that would rule pop culture for years.

Lost ended in May 2010, and the following season, NBC was already looking to capture audiences with The event, a conspiratorial and flashback-laden TV series that – presumably by sheer coincidence – ends its first episode with Avias Airways Flight 514 vanishing into thin air. Despite its similarities to Lostthe “neither show nor say” approach to explain its mysteries, The event only lasted one season before being canceled.

But NBC hasn’t finished delving into the eerily specific subgenre of ‘plane suddenly disappears, sparking vast conspiracy’. In 2018, the network made its debut Manifesto, which tells the story of Montego Air Flight 828, which (you guessed it) disappears mid-flight, only to reappear years later, triggering more questions and supernatural mysteries. Manifesto was recently renewed for a third season in June, which means NBC will be the proud owner of two completely independent conspiratorial plane disappearance shows, airing simultaneously.

In defense of NBC, Departure seems to be moving away from previous shows of endangered planes on the network and taking a more grounded approach to the concept. The series appears to pin the missing flight on a more conventional terrorist attack, not a supernatural event caused by powerful aliens or unexplained forces.

That said, if it turns out that the disappearance of Flight 828 was caused by an energy portal that took passengers to a tropical island that also serves as a convoluted metaphor for purgatory, don’t say I didn’t tell you. not warned.