Happy-go-lucky, excited airplane attendants morph to become tired, hungover and, quite frankly, morally corrupt after a weekend in Sin City. Fox’s newest comedy, “LA to Vegas,” focuses on a shifty airline and its route from Los Angeles to Las Vegas every weekend. The show follows both the regulars onboard as well as the plane’s staff — but nothing noteworthy beyond that.
The main character Ronnie (Kim Matula, “Teachers”) is a witty, adventure-seeking flight attendant whose experience has been a disappointment. She applied for a job to travel the world, but is stuck in a mundane, boring route which she desperately wants out of. Her boredom matches with the viewers, as “LA to Vegas” provides little to no entertainment.
The plot, which lacks substance or nuance, will either lay a platform for a lot of creative improvement or bore viewers out of watching. Plenty of TV shows have mundane plots and fill the normality of the subject matter with humor. Yet, “LA to Vegas” fails. In terms of first episodes drawing consumers back, the series premiere didn’t offer anything worthy of return. The attempt at humor just isn’t funny.
To salvage the show’s lack of comedy, Ronnie’s character appears to offer some hope for development and growth. Additionally, the plane’s pilot Captain Dave (Dylan McDermott, “American Horror Story”) has potential to spice things up with his unpredictable nature. The captain wanted a more promising career as a fighter pilot, but is simply left to drive the same route every weekend, forcing him to purposefully create his own laughable and cringy stories, like having sex in the cockpit instead of flying the plane.
The juiciest part of the TV show so far is the apparent sexual tension between Ronnie and one of her regular flyers, an economics professor named Colin (Ed Weeks, “The Mindy Project”). Ronnie applies for a better airplane attendant position at Delta, and when her co-worker is awarded the job instead of her, she quits mid-flight and decides to get drunk with Colin. Then, they make out in the airplane bathroom. Surprised? Of course not. That scene is overdone and painfully predictable. Yet, things do get heated when Ronnie finds out Colin is married. But, once again, are you really surprised?
The older, superstitious gentleman named Artem (Peter Stormare, “The Swedish Night Thrower”) is the show’s intended source of humor, but he’s nothing special. He wagers bets on other passengers, clearly speaking to his gambling addiction as he flies to Vegas every weekend. Other than offering some scarce moments of subpar comedy, his character is rather bland and speaks to the dullness of the show.
Another airline regular is a stripper who tries to corrupt an innocent woman into her line of work. It apparently works, as she is noticeably not on the returning flight home. In fact, her fiancé — played by none other than iCarly sensation Nathan Kress — loses it on the plane because of his rogue bride-to-be and is taken down by none other than crazy captain Dave. Unfortunately, this scene is as much action as you’re going to see in this TV show.
Granted, some things get better with time, whether it’s a movie, TV show or book. Some of my favorite TV shows started off slow, picked up and went on to be my go-to’s. Hopefully, this will be the case for “LA to Vegas.” But if I had to rate it based on the premiere, I wouldn’t stop by for the second episode.