What could have easily been a new Shonda Rhimes sh𝕴ow debuted Sunday night on ABC.
But, surprisingly, TV’s most powerful woman has nothing to do with “Quantico,” the seductive FBI drama whose pilot set TV addicts looking for a fix atwitter. That show belongs to creator Josh Safran, best known for “Gossip Girl” and the much-maligned, sho⭕rt-lived “Smash.”
“Quantico,” an immensely enterta🧸ining, if overstuffed, serial about unrealistically attractive government recruits, plays fast and loose wit☂h the distinctive elements that made Rhimes the most sought-after producer on television today — so much so that it raises eyebrows.
But should it?
Certainly Rhimes doesn’t have a patent on hourlong shows about hot professionals being hot together at work, though her casts make David E. Kelley’s actors from the aughts 🧔look like polished sanitation workers.
If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it might be a S𝓰honda rip-off.
Her show that “Quantico” most closely resembles is “How To Get Away With Murder,” with its freshman class of diverse newbs (here: gay, Mormon, Mu⛎slim, ditsy, drop-dead gorgeous), all with dark, depressing back-stories, competing to be the best.
The pilot’s conflict is triggered by an i☂nterrogation exercise, where a trainee is assigned to brutally reveal a compatriot’s deepest secretܫs. It’s a lot like the defense-strategy sequence from the pilot of “Murder,” where Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) picks her team. This show is also punctuated by dramatic flash-forwards — a la the main murder in “Murder” — to a major terrorist attack possibly committed by a student.
“Quantico” also shares commonalities with “Grey’s Anatomy.” In the first f🐎ew scenes, Alex, played by Priyank꧃a Chopra, and Ryan, played by Jack McLaughlin, hook up in the front seat of a car, only to meet again on the first day of school. Awkward! It’s a dead ringer for Meredith and McDreamy’s one-night stand from the first episode of “Grey’s.”
The sleek government aesthetic of the Quantico campus — windows and white at every turn — and high stakes (too high, if you ask me. The first ep༒isode has a suicide and a terrorist attack called the worst on US soil since 9/11) reek of “Scandal” and its government coverups, servicemen and terror plots. And I’m sure the novelty-size glasses of red wine aren’t too far behind.
The only meaningful difference between “Quantico” and the Rhimes regime is that the show, as of yet, lacks a strong, central female character. There’s no Olivia Pop🍬e or Annalise Keating to be found. Chopra is sort of like a quick-witted Meredith Grey, pretty but hardened by a bad childhood experience. However, she has none of Ellen Pompeo’s trademark vulnerability. So, without gravitas or sympathy, she just kind of hovers on-screen.
Whether Safran and his “Quantico” cohorts are plundering Fort Rhimes is up for ꦍdebate. But the show surely is an indicator of the direction ABC is moving in. Rhimes’ disguised prime-time soaps are succeeding in spite of network television’s decline in viewership, so her formula is a winning one.
Now, let’s see how it looks on someone else.