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T10 WHATS UP! October 7 - 13, 2018 esting. He likes to be the smart- est guy in the room." Ben was one of the passen- gers who fatefully decided to wait for Flight 828 when his original flight was over- booked. He and his son, Cal (newcomer Jack Messina), volunteered to stay behind while his wife, Grace (Athena Karkanis, "The Best Years"), and Cal's twin sister, Olive (newcomer Jenna Kurmemaj), took the first flight with his parents, Steve (Malachy Cleary, "Demolition," 2015) and Karen (Geraldine Leer, "The Good Cop"). Grace is elated to have her family back together, while Cal and his now big sister Olive (Luna Blaise Boyd, "Fresh Off the Boat") struggle to make sense of their sudden age difference. Also central to the mystery is Ben's sister, Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days," 2012), who was also on the flight with Ben and her nephew. Before the flight, she faced pressure from her mother to finally marry her beau, Jared (J.R. Ramirez, "Ar- row"). After the flight landed, she was crushed to learn he had moved on and has married an- other woman. Prior to the doomed flight, the Stone family had been struggling to cope with the re- ality that Cal's leukemia hadn't been responding to treatment. However, when they returned from their mysterious adven- ture in the skies, they learned that a new treatment just might save him. Strangely, the woman whose research led to the de- velopment of the treatment ap- pears to have been on Flight 828 with them. Saanvi (Parveen Kaur, "Beyond") is a brilliant graduate student and research- er who reels from the news that her work may be saving lives. In addition to mystery, medi- cal drama and romance, "Mani- fest" appears to feature a super- natural element, much like its genre predecessor, "Lost." Some of the passengers begin to experience unusual phe- nomena. For example, Michae- la tells Ben she's been hearing voices. As the mystery unfolds, it's clear that some people con- sider the incident a miracle. Emotionally gripping with an overarching mystery, "Mani- fest" has all of the elements of quality television, and it's no wonder with a stellar cast and Hollywood icon Robert Zem- eckis in the cockpit. Known for films such as "Romancing the Stone" (1984), "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988), "Forrest Gump" (1994) and the Back to the Future franchise, the Oscar winner serves as an executive producer of "Manifest" along- side Rake, Jack Rapke ("Cast Away," 2000), Jackie Levine ("Wonder Woman," 2017) and Dave Frankel ("The Devil Wears Prada," 2006), who also directed the pilot. Before its premiere on Mon- day, Sept. 24, the show had TV critics buzzing, and it even made USA Today's list of "10 Shows You Need to Watch." NBC showed faith in "Mani- fest" with a series order in May 2018, and it's even bestowed the show with a primo prime-time spot following ratings power- house "The Voice." It'll still face serious competition from other major broadcast net- works as it goes head to head with ABC's "The Good Doctor" and CBS's "Bull." Find out whether the new mystery drama has what it takes to rise above the competi- tion. Don't miss a new episode of "Manifest," airing Monday, Oct. 8, on NBC. J.R. Ramirez in "Manifest" continued from page T2 A cut above: NBC's 'Manifest' mixes mystery, drama and more TV FEATURE