SMAP's golden boy, Takuya Kimura, may have lost some of his sexual luster since becoming a husband and a father, but he's still a viewer magnet when it comes to trendy dramas. Having been shoehorned into a number of unlikely professions in past series (architect, classical pianist, thief, prosecutor), no one is going to blink when they see him in a pilot's uniform on "Good Luck" (TBS; Sunday, 9 p.m.), which premieres Jan. 19. It's especially unsurprising considering that SMAP is the official spokesgroup for All-Nippon Airways.
Kimutaku's character, Hajime Shinkai, is a copilot, and his gig is the Honolulu-Narita run. During a flight from there to here, however, the captain is suddenly taken ill, and Shinkai is forced to take over the controls. The landing is a rough one, but Shinkai has averted disaster with his quick thinking.
He leaves the airplane feeling pretty good, only to overhear a young, female mechanic named Ayumi (Ko Shibazaki) comment that the landing "was a pretty bad example of flying." But the worst is yet to come. Shinkai's supervisor, Kazuki Koda (Shinichi Tsutsumi), reprimands the young copilot, saying that he has not been certified to land a plane and therefore was not authorized to assume control as he did. Shinkai is placed under administrative investigation.