There is something dramatically irresistible about the idea of a prisoner transport plane. Just ask Con Air and people’s stubborn insistence that that film is any good. I’m sorry, your nostalgia for buff Southern Nic Cage and sandal-wearing John Cusack is scrabbling your memory. Con Air ain’t it. But it does have a certain gonzo maximalism that makes it go down easy. It is, in the vernacular, a good-bad movie many of us like. So when The Last Frontier kicks off with the crash of a well-stocked prisoner transport plane, it is understandable to lean forward in your seat. The time for improbable action set pieces and colorful characters is upon us.

Well, it would be in a just world. Sadly, that is not ours.

Instead, almost immediately after the starting pistol fires, The Last Frontier sprints hard into cliché. While some cliché is impossible to avoid and sometimes can even be endearing, that is not the case here. This is the variety of trope that lets you know exactly what’s to come. Oh, that guy’s family visits and talks about some exciting stuff in his future? Wonder where that’ll go. This family keeps stressing how hard they had to work to stay together, but it’s all easy from here? Well, I’m sure there is nothing to read into there. It is so neon signposting that it, in a more self-aware TV series, might work as a bit of meta humor. This show, however, is stone-faced sincere.

Series creators Jon Bokenkamp and Richard D’Ovidio of The Blacklist/Blacklist: Redemption franchises have chosen well with their lead, though. Jason Clarke does sincerity without cringe here as US Marshall Frank Remnick. He doesn’t run from the obvious setups in the plot, but leans into them, playing them straight and empathetic. He can’t overcome the general trajectory of the series, but he never seems dragged down by it either. In a different universe, he could be the straight man surrounded by over-the-top action and compelling antagonists. And he’d make that show sing.

Instead, The Last Frontier lards itself up with so much plot that there is very little room for action or character. It isn’t enough that this is a prison transport plane. It must be a prison transport plane that’s carrying a criminal mastermind, Havlock (Dominic Cooper). He’s a bad guy capable of such terrifying acts that the CIA wants him locked up. But so smart that they dare not kill him in the hopes that he might prove useful. He also may have turned Agent Sidney Scofield (Haley Bennett). In a decision that should perk up the ears of any veteran TV watcher, Scofield’s supervisor Jacqueline Bradford (Alfre Woodard) sends the young agent to help retrieve Havlock despite the obvious conflicts of interest. Perhaps that will develop into a surprising twist!

Havlock, working with someone on the proverbial inside, somehow sabotaged the flight. Now he and several other prisoners are wandering the wilderness around Fairbanks, Alaska. He has a master plan in progress, but the several freed prisoners may prove violent enough that Remnick’s town will be wrecked long before they need to worry about what the mastermind is up to.

This is where the pulpy fun should arrive. There are signs it might, but time and again, The Last Frontier refuses to just be a blast. At times, you can almost feel the show going through the motions. For instance, during the crash, people climb over seats, hold on for dear life, and fight, all scored to Elvis Presley’s take on “Unchained Melody”. That’s the sort of thing a show does with a sense of humor. Here, however, they set the song so low in the mix and come in with it so late, you can almost feel like half-hearting it. They’ll do the ironic song drop, but gosh darn it, they won’t enjoy it. And neither will you.

The same goes for the prisoners. For instance, Johnny Knoxville plays one, which seems like a slam dunk in the colorful department. Instead, he’s mostly just there. Knoxville is acting, and I’d argue he’s doing it well. It’s just Knoxville playing a fairly typical convict is absolutely not what this series needs.

The Last Frontier grows clunkier and more bogged down as it bumps along. It is screaming for streamlining, for a narrowing of its view down to the criminal genius of Havlock against the last good cop vibes of Remnick. And yet, at every turn, it finds another piece of melodrama or another hint of conspiracy to chase instead. What should be a roller coaster ride feels more like being stuck on the park trolley as it vacillates between promising momentum and stutter stops.

The Last Frontier is chasing convicts all over AppleTV now.

The Last Frontier Trailer: