Parents' Guide to

Manifest

By Mark Dolan, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Solid supernatural mystery explores family dynamics, loss.

TV NBC Drama 2018
Manifest Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

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age 13+

Based on 21 parent reviews

Sarskia P.
Sarskia P. Parent of 10-year-old
January 27, 2022
age 12+

Gripping, but a bit creepy.

This is a super good show and I really enjoyed watching it. It has an amazing plot with alot of twists. Violence- The only thing that realy concerned me throughout the episodes I have watched so far was the fact that at the end of episode 2 it shows a woman watching tv, then there is a shadow behind her, then it flicks back to the tv screen and suddenly there is a gunshot and blood splatters onto the tv screen. After that in episode 3 the main character is investigating what happened to her, and it shows her face with blood all over it as they zip up the bag her dead body is in. That part was a bit creepy. Sex- Again the only concerning thing for me in the episodes I watched, was a scene in one of the episodes (I don't remember which one) is a wife and her husband are doing math together and the husband cracks something smart and the wife starts saying "sexy math" and the go into the kitchen and start taking off their shirts and say "Lets go upstairs and do some sexy math together" Apart from these things I loved the show and thought it was amazing.
2 people found this helpful.
Clay27294
Clay27294 Adult
March 20, 2019
age 10+

Good for a mature 10 year old

Great show. I would say show your kid the first episode and see how that deal with that.

This title has:

Great role models
2 people found this helpful.
See all 21 parent reviews

What's the Story?

MANIFEST begins in 2013 as we meet the Stone family: Mom, Dad, their adult kids Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh) and Ben (Once Upon a Time's Josh Dallas), his wife Grace (Athena Karkanis), and their 10-year-old twins Olive (Luna Blaise) and Cal (Jack Messina), who has terminal leukemia. While waiting to board their oversold flight from Montego Bay back to New York, Michaela, Ben, and Cal swap their tickets and take a later flight. That flight hits intense turbulence and then gets rerouted to a different airport to land. Once on the ground the plane is met by a group of federal agents who tell the passengers and crew that they haven't just completed a three-hour flight: It's now five and half years later, and Flight 828 was declared missing and everyone onboard presumed dead. Soon the passengers start to realize that while they haven't aged a day, time has indeed marched on. Michaela learns her fiancé has married her best friend. Cal's twin sister is now a teenager who has grown up without a dad. And when Ben and Michaela discover that they're both hearing voices telling them the same thing, they start to realize that maybe the passengers of Flight 828 didn't just lose five years, but gained something they don't yet understand.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (21 ):
Kids say (54 ):

A compelling mystery is a great way to start a show, but what differentiates this series from its many similar predecessors is its heart. In a trend that can most easily be traced back to the success of Lost, the airwaves have been littered with the corpses of shows that kicked off with a cool supernatural mystery -- The Event, Flash Forward, The Nine, Invasion, The Crossing, Surface, The Whispers, Threshold -- but couldn't maintain the promise of their premise. Now we have Manifest and its mystery is a doozy: An airliner missing for more than five years suddenly reappears and no one onboard has aged a day or even realized half a decade has passed. It's a fantastic hook, even though it contains some elements audiences may find familiar.

At its core, this show is a family drama exploring the lives of the Stone family. Focusing on adult siblings Michaela and Ben, two imperfect people trying to integrate themselves back into a world that has moved on without them, the makers of Manifest show that they've learned from the mistakes of their forebears. The key to a compelling mystery show isn't necessarily the complexities of the mystery itself, but in carving out sympathetic characters viewers want to follow.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about regret. What does Manifest say about living in the past and second-guessing decisions?

  • Many shows explore the ideas of destiny and fate. Do you believe in them? How do the characters use these concepts to make sense of the mysterious incident?

TV Details

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