This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
"Quantico" (Sunday, 9 p.m., ABC/Ch. 4) is as ludicrous as anything that will air on TV this fall.
It's also engaging, even juicy, entertainment.
Not for nothing have some of us critics been calling it "How to Get Away with Terrorism." Like "How to Get Away with Murder," this new show is about a group of students, and it bounces back and forth between two different time periods.
At the center of the story is Alex Parrish (Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra, a former Miss World), a confident woman headed for Quantico, Va., to undergo FBI training. We meet a disparate group of fellow trainees (Jake McLaughlin, Johanna Braddy, Tate Ellington, Graham Rogers, Yasmine Al Massri and Brian J. Smith), who are all seriously flawed in one way or another.
Then we jump ahead nine months to the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11, and one of those trainees is responsible. Alex is the prime suspect, although she clearly didn't do it.
Well, clearly to viewers.
Yes, "Quantico's" treatment of the Mormon character (Smith) is moronic. Not just offensive because we see him wearing nothing but temple garments — aka "Mormon underwear" — but because his plotline is just plain stupid.
I won't give it away here, but not only is it overwrought baloney, it displays a singular lack of knowledge about the logistics of how a Mormon mission works. It's laughable.
But what "Quantico" has going for it is overwrought baloney. It's hard to take any of it seriously.
It is an odd mix of horrific terrorism and popcorn thriller. But, at least in the first episode, it somehow works.