The Flight Attendant is an evolution in how TV treats addiction

Variety

The HBO Max drama starring Kaley Cuoco is "hardly the only prestige television show to assay the journey toward recovery," says Daniel D'Addario. "Succession, for instance, has Kendall Roy, played by Jeremy Strong with a sort of clenched hyperfocus on keeping things together. And Euphoria centers on Zendaya as Rue, an addict who is, some of the time, convinced that her life is salvageable and, in other moments, ready to give up on getting better...Euphoria and Succession, though, make the dramatic case that staying sober is an ongoing process: Both Kendall and Rue relapse in their show’s first seasons. By contrast, The Flight Attendant is about getting sober, and its form tends to follow its story. Cassie’s constantly facing down new triggers and new potential threats — her existing, as the object of a legitimately high-stakes mystery, in a justifiable state of perennial coiled-ness, ready for the fight or the flight — creates a sense of her as on the precipice of either major change or total collapse. It makes literal and urgent the moment in her life she’s come to, a point at which giving up her medication of choice and giving up on the future are the only two options available." ALSO: Binging today on A&E's Intervention shows how clueless we were about addiction 15 years ago.