I love people who are open to change, challenge and risk. Passion for the craft or/and good writing is all good, after all we are in the golden era of great scripts both for the small screens and the big, but its another ball park altogether, to straddle ethnic ambiguity. From shattering glass ceilings, to talent taking the drivers seat over colour and race,creativity has come a long way. Art has finally won. Since the buzz is around Indian actor Priyanka Chopra let me roughly quote from one of my favourite Indian movies, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, where two complete polar opposites predictably fall in love and during one deep reflection on life lying face up under the star lit sky, the woman tells her very anal (in the box,uptight) boyfriend that a person should only be in a box when they're dead. A sentence so seemingly effortless,but in fact holding the essence of life. Society has had us in a box for far too long, and be it cinema,TV,LGBTQIA rights,or social media,we are finally united as people with opinions and personal quirks and not segregated like in olden days by colour and race.Whether this is a PR exercise or real change, Ill take it, because its long overdue. Is this show a mix of Homeland, How To Get Away with Murder or Greys Anatomy? No. Not even close. Its not as real and technically sound like Homeland or sinfully delicious as HTGAWM and not having characters you love more than the script like in Greys, but its interesting enough to make me want to tune in next week. People are criticising the lack of plot or the comical escape of Alex Parrish from the FBI van, but when have people taken to anything without criticising it first? Was Greys crossing all the Ts and dotting all the Is on the surgeries?Can law be practiced the way Annalise practices it?Not at all.This is pure entertainment with just the correct amount of realism to make it interesting. The cast is cast to perfection,and even though we are yet to find out their backgrounds and motive to join the FBI completely, the heaviness of ones battle scars called life and the challenges it throws at you, moves like shadows on their faces which is credit to each actors talent. Like Shelby looks numb,Ryan is stoic but sensitive(also his presence feels like he'll keep everyone safe), Nimah is untrusting,Golden boy has a nefarious side.Too bad complex Caleb is no longer with us but he was interesting. Its refreshing to see Priyanka tone it down several notches. Her body language is not of an International superstar but of someone still learning the ropes which is a shout out to her massive talent. I must admit, her attitude and sometimes OTT dialogue delivery in Hindi movies does get to me, but she's very genuine and balanced in this role. Her chemistry with her fellow actors is believable and some minor glitches are expected, because its a drama and not a procedural documentary. I already like the layers to Simon and how perceptive he is. The quiet ones are usually the dangerous ones... At least we as audiences are set for two seasons because ABC is famous for keeping things airtight for 2 seasons and then they fizzle out and become worse than B grade Hindi movies or K Pop. Loved the premise of PLL initially, and look how they've butchered it.Same goes for Greys amongst others. Love the two timeline concept and the chemistry between Ryan and Alex. The show begins with a terrorist attack on Grand Central and jumps back to how the recruits settle into Quantico. The training is intense from the very get go and one of the assignments is to dig into a peer's past, something off book. One murder, one suicide and one framing later, the new drama series leaves the viewer with immense curiosity to come back for more. Im adding this show to my fall watch list along with NBC's Blindspot and Fox's Scream Queens. Cant wait for my staple CW shows to come back from their respective hiatuses and for Homeland. And finally, I hope they get to act more and excited to see individual missions because someone mentioned that they have a real ex FBI agent helping them keep things real so excited for that!
