I watched the TLC special on flight 1549 last night.
Quick summary: Not bad.
The show doesn’t produce any new information unless you’ve been avoiding the subject. If you’ve seen the youtube footage of Sully and Skiles at EAA Airventure last year then you’ll recognize parts of the story as word for word reproductions of that.
The story includes personal stories about many of the passengers on the plane which is interesting.
It also has an interview with the tracon controller who was working to get the flight back to an airport. You know the one that we all yelled at with, ‘HE SAID “WE’LL BE IN THE HUDSON!!”’ near the end of the tapes? He explains that yeah, he heard it too but his brain just wouldn’t process it. He says, "Obviously, you can hear exactly what he said. But I just couldn’t process it at first. They were going down and I knew what that meant." The controller goes into detail about the amount of stress that he was under from the moment that he heard they had lost thrust in both engines. Listening to the tapes that’s his only gaff. The guy is solid through the whole event and seems calm and collected. He explains that he wasn’t. And honestly, who can blame him.
There’s also an interview/meet-up with the boat captains that performed the unscheduled and unpracticed water rescue with no mistakes. Those guys deserve a lot more credit than they got.
Overall, the show is really well done with none of the stumbles that aviation enthusiasts have come to expect from media around such events. It doesn’t go into a lot of technical detail but what detail there is tends to be exceptionally accurate. You can tell that they spent a lot of time and effort getting it right.
The only slow part of the show was a scene out of reality TV that has Sully and wife having an obviously rehearsed conversation as they walk down a quiet country lane. It was goofy but doesn’t subtract from the show in any real way.
I would have liked to see more involvement from Skiles on the show (he does make a few short appearances in an interview format) but for once he is given the credit due him. Which is a bit more than expected.
If you’re into aviation then the show is a “must see” just because of the format and the new perspectives but don’t expect any “AH HA!” moments.