(TV SERIES) Quantico - Season 1

This is another series that caught my attention when I saw the trailer to it more than 1 year ago. A story involving an FBI Agent who seemed to be framed for a bombing in New York city seemed interesting. So after I watched the series Blindspot and thinking which series I should see, I decided to watch this one. And boy was I delighted that I saw this. So what's it all about? Let's move on to the more interesting part. As usual, since there is mystery element in this series, I would try my best to avoid any spoiler and hence, I would put emphasis on the story in pilot episode rather than the whole series.

Brief Story Line

The first episode started with the scene of a woman lying in the debris of what seemed to be a result of a bomb that exploded in the city of New York. Then it flash back to the time of 9 months earlier with the introduction of the characters preparing themselves to go to Quantico, the place where FBI trainees went for training before they could become Agents and assigned to the various FBI headquarters all across the US. The first main character introduced was Alex Parrish (Priyanka Chopra - Bollywood mega star with Indian movie hits such as Krrish and Don) who was the woman shown in the early opening scene. Alex seemed to leave her mother without her knowledge of her going to Quantico. On the way there, she met with a charming guy on a plane named Ryan Booth (Jake McLaughlin - Safe House, Crash TV series etc). 

The next one introduced was Simon Asher (Tate Ellington - Remember Me, Sinister 2 etc) who purposely took a photo of him kissing a man then left him to Quantico. We were also introduced to Shelby Wyatt, the heiress to a very large IT corporate (Johanna Brady - The Grudge 3, Paranormal Activity 3 etc) and Nimah Amin, a Lebanese girl who was acting a bit mysteriously (Yasmine Al Massri). When this group of people with some other trainees reached Quantico, they were greeted by the FBI Assistant Director Miranda Shaw (Aunjanue Ellis - The Taking of Pelham 123, The Birth of A Nation etc) and also Liam O'Connor who led the training of the FBI new trainees (Josh Hopkins - Cougar Town TV series).

After these introductions, the story flash forward again to the time of the explosion. Alex was brought to the FBI command center and being questioned about what she remembered as she was the closest survivor to the scene. The story became very interesting when the lead of the investigation told Alex that they got a tip earlier that the bombing was an inside job done by an FBI agent (trainee) from Alex' class.

Back in the past timeline, we were also introduced with Caleb Haas (Graham Rogers - Struck by Lightning, Love & Mercy etc) whom Shelby seemed to have a little crush and also Erick Packer who seemed to be quite a famous archer in the Olympics (Brian J. Smith). The first training that these NAT (New Agent Trainee) had was how to figure out at least 1 secret that another agent was hiding. Each of those characters introduced earlier was having their own interest on whose secret they want to find out. This first exercise revealed some interesting facts which were quite surprising & shocking about those characters and the result would change the lives of some of these NATs.

Meanwhile the investigation of the bombing happening in the current timeline also revealed some very surprising twist which would create fantastic story happening in 2 timelines. As the story progressed in the following episodes, new characters were introduced in the Quantico training timeline such as Natalie Vasquez (Anabelle Acosta), Brandon Fletcher (Jacob Artist - Glee TV series), Drew Perales (Lenny Platt), Iris Chang (Li Jun Li) and Will Olsen (Jay Armstrong Johnson). Meanwhile in the current timeline, we would be introduced with some important characters as well such as senator & former FBI agent Claire Haas (Marcia Cross - Melrose Place & Desperate Housewives TV series) and FBI Deputy Director Clayton (Mark Pellegrino - Supernatural and Lost TV series).

So who actually did the bombing? Who was actually the person planning the attack among the NATs? Or was it actually done by the FBI themselves? And also who would pass the training and continue becoming FBI agents? Find them all out in this interesting drama thriller mystery TV series.

End of Brief Story Line

So apparently this series was having 2 timelines with 1 timeline happening currently while the other timeline happening in the past. Sounds familiar? Yup I saw this before in How to Get Away with Murder. I admitted that I was hooked up with this kind of 2 timeline stories, but there was a significant difference between these 2 series. In How to Get Away With Murder, the two timelines would meet in the mid-season finale and later on continue in 1 timeline till the season finale. However, this series were having 2 timelines consistently and only in the season finale (episode 22), it would show how everything happened in just few minutes time. It was kind of mind blowing scene as well. So there would be no episode of the meeting of the 2 timelines.

Like similar drama, thriller mystery series, each episode will reveal some new information to the audience. The strength of the series according to my opinion was the mystery surrounding the bombing itself and the cool way of the writers to ensure we are always kept intrigued of what happened to each character. One especially interesting part was that through out every episode in the current timeline, the NATs would sometime appear (or disappear) which would only be explained in the timeline of Quantico's training.

Because of the nature of these 2 timelines, the suspenseful part would be felt during the current timeline as there would be a sense of urgency and rush to solve the bombing. The training timeline would serve more as background story of how things would turn out in future and therefore less suspenseful. For me personally, the training timeline were sometimes having good and interesting training scenes, however, I think there were a little bit too many relationship scenes (felt a bit like soap opera type in those moments), but it did not make the entire series not worth watching. Other than those parts, the rest of them were very good. I love the mystery, I love the plot twists and I like the characters especially Caleb Haas and probably Simon Asher who I believed were the most complex characters of them all.

Just like Blindspot which I only completed last week, I also had similar feel of unable to stop watching it till completion despite it being a long running series with 22 episodes per season. The curiosity in finding out what happened next was too appealing that I just had to watch it episode after episode. And I was satisfied that the final 2 episodes were worth the wait, since after I got to the 2/3 of the season, suddenly the pace became a little bit slower and it did create anxiety at my part whether the series really was good enough (sometimes there are series that were perfect in the beginning few episodes but later on dragged too much and made them less interesting). 

The very end of the finale also made an interesting possibility of second season. Although I do have some worries that this series might not have long life as the premise was a bit too special (how much things can be told from the perspective of Quantico training facility?). It may end up being like Prison Break TV series where the premise was to break out of prison (which was very very cool in the 1st season), but then they ran out of ideas and had to settle for 4 seasons (which was already too long and becoming less of a prison break theme and more of conspiracy & cover up investigations. Lucky thing that one has a very good finale, a bit bitter sweet nonetheless).

Anyway, if you are interested in watching a mystery crime drama thriller suspenseful series with 2 timelines and pretty decent actions involving FBI, then I would recommend this one for you. But if you are not really keen on watching a long TV series where action scenes were not the main attraction, then probably you would not be interested in this. The choice is yours.

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars