I rarely watch tv, I have no time for a show that’s merely ‘watchable’ I need to care about the characters, the plot and the writing to bother investing time recording and then watching them. I realize pilots are difficult to write. Establishing the tempo, describing the characters and their motivations all while keeping a plot tight with conflict and resolution is a tall order. Yet the best shows I’ve seem (Breaking Bad, Lost, Fargo) grabbed hold of me before the first commercial break. Occasionally my wife and I stumble on a show we both like and turn into a ‘date program’. We watched the first episode of Quantico last night and so far it’s a winner.
I watched it. Seemed like a set up for a long-arc Whodunit for the bombing. Some parts and characters seemed interesting but I was on the fence because it wasn’t clear if it would stand out as worth watching.
For me, unfortunately, a spoiler towards the end left me cold:
When the woman in the hijab turned out to be identical twins. I totally get how that can add to plot-twist complexity, but twins able to conceal their twinness in that setting?! C’mon man.
So I don’t think I will end up focusing on it. May watch an episode or two if I stumble across them.
The promos for it showed all these Barbie and Ken dolls hired straight out of a modeling agency, posing seductively while they blast away. In reality, they should have recruited from local AA meetings and halfway houses. Oh wait, I’m thinking of the CIA. I’m going to pass on this one.
Insightful critic from someone who saw a commercial once.
I watched the first episode. I found it completely and utterly stupid. Won’t watch it again.
The ads are supposed to show the upcoming program in the best possible light. I take them as representative of what’s to come; the premise is derivative of every other ensemble cop show, and the casting don’t appeal to me, so it’s pretty much a non-starter.
That’s the problem I have with it. It’s a serialized drama that’s going to take many episodes to resolve who the mole is. (I really miss episodic dramas.) And if it does ever resolve that question, where do they go next?
As for the pretty cast, how is that different from almost every other television show?
This is almost exactly what I want to say. Just watching the pilot episode lowered my IQ for a week. It is a deeply stupid show.
It’s not just that it’s a pretty cast, but the ad basically said something to the effect of, “twenty sexy dudes and bros are living together (shots of muscles and curves), and they’re totally going to be sexy together (shot of two of them banging in a car), except one of them has BETRAYED EVERYONE.”
Terrible commercial, and completely turned me off to the show.
I started watching the first episode. I saw the lead actress hook up with a guy on her way to a new job and then find out he was working at her new job. And I thought “They used the same idea in the first episode of Grey’s Anatomy.”
And as I watched another ten minutes, I realized this show essentially was Grey’s Anatomy with FBI agents instead of doctors. A soap opera about supposed professionals where half the show is about their sex lives and overly dramatic personal relationships and the other supposedly job-related half is over the top. And this series is throwing in another over-used “let’s solve the puzzle” plot on top of that.
Nope, sorry, you’ve lost me.
So what part of the actual show did you like? The part where the model pretty FBI cadet screws the model handsome FBI cadet without even knowing his name, finds out the next that they’re classmates, and announces to everyone within earshot that yes, she is indeed that kind of slut? Because that’s the kind of enlightened feminist behavior you like to see in your FBI recruits in 2015, apparently.
I think the commercial captured what was in the box quite accurately.
Grey’s Anatomy meets Homeland is exactly how the show is billed. I watched the first episode because I like soapy stuff to a degree. But this was too lame even for me. It was more like 90210 goes to FBI camp.
Oh well. I liked it, too, Sitnam. I have a feeling that there won’t be a Doper viewing party any time soon, though.
We’re watching this, and hey you take a show like this for what it is: mindless eye candy with a fast-paced whodunit plot that has echoes of Grey’s Anatomy written all over it, LOL.
You tend to like shows like Quantico if you already like the formula. I don’t watch much TV to begin with so I’m enjoying this so far. Whether I stick with it is another story.
I wouldn’t have summed it up quite that way, but yeah, the original promos turned me off the show before I even knew what it was about. Each one was just a shot of a character standing seductively with something near them (draped in a flag, wearing handcuffs, etc.) And then QUANTICO, THIS FALL. That was it… absolutely zero information, and just looked really dumb.
Got a bit more interested when I saw the actual plot was a “whodunnit” type deal, but as Dewey Finn says, as soon as you realize it’s serialized it loses all interest because you know the show will never be able to wrap things up satisfactorily. Add to that the numerous reviews I’ve seen that say its “Grey’s Anatomy but FBI” and… yeah, pass.
The commercials and billboards were pretty terrible, and I had zero interest until I read some reviews for it that were good. Both about it being a fun show, and it being pretty feminist. I’ve watched the first two episodes, and it feels a bit more like How to Get Away with Murder to me, with the flashbacks intercut with the aftermath of the bombing.
It is a silly show in some ways, I’m sure that anyone who has been through Quantico would be yelling at the screen (just like lawyers with How to Get Away with Murder or doctors with Grey’s Anatomy), but it’s fun.
Yeah, that’s bizarre. They explained it a little in the second episode, but I’m not sure how much better it is:
In the first episode, I wasn’t sure if anyone else knew that there were twins, which would just be mind-boggling. But the second episode showed that the boss is having the twins do this experiment for some unknown reason. It’s so crazy soap opera-y that I couldn’t even guess a reason here.
Really, all the recruits have crazy secrets, and I know it’s to keep who the mole is a mystery, but it just makes it seem like the FBI is terrible at finding good recruits. But it’s appropriate for a primetime soap opera show.
I’m used to the fact that a show is going to have a lot of good-looking younger people on it, so I’m not dismissing it as FBI-90210.
The central mystery is interesting. So I’m guessing that car-sex guy is in on the plot but a reluctant participant. I mean if she didn’t shoot him, he’d know who did but wouldn’t lie to protect someone who tried to kill him without some powerful good reason (like they’re threatening his family or something).
So who’s the mole? Well, Arab chick(s) probably out (too easy). Gay guy, maybe? My money’s on blond hottie.
Blond hottie meaning the guy who can’t do a pull-up (or an investigation, or shoot a gun but is legacy admission) or blonde hottie, the girl whose parents died on 9/11?
I was thinking the girl, but then I got to thinking about the guy. If Alex’s father was some kind of FBI undercover-type then the guy’s involvement might make sense as maybe his parents knew something about that.
Of course, there could be two things going on here. Frame Alex for the bombing, thereby getting her out of the way and deal with the real mole on the QT.
This show is ridiculous. They’re showing the episodes again after Agents of SHIELD, and I’ve seen two episodes, but I probably won’t really keep up with it once it’s only on Sundays.
No, it’s not really Grey’s Anatomy, which is a soap with procedural elements as I recall. It’s loonier than that. I’m moderately interested in it, but it’s kind of trippy how many red herrings they’re throwing out there.
It’s a hot mess building to a train wreck, I guess.