The pilot episode of “Quantico” (10 p.m. Eastern Sundays on ABC) slathers on the twists and turns until the series’ ultimate premise is set up the final sequence. As such, it’s impossible to review this episode without a SPOILER WARNING for the paragraphs that follow this one. But in a nutshell, as far as big, glossy network shows about crime-solving go … well, “Quantico” is one of them.
By the time the episode is over, “Quantico” has set itself up as a 2015 version of “The Fugitive.” FBI agent-in-training Alex (Priyanka Chopra) is framed by some of her higher-ups for the bombing of a generic important site in a generic big city (for the record, it’s a building near the Democratic National Convention in New York City, but I had to look that up online). We’re given no clue as to why they are framing her. FBI director Liam (Josh Hopkins) is heading up the frame-job, but fellow director Shaw (Aunjanue Ellis) is on Alex’s side – and indeed, she helps Alex escape custody, where she surely would’ve ended up dead.
Before that final twist, “Quantico” is a collection of shorthand character studies, shown in flashbacks to the FBI training camp several months before the bombing. Because these students are training to be profilers, they are tasked with finding out the missing secret from the file of a fellow trainee through both detective work and questioning with a lie detector hooked up. The secrets tend to be emotional ones: Shelby (Johanna Braddy, last seen on “UnReal”) pursued an FBI career because her parents were on one of the 9/11 planes. Alex’s dad was shot to death in a fight with Alex’s mom (for which the context is unclear at this point). Eric (Brian J. Smith) commits suicide in the interrogation session rather than give up his secret – a secret that, like us viewers, Caleb (Graham Rogers) didn’t actually know; he was bluffing.
Additionally, we learn some other oddities outside of the class project: It was actually Alex who shot her dad, and it turns out he was a secret agent (but still, we don’t know the context of the squabble). Simon (Tate Ellington) goes out of his way to tell people he’s gay, yet we know his framed photo with his “boyfriend” is fake; he paid a guy to take the pic with him. Nimah (Yasmine Al Massri) is not one person, but rather a woman AND her twin sister; they take turns being Nimah. And Ryan (Jake McLaughlin) is Liam’s inside man tasked with following Alex; he thinks the whole scheme is f—-d up, but follows his orders nonetheless.
Similar to “Blindspot” and “Minority Report,” it’s hard to tell after one episode whether “Quantico’s” mysteries are smart or soapy; since creator Joshua Safran’s previous credits include “Gossip Girl” and “Smash,” I’m guessing the latter. We can’t know for sure yet if the twin Nimahs are part of the inside job or somehow working against it – if this is a smart show, a brash con job under the FBI’s nose is ridiculous; if it’s a silly show, such a strategy could be part of the playbook.
Likewise, it’s hard to know when “Quantico” is delivering social commentary and when it’s just setting up a soap opera. Shaw tells her students that times have changed: The FBI’s enemies used to be organized terrorist groups, now it could be your next-door neighbor. Is that a critique of the way the modern police state and spy states treat the citizenry as suspects? Or does “Quantico,” despite ultimately exploring corruption within the FBI, hold a default position of authoritarianism? Since not a single student questioned the ridiculous premise of fearing your neighbor, I’m guessing the latter.
In its opening hour, “Quantico” piles on the mysteries, but most of them are weird rather than intriguing. And although the plight of the wrongfully accused is certainly an important topic, I don’t gravitate toward TV series about the subject. Simply by being an official suspect of the FBI, Alex faces a horrendous uphill battle just to legally clear her name, let alone live a normal life or find the actual culprit of the bombing. Placed alongside “Blindspot” and “Minority Report,” “Quantico” is comparatively decent. But like Alex’s plight, the idea of watching it every week sounds exhausting.