Casey Bloys was hunting for a hit that could help the new HBO Max streaming service stand out in an increasingly fragmented video market—and help differentiate it from HBO, the premium cable home to “Succession” and “Game of Thrones.”
It was August and the HBO entertainment chief was in a meeting with Sarah Aubrey, the executive who heads original programming for HBO Max. They were discussing the service’s slate of shows when the pair stopped on “The Flight Attendant,” an-eight-episode thriller based on the book of the same…