Class of '09 Review: An Utterly Banal Take On the FBI

A proper law enforcement show features high-octane scenes, a fast pace, and a few twists and turns here and there.

It becomes much more special if the characters stand out uniquely or develop a bond akin to a chosen family.

Class of '09 is a show set inside the FBI that follows a group of unique characters whose journey to the FBI is not typical. These characters had lived another life before joining the Bureau, which is supposed to make them different from others.

Sometimes, we talk about something taking off before it crashes and burns. But rarely do we talk about something igniting, failing to take off, and disintegrating at an excruciatingly slow pace.

Class of '09 is not breaking new ground, with some excellent FBI shows having been broadcast in the last ten years.

Based on the setting, it might be compared to Quantico, starring Priyanka Chopra. But the shows are not in the same league based on the final product.

TV Fanatic had the opportunity to watch the first four episodes of the series, and it became apparent with each passing episode that there was a lot left to be desired.

It takes place in three timelines: the past, present, and future.

This is the first problem with it. It is hard to tell which timeline the show is in, even though they splash the words on the screen during every switch. One can keep track for a short while before the present and the past seems like the same word.

There is nothing distinct about these two timelines that sets them apart. The future is much easier to recognize because of the transparent computer monitors and the very noticeable aging makeup used on the actors.

In the pilot episode, it took much work to try and understand what the show aimed to communicate. It didn't improve in the next episode, and I had to default to reading the episode synopsis to figure out what I was supposed to be watching.

What might have lured someone to actively decide to watch the show would possibly be the cast.

Class of '09 boasts an impressive cast of seasoned performers comprising Brian Tyree Henry, Kate Mara, Brian J. Smith, and Sepideh Moafi.

The characters they play, however, are less than impressive.

They are all reduced to two traits. Brian's Tayo is a former businessman who, as a trainee, we only learn of him as a plus-sized black man. Kate's Poet is a former nurse who happens to have great intuitions.

Smith's Lennix is from a wealthy family trying to escape his family legacy. Moafi's Hour is a data enthusiast who is an immigrant trying to reconcile her parents' expectations and her own choices and identity as a gay woman.

There is nothing else one can learn about these characters apart from what has been prescribed.

Having such talent and reducing it to forty minutes of lackluster dialogue is a waste. There is so much talking that one would not believe this is a show about trainees of the FBI.

It didn't feel quite deep enough with these characters. Brian Tyree Henry is distinguished as a character actor who embodies the character he is portraying well.

Brian J. Smith distinguished himself as an action star in the first season of Treadstone.

It feels like a waste not to utilize their talents to the fullest, highlighting the other problem with the show.

It doesn't have enough action to justify the setting.

One can count the number of scenes with any action using fingers on one hand. The bar on such scenes is high with shows like The Blacklist, The FBIs, and recently The Night Agent.

Something that might have set the show apart was how they explored AI and what it might mean for the future of law enforcement.

AI and machine learning has developed at a staggering rate which has been a cause for concern for many people. In the least, it is used for targeted advertising.

There are many bad scenarios, the worst being complete AI domination over humans.

But before getting to that, it is bound to change how people do things, and in law enforcement, it might find another use.

Law enforcement mainly deals with punishing lawbreakers or preventing a crime from being committed based on evidence.

But what if all that is unnecessary when you can predict who might commit a crime?

That would make the job easier for law enforcement, effectively quelling crime and reducing government expenditure.

When Hour joins the FBI, she develops a program that utilizes an insane amount of data to create behavior models hence predicting outcomes. Initially, she intended it to augment agents' intuition, but it was later redesigned for something else.

The idea seems interesting, but the narrative's structure gets lost somewhere. It is made worse by the fact that other shows have explored the concept from as early as 2011.

The concept never gets room to grow in the show, making it feel poorly executed.

All this is punctuated by monotonous performances, bland music, and extremely short episodes for such a structure.

I had the idea that someone interested in the FBI in the sense that they find it fascinating and might want to join would find the show better in their eyes, but I'm not sure anymore.

I had to read the series guide to understand most of what the series was trying to explore, and in all honesty, they did what they set out to. It just wasn't any good.

Class of '09 premieres on May 10 with two episodes and a new episode every week on Hulu.

Denis Kimathi was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. He has watched more dramas and comedies than he cares to remember. Catch him on social media obsessing over [excellent] past, current, and upcoming shows or going off about the politics of representation on TV. Follow him on X.