Quantico returned with more of the same in its season premiere, but it set up an intriguing storyline that has the potential to truly become its own thing. Let’s take a look at how things played out in this week’s episode, “Lipstick.”
The episode opens in the aftermath of the First Lady’s execution,and everyone is trying to figure out what to do next. I’ll admit that killing off the First Lady of the United States was a pretty big way to end the show’s season premiere, and it definitely increased the stakes in a very necessary way. Also, unlike last season’s “future” story, it keeps most of our players in a dire situation, so it will be interesting to see how it’s resolved (and who will survive).
One year earlier, Alex and Ryan are extremely in love and into each other. It provides a pretty nice juxtaposition with the separation that they feel in the future. It’s interesting to see Ryan and Alex working so covertly with Miranda during this time, too, because it’s like they took a side-story from the first season and expanded it out for characters that we’re much closer to. I do hope that this aspect of the story gets a lot of focus early on, because keeping the “past” on training just feels way too similar to the series’ first season.
The new cast additions are still pretty hit or miss, but I admit that I really love what Blair Underwood is bringing to the table already. It’s true that he feels like Liam 2.0 a lot of the time, but he has much more gravitas than any of the “mentor”-type characters did last season. Adding Underwood to the cast was a very smart decision, and I can’t wait to see more of what the veteran actor does this year.
We’re two episodes into the new season of Quantico now, and, as much as I hate to keep saying it, it really is just more of the same of what we got last season. I find myself caring less and less with each episode, and I don’t know how the show is going to manage to get me re-invested unless there’s some sort of shift in the storytelling. The performances on the show are just as good as ever, and Priyanka Chopra continue to prove her ability at leading a series. We just need more as an audience, and a big reason for this is because Quantico is a serialized series. This isn’t a show where you simply deal with a case-of-the-week and then zone out for seven days, but the writers aren’t giving the audience anything new to think about or to care about. That will not realistically sustain a series for very long.
It’s really tough to judge “Lipstick.” It’s a solid episode of this show, but that’s absolutely all that it is. It’s just more of the same for a series that is spinning its wheels while it sees how long it can go without making any changes, and there are only so many times that you can use the excuse of “we know what our viewers want.” I really hope that some new developments come soon, because I don’t know how much longer the audience is going to stick around.
What did you think about this week’s new episode of Quantico? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below!
[Photo Credit: ABC/Jonathan Wenk]
Visitor Rating: 5 Stars
Visitor Rating: 5 Stars