History Series / Manifest

* TwoferTokenMinority: Saanvi was involved with another woman. Both are also women of color (Saanvi's Indian-American, her ex-girlfriend's African-American). Saanvi is thus far the only woman of color or LGBT character in the main cast.

** Family Theme Naming: The names of the Stone family members of 828 - Benjamin, Michaela and Cal - are all of Biblical Hebrew origin.

* DiedinYourArmsTonight: [[spoiler: The third season finale ends with Grace being stabbed by Angelina and apparently dying in Cal's arms.]]

* AdultFear: The scene in "Connecting Flights" where Cal (drawn by a calling) runs heedlessly into the out-of-bounds area in a subway station while Ben is struggling to catch up and shouting for him to wait. You can just imagine a hundred and one ways that story could have a tragic ending.

* AdultFear:
** Ben and Grace were facing the horrific possibility that their son would be dead of cancer in a few months and there was nothing they could do about it. When Flight 828 disappeared Grace had to deal with the possibility that she would never see her son and husband alive again.
** Ben and Michaela's parents had to deal with losing both their children and a grandchild at the same time.
** Ben and Michaela have to deal with their mother being dead and them not being able to say goodbye.
** When Cal runs away from him on the subway, Ben desperately chases after him scared that Cal might be hurt or killed before Ben can get to him.
** In season 2, Ben and Grace fear for their baby, due to increasing anti-828 bigotry.

** Adrian confessed that he's been ignoring the calls, because he fears they're all the catalyst of the apocalypse and the calls are to give false hope. He formed the Church of the Returned to help the passengers stray away from them, but backfired horribly, which only convinced him more they're bad news.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: It's easy to see similarities between this and [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_370 the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 in 2014]]. WordOfGod confirms that MA 370 was the inspiration for the show's premise. The show even premiered 6 months before the fifth anniversary of the incident.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** When the plane reappears near JFK, the ATC is initially suspicious, and diverts them to Stewart International Airport instead. The authorities don't let any of the passengers go home; everyone is kept in a nearby hangar and interviewed separately.
** Not everyone takes reuniting with their families well. Cal tries to run away when he sees Olive, his twin sister grown up.
** After being presumed dead for five years, Michaela is homeless and most of her possessions are gone. Her family could not keep her apartment forever and has a few keepsakes left. Yet, she is the one of the few passengers who still has their jobs, because no one bothers processing the paperwork. But she is told she has to re-certify herself on everything from physical to gun training to a psych evaluation.
** In 2013, Radd was a legal immigrant pursuing a career as a concert pianist. When he returns in 2018, all his paperwork has expired so his legal status is uncertain and he has to support himself as a street musician.
** Ben at first wants to check out his phones and room to see if the government has bugged them. He then admits that he has no idea what such devices would actually look like.
** Ben is looking for a job but all his skills are five years out of date.
** Ben and Cal, and presumably all other passengers who had life insurance, now have the insurance company wanting their payout back. On the other hand, the uniqueness of the situation makes the insurance companies unwilling to fight the matter in court and are more than willing to accept Ben's counteroffer of paying the money back in installments over multiple years.
** One passenger complains that in 2013, he was seen as a "wunderkind" starting his own tech company. He no longer has any say in his company's operations having to been declared dead. Worse, he's now five years behind in technology, limiting his employment options.
** When you become famous for being the captain of a plane that went missing for five years and your decision to fly into a mysterious storm may have contributed to it, your pilot's license will get suspended.
** As Ben discovers, it's hard for someone already under government watch to take a trip to ''Cuba'' and not get someone's attention.
** Michaela's actions lead to her being suspended with her boss making it clear that, even if her "gut feelings" pan out, it doesn't make up for constantly ignoring her superior's orders.
** Michaela wants to head to a town upstate to check any evidence of a crime scene. Her captain dryly points out "this isn't 1973," and the park service can easily e-mail the video footage of the cameras they have set up in the area.

[[quoteright:196:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/manifest_1.jpg]]

** The whole premise of a plane disappearing is similar to ''Series/{{Lost}}''.

The series was [[CutShort cancelled in June 2021]] after the season three finale before being saved by Creator/Netflix for a fourth and final season in August.

The series was [[CutShort cancelled in June, 2021]] after the season three finale.

** After being presumed dead for five years, Michaela is homeless and most of her possessions are gone. Her family could not keep paying rent on her apartment forever and had to donate or sell off most of her items beyond a few keepsakes. However, she is still apparently employed by the NYPD because no one bothered processing the paperwork. But she is told she has to re-certify herself on everything from physical to gun training to a psych evaluation.

** One passenger complains on how in 2013, he was seen as a "wunderkind" who was starting his own tech company. Having been declared dead, he no longer has any say in his company's operations or earnings. Worse, rather than be ahead of the curve, he's now five years behind current technology, making his employment options limited.
** When you become famous for being the captain of a plane that went missing for five years and your decision to fly into a mysterious storm may have contributed to it, it's only natural Captain Daly finds his pilot's license suspended.

* BiTheWay: A double example. Saanvi admits to being attracted to Ben, but nothing pans out from this. Many episodes later, she is revealed to have been in a relationship with Alex, a woman, who is married to a man named Scott.
* ConnectedAllAlong: So many developments and connections between the passangers, what happened to them, and what happened in the past and Present are made that the ArcWords of the series are "it's all connected".

Two seasons have aired so far. NBC has renewed the show for a third season.

* RealityEnsues:
** When the plane reappears near JFK, the ATC is initially suspicious, and diverts them to Stewart International Airport instead. The authorities don't let any of the passengers go home; everyone is kept in a nearby hangar and interviewed separately.
** Not everyone takes reuniting with their families well. Cal tries to run away when he sees Olive, his twin sister grown up.
** After being presumed dead for five years, Michaela is homeless and most of her possessions are gone. Her family could not keep paying rent on her apartment forever and had to donate or sell off most of her items beyond a few keepsakes. However, she is still apparently employed by the NYPD because no one bothered processing the paperwork. But she is told she has to re-certify herself on everything from physical to gun training to a psych evaluation.
** In 2013, Radd was a legal immigrant pursuing a career as a concert pianist. When he returns in 2018, all his paperwork has expired so his legal status is uncertain and he has to support himself as a street musician.
** Ben at first wants to check out his phones and room to see if the government has bugged them. He then admits that he has no idea what such devices would actually look like.
** Ben is looking for a job but all his skills are five years out of date.
** Ben and Cal, and presumably all other passengers who had life insurance, now have the insurance company wanting their payout back. On the other hand, the uniqueness of the situation makes the insurance companies unwilling to fight the matter in court and are more than willing to accept Ben's counteroffer of paying the money back in installments over multiple years.
** One passenger complains on how in 2013, he was seen as a "wunderkind" who was starting his own tech company. Having been declared dead, he no longer has any say in his company's operations or earnings. Worse, rather than be ahead of the curve, he's now five years behind current technology, making his employment options limited.
** When you become famous for being the captain of a plane that went missing for five years and your decision to fly into a mysterious storm may have contributed to it, it's only natural Captain Daly finds his pilot's license suspended.
** As Ben discovers, it's hard for someone already under government watch to take a trip to ''Cuba'' and not get someone's attention.
** Michaela's actions lead to her being suspended with her boss making it clear that, even if her "gut feelings" pan out, it doesn't make up for constantly ignoring her superior's orders.
** Michaela wants to head to a town upstate to check any evidence of a crime scene. Her captain dryly points out "this isn't 1973," and the park service can easily e-mail the video footage of the cameras they have set up in the area.

** In season 2, Ben and Grace fear for their baby, due to increasing anti-828 racism.

* UsedToBeASweetKid: If Kory is to be believed, than Jace wasn't always the {{Jerkass}} we see on the show. He reminds Jace how he was "the guy who was always looking out for everyone."