Brief Story Line
Story was set in three different time lines, year 2009 (the past), year 2023 (the present) and year 2034 (the future) and focused on a group of FBI new recruits in 2009 referred to as Class of '09. They consist of Tayo Michaels (Brian Tyree Henry - Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse, Super Intelligence etc) formerly insurance adjuster, Ashley Poet (Kate Mara - Transcendence, House of Card TV series etc) who used to be a nurse, Daniel Lennix (Brian J. Smith - The Matrix: Resurrections, Sense8 TV series etc) former lawyer, Hour Nazari (Sepideh Moafi - The L Word: Generation Q TV series etc) an Iranian-American graduate from MIT, Murphy (Jake McDorman - Greek TV series etc) who was formerly a police detective and several others.
They were all trained in Quantico by FBI Special Agents Gabriel (Jon Jon Briones) and Drew (Brooke Smith - Grey's Anatomy TV series etc). There was also Tayo's wife Vivienne (Rosalind Eleazar - Harlots TV series etc) who would appear at latter stage. And through the eyes of these recruits across three timelines, we would see the development of FBI including the use of Artificial Intelligence in their investigations.
End of Brief Story Line
If you are frequent reader of my blog you would know that I am quite a big fan of science fiction. And the thing that caught my attention when I read the synopsis was the words "Artificial Intelligence". So I was a bit expecting this part would take center stage in addition to the interesting three time periods. As I started watching, the drama felt very strong and the AI part was only teased a bit in the pilot episode which did not exactly scream excitement for me.
But since I knew this was a limited series, I was confident it would conclude in the whole season and I was patient enough to wait till it got more exciting. Luckily the second episode was indeed more intense with the appearance of a dangerous criminal played by a very familiar face Mark Pellegrino (Supernatural TV series etc). The story about new recruits in training was also more entertaining as we got to know them better while they face personal problems of their own, like racism, identity crisis and the standard love among recruits.
Not until I got to the 3rd episode that I was finally hooked by the series, with more extensive focus on the AI and the future started to really take shape. Of all the 8 episodes, my favorite was the 4th which was the most suspenseful with high intensity and a great ending. There was also an intriguing enough case in subsequent episodes and more dramatic story of the recruits, although I personally felt that it did not grow to be more intense as I approached the final episodes. In fact the ending was a bit too standard and did not impress me at all.
The cast to me was generally great in their roles especially Brian Tyree Henry, Kate Mara and Sepideh Moafi. The series was created by Tom Rob Smith who was also creator of few British series like MotherFatherSon and London Spy. It originally premiered in FX on Hulu which explained their logo in the opening scene. And since Hulu was part of Disney, it was no wonder we could also watch it on Disney+. Btw, there was no mention of the series was based on anything, so like any other kind of originals, I always admired their creativity.
Overall to me this series got interesting premise and the 3 timelines was something new for me. I did feel a bit of similarity with the series Quantico as it told the story of FBI recruits in 2 timelines, though that one was more explosive and felt more spectacular even from the start. Meanwhile the AI thing totally reminded me of another favorite series of mine, Person of Interest starring Jim Caviezel and Kevin Chapman. However, the rather inconsistent pace and standard conclusion was not something that I truly enjoyed. In the end it made me feel this to be a mediocre series that I probably would not remember in the near future, except for that three distinct periods.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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