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The Flight Attendant takes off!

The Flight Attendant takes off!

Shocking, hallucinatory, darkly comic and wildly entertaining, The Flight Attendant was a huge hit and now it’s back for a second season! Here’s everything you need to know

By Chris Miller, Writer

After The Big Bang Theory ended, its star Kaley Cuoco nailed down the role of a lifetime when she secured the TV rights to Chris Bohjalian’s novel The Flight Attendant. In the adaptation she plays Cassie Bowden, the titular cabin crew member, who is troubled, erratic and irresponsible – not to mention an alcoholic – and Cuoco’s performance is brilliant: complex, convincing, appealing and at times downright astonishing. We’ve pretty much forgotten Big Bang’s Penny already!

 

There’s more to The Flight Attendant than just Cuoco, of course: the first season was packed with murder, larceny, hacking, organised crime and dangerous Scottish women – and the second season, coming to Sky Max this week, promises more of the same with shocking crimes, twists piled upon twists and some fab new guest stars. 

 


We feel like our minds are about to be blown all over again. So, ahead of the new season, here’s everything you need to know…

 


Cassie really went through the ringer in season 1. First, she woke up in a Thai hotel room next to the dead body of Alex (Michiel Huisman, The Haunting Of Hill House), the guy she spent the night with. At that point, she had a decision to make – and she chose to run away. It might have kept her out of prison, but it was just the beginning of her problems.

 

On her return to the US she was interrogated by the authorities, found herself stalked by an apparently psychopathic associate of Alex’s named Miranda (Michelle Gomez, Doctor Who), conducted an ill-advised affair with a sketchy dude calling himself Felix (Colin Woodell, Ambulance) and got drawn into Alex’s potentially very shady family business. Perhaps worst of all, she had to deal with many, many disappointed looks from her brother Davey (TR Knight, Grey’s Anatomy).

 

Somewhere along the way Cassie faced up to her addiction and the effect it was having on her life and relationships, realising – through the time-honoured TV tradition of flashbacks – how it all started with her father’s imprudent approach to parenting. With the mystery of Alex’s death solved, the first season ended with Cassie vowing to change her ways…

 


As the second season begins, Cassie is still sober and living a fairly normal life, having moved from New York to California and settled down with her supportive new boyfriend Marco (Santiago Cabrera, Big Little Lies). She’s even holding down two jobs: she’s thrown herself back into her career as a flight attendant, which means we’re treated to some gorgeous locations such as Berlin and Reykjavík. Things are definitely looking up for Cassie. 

 

What’s the second of those two jobs, you ask? Oh, just a little side gig as a CIA asset carrying out covert surveillance.

 


What could possibly go wrong? There’s no chance Cassie could get caught up in another murder case, is there? Well… at least this time, it’s purely as a witness – but she’s got bigger problems, namely that someone seems to be impersonating her for nefarious reasons (as if there could be harmless reasons for doing so!). She may no longer be hallucinating about Alex giving her advice from beyond the grave, but, with doppelgängers lurking, things are about to get pretty weird. Again.

 

On top of all that, there’s the reappearance of Cassie’s colleague Megan (Rosie Perez, Pineapple Express), who spent the first season surreptitiously acquiring documents and dealing with shifty businessman types. It soon becomes clear that Megan is deeper in trouble than anyone realised, and a mysterious text message leads Cassie to discover she’s run into more bother in Iceland…

                                                                       


Cassie’s best friend Annie (Zosia Mamet, Girls) and her boyfriend Max (Deniz Akdeniz, Siren) are back this season to help Cassie and try to keep her, ah, grounded – but there are also plenty of new faces in the cast who get carried along in the wild ride that is Cassie’s life.

 

For starters there’s her CIA handler Benjamin (Mo McRae, Sons Of Anarchy) who, true to secret agent form, may have some shocking secrets of his own. Then there’s Benjamin’s boss Dot, played by Cheryl Hines, best known as Larry David’s long-suffering wife in Curb Your Enthusiasm.

 

We feel good about the casting of Mae Martin as flight attendant Grace.


A couple more additions to the cast have got us really excited. Mae Martin, creator and star of one of our favourite recent comedies Feel Good, joins as fellow flight attendant Grace who gets a little bit too friendly with Cassie. Does Grace have a hidden agenda? In this show, it’s always possible… Meanwhile, Cassie also reconnects with her estranged mother Lisa, who in a brilliant bit of casting is played by none other than 90s thriller queen Sharon Stone!

 

While we fear for Cassie’s safety, and sobriety, we can’t wait to see where her chaotic life will lead next…

 

When is Sky Max’s The Flight Attendant on TV?

The second season of The Flight Attendant starts on Sky Showcase/HD (CH 110/109) and Sky Max/HD (CH 122/121) at 9pm on Thursday 26 May, when all eight episodes will be available in On Demand. The first season is also available in On Demand.

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