Departure Review: A Thrilling Mystery that Hits a Few Bumps
Warning: this review contains spoilers.
Departure is a smart thriller that keeps you engaged from start to finish. While there are a couple of issues, overall it is a compelling mystery that follows the investigation into Flight 716’s disappearance.
The investigation is filled with twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat. There aren’t any lulls, and you never feel like the investigation is dragging on.
Departure diverts expectation in a couple of ways, one of which being the set up for antagonistic tension between Kendra and Dom that never comes to pass.
Dom was supposed to be the lead on the next investigation, but instead, Howard brings Kendra in. The show makes a point to highlight that Dom isn’t pleased by this news, so it’s expected that there are going to be some hostile moments between Dom and Kendra.
However, it never happens.
Instead, we get the delightful experience of watching the two of them learn to work together and become partners. It would have been so easy for Departure to have Dom try to undermine Kendra at every turn, but the series wisely gives us a great partnership instead.
Dom and Kendra fighting would have been an extra source of drama and tension that the series really doesn’t need, and thankfully, it recognizes that. Everyone else is shipping Kendra and Dom, correct?
On top of that, Departure understands that we’re smart. Nothing is spelled out, and we aren’t talked down to during parts of the investigation. You find out everyone else on Flight 716 is dead when they find the plane at the bottom of the ocean.
There’s not a sappy moment where someone goes “oh they all died.” Departure trusts us to make the connection that if the plane is at the bottom of the ocean, there won’t be any more survivors.
This doesn’t mean that there aren’t still emotional moments. The one that sticks out to me is when Kendra chats with the older gentleman whose wife was on the plane. I definitely teared up a bit.
However, Departure knows that the focus is on the investigation, and it wisely shifts gears into trying to figure out how the plane ended up there.
The same can be said regarding Madelyn. We get the emotional, tense moments as her father and fiancé wait for news, and then they are overjoyed when she’s found alive. However, Departure‘s focus is always on how Madelyn fits into the investigation, not any aspect of her recovery (well, only when it pertains to her memories of what happened).
There’s nothing wrong with this, and in fact, it is refreshing to see a show not have to try to tug on the heartstrings every five seconds. Departure knows what kind of show it is — a thriller — and, for the most part, it doesn’t waste time trying to be something that its not.
Departure also excels at giving us complex bad guys, or more accurately, people who do bad things. They are not all inherently bad, and they all seem to have a line they refuse to cross that shows that they are humans, not caricatures of villains.
For AJ and Howard, it’s Kendra.
AJ is on his revenge path, focusing on taking down Bartok. The second he realizes that Kendra is in danger, he warns her, even though he’s also warning Bartok and identifying himself as the perpetrator.
Howard agrees to join this scheme with BGA, but he makes it clear he never signed on to hurt anyone and objects whenever the subject of Kendra being targeted or hurt is brought up.
The main issue with Departure is AJ and Bartok.
While AJ proves useful later on, it doesn’t negate the fact that his whole angsty teen act and vendetta against Bartok is boring. The investigation is enough to hold our attention, and every time we are forced to focus on AJ, the show drags a bit. Also, Sofia deserves way better.
You can’t even try to talk up the storyline by saying that through AJ, we find a deeper connection to Kendra and understand and/or like her a bit more. The focus on her personal life and time spent dragging out the “mystery” of what happened with Gavin is unnecessary.
It would have been better to work in the hacking some other way because that’s the only part of AJ’s scheme that proves useful to the investigation.
Bartok also could have also been included some other way. His past with Kendra could have been mentioned in passing around the time when they need to find a submarine to help look for the plane.
AJ’s trip down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole doesn’t lend credence to the twist at the end that Bartok is a master manipulator. We could have done without all of that and still had the twist happen. It would have been just as crazy.
What are your thoughts on Bartok being behind it all? It feels a little bit too farfetched to me, but I don’t immediately hate it.
What did you think of Departure? Do you want a second season? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Departure is now streaming on Peacock.
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Allison Nichols
Allison is in a love affair with television that doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. Slightly damaged fictional characters are her weakness. She loves to spend her free time curled up with a cat and a show to binge-watch. Allison is a Tomatometer-approved critic (Rotten Tomatoes).
3 comments
They never did explain how the hole got into the bulkhead at the right of the plane!
They did, they explained that part of what Hoffman discovered on his computer simulation, does something that triggers the side door to open just a bit. Once the door opens, the plane is depressurized & rips the hole. Part of the vulnerabilities he was about to expose. The redheaded investigator dude explained it (better than me).
How did Iranian end up in pilot’s seat, where is Donovan