Kate Mara and Brian Tyree Henry Can’t Save FBI Drama ‘Class of ’09’ From Getting Weighed Down By Big Ideas: TV Review
variety.comAlison Herman TV Critic The premise of the limited series “Class of ‘09” is a familiar form of dystopia: in the near future, law enforcement has come to rely on technology that skirts the line between police work and a police state. “Class of ‘09” shares a blueprint with classics like “Minority Report,” then adds a timely twist.
The FX show’s Orwellian innovation is an algorithm powered by artificial intelligence, the kind of tool now at the center of all kinds of public anxiety, including the ongoing writers strike. “Class of ‘09” is created and written by Tom Rob Smith, the British scribe best known to Americans as the force behind “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” the second installment of Ryan Murphy anthology “American Crime Story.” That season, an underrated masterpiece, scrambled the typical chronology of true crime, beginning with the titular murder and winding backwards through Andrew Cunanan’s serial killing spree. “Class of ‘09” takes an equally unconventional approach, splitting its story into three separate timelines to tell a cautionary tale that spans decades.
As the show’s title suggests, the first of these timelines takes place 14 years ago at the FBI’s training facility in Quantico, Virginia.
There, we’re introduced to four aspiring agents “Class of ‘09” will follow into 2023, then 2034: Poet (Kate Mara), a former nurse who tends to take care of others before herself; Hour (Sepideh Moafi), the closeted daughter of Iranian refugees; Lennix (Brian Smith), a child of privilege fulfilling his parents’ expectations; and Tayo (Brian Tyree Henry), an insurance executive who will eventually become the Bureau’s director.
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