Who Knew Kaley Cuoco Could Be This Good?

Living rent-free in my head is a semi-viral tweet from October that read "when your favorite celebs become fossil fuel corporation shills," alongside the news that Big Bang Theory star Kaley Cuoco was partnering with Shell on a web series that implored travelers to lower their carbon emissions. The announcement raised a number of important questions: Why is a successful actress who's married to the son of the founder of Intuit—and has an estimated net worth of $100 million—doing promotional work for Shell? Why exactly is Shell asking individuals to cut down their environmental impact in the first place? But to judge from the replies, a far more obvious question was on everybody's mind: Who exactly counts Cuoco among their favorite celebrities? 

Who would have guessed, then, that the tail end of 2020 would give Kaley Cuoco new relevance as the hottest mess of an antihero since Adam Sandler made our pulses race and palms sweat with his role in Uncut Gems? HBO Max's The Flight Attendant brings us Cuoco outside the bounds of the sitcom as Cassie Bowden, playing a flight attendant with a drinking problem who wakes up after a bender in Bangkok next to a man she just met—except he's dead, and she's got blood on her hands. Since its three-episode premiere on Thanksgiving and new episodes weekly until December 17, Cuoco, as Cassie, stumbles through a bloody mess with herself at the center, though she barely remembers anything. 

Despite the illusion of having-it-together that her collection of geographically labeled packing cubes might bring, Cassie is going through it—blowing off appointments, barely peeling herself out of bed in time to make it to the airport for her next flight, ending up shoe-less in inappropriate places, and actively disregarding the advice of her lawyer best friend, played by Girls' Zosia Mamet. And yet, somehow, I love her. Cuoco turns Cassie likeable and human, like the drunk girl who seems like she might have been mean in high school but unexpectedly showers you with compliments when you run into her in the women's bathroom at the bar. She's oddly endearing, and watching her make one terrible decision after the next, you're bound to find yourself yelling, No, do exactly the opposite of that! at the screen—not unlike many of us did with Sandler in Uncut Gems.

Playing friends of Cassie's, Mamet and Do the Right Thing's Rosie Perez add solid supporting roles, as does Grey's Anatomy's T.R. Knight, who plays her often-disappointed brother. But it's Cuoco who carries the show through her outwardly bubbly, service industry-honed personality, which is interspersed with glimpses of her troubled but well-meaning inner life and flashbacks of formative events from her childhood, including a mysterious hunting incident and the death of her father when she was just a kid. Clearly, the 8 Simple Rules actress can do more than the roles she's known for. 

The jumps between the two Cassies might give you whiplash, just like the miniseries' overall tone, but the show weaves its contradictions well. Suspenseful and bloody, but also quick-witted and funny, The Flight Attendant's comedy-thriller approach has accurately earned comparisons to You and Dead to Me. Based on Chris Bohjalian's best-selling 2018 book of the same name, The Flight Attendant does what every good thriller should: It makes you want to keep going, at least not until you've unraveled every bit. 

With Cuoco as my guide through the dark, twisted corners of murder and conspiracy, I know it'll be a fun time, even if Cassie makes a giant mess along the way. In 2020, we are all truly going through it. Who can blame her?