Pacing has been one of the biggest strengths of ABC’s new fall drama Quantico, and it’s helped keep things interesting even when cliches pop up in episodes. Let’s see how things shaped up in this week’s episode, “Kill.”
The episode opens with a sudden gun drill at the academy, awakening everyone way before they’re ready. Life is tough at Quantico, okay? Later on, the bulk of the episode deals with a lesson on hostage crises. Just as always, I’m really enjoying getting these looks into training at the FBI academy. I know it’s simply because of the nature of the show that we spend so much time there, but I really can’t think of any other television series that has ever shown this close of a look at the actual training process. It’s surprisingly fun to watch.
In both the academy timeline and the post-bombing timeline, our characters continue to become more complex. We’re four episodes into the series, and I still can’t find a character on this show that I don’t enjoy learning more about. The writers have done a great job at mixing complexity with relatability, and it’s helping to keep viewers much more involved with the story than we might be otherwise.
Speaking of the story, it continues to be as well-written as it is unwilling to evolve, so it’s both a positive and a negative. On the plus side, it tells us that each episode will be just as entertaining as the last. The issue with that, though, is that the writers just don’t seem to be willing to mix things up. Again, we’re only four episodes into the series, so it could be that they haven’t quite accepted that they’ve established the narrative adequately yet. Nevertheless, I do hope that some unexpected elements get thrown into the mix over the coming weeks.
Another thing that I still really like is the way that Quantico is juxtaposing the two timelines that it’s using. It’s not really doing anything experimental or revolutionary, but it’s getting the job done and managing to help keep the pacing on the level that it’s been so far. In a similar way to what Blindspot on NBC is doing, Quantico isn’t worrying about how many reveals it’s throwing at the audience, and that’s especially refreshing in today’s television landscape.
Just as it’s been since the very beginning, Quantico remains an entirely entertaining series that mixes intrigue, action, character drama, and more in a completely enjoyable formula. “Kill” was as good as the three episodes that preceded it, and I still look forward to next week’s episode just as much as I looked forward to this one. I do hope that things get a little shaken up over the course of the next few weeks, but I know that I’ll be tuning in no matter what.
What did you think of “Kill?” Has Quantico justified its place on your DVR? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below!
[Photo credit: Phillipe Bosse/ABC]
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Quantico kind of frustrates me because could be awesome, but instead it’s in this no man’s land between high quality TV and guilty pleasure. They’re going over the top with everything, like this ultra conspiracy that they’re trying to develop and inflate too fast, and a lot of the characters are kind of ridiculous.
That said, the basic premise and the acting is pretty superb. I loved that montage that had Alex picking up the phone, and hesitating a bit before finally calling her mother to tell her that she’s actually at Quantico, not at grad school, and then the transition to Shelby finding Caleb at the gun range and joining him – there was some great subtle acting, just as simple as facial expressions and body language that really sold the emotions, and I also loved that they used “Maps For the Getaway” by Andrew McMahon as the background music.
The way they’re developing the relationships between all the characters is really the strength of the show, I just wish they didn’t resort to the cheese so much, or if they did, they went all in and got ridiculous. Hopefully they’re still working the kinks out and they can find the right consistent tone by the end of season 1, because there’s lots of potential here.