Quantico: Priyanka Chopra shows spunk in a predictable plot

Let's face it. The only reason I made an effort to get through the first episode of ABC's new TV series Quantico, and the reason you're even reading about it, is its 'exotic' lead star Priyanka Chopra. She stars as FBI trainee Alex Parrish in the show that revolves around the mysterious lives of wannabe FBI recruits at the Virginia-based Quantico camp.

The train leaves the platform before it's even built

The first episode is mildly reminiscent of Al Pacino-starrer The Recruit, more for the sheer bulk of its setup it tries to flex in limited time, than the staple whodunit double-jeopardy plot. It employs the time-tested narrative of cutting back and forth between the aftermath of a gruesome terrorist attack (Mid-Manhattan's Grand Central is now ashes) - where Alex is the prime suspect for looking so pretty amidst the rubble - and the rigorous training programme at Quantico preceding this event.

Obviously, one of the several culturally diverse good-looking young recruits - each of whose personas are established with the deliberate fluff of a college romance - is behind this attack.

The first season will presumably uncover the perpetrator's identity over 14 episodes, with the pace and tropes of a Cluedo board game.

As is the norm, misleading twists and parlour tricks will perhaps envelop every episode, as we delve further into the contrived backstories leading up to Alex's arrest.

Shonda Rhimes, the successful ABC creator and producer of similarly-themed shows like How To Get Away With Murder and Scandal, seems to be the driving force behind this show - no, she isn't involved at all, but the writers have definitely been using her name as an influential verb, "Let's Shonda Alex's sketchy background and tough-damsel-in-distress situation. Let's SR her promiscuous daddy-issues-driven boldness. Let's Rhimes the racially diverse bunch of folks training at Quantico."

Photo: Craig Sjodi/ABC/Getty Images

I'm not a big fan of any of Rhimes' shows, including Grey's Anatomy - her most popular - because most of them only aspire for longevity, by slotting into the primetime vacuum left by infinitely more ambitious and engaging slow-burners like Homeland, House Of Cards and Fargo.

There's always a spark - usually an unconventional female protagonist in a culturally fertile environment - that's often blunted by the creators' obsession with presentation and glamour. It's funny that Quantico continues in the same ABC mould without Rhimes, populated by faces and shifty gazes you'd not quite expect to see in a timeline chronicling 'the worst terrorist attack since 9/11'.

Chopra is as much the lead star as she is a marketing tool

Unfortunately, it becomes quite clear that Miss Chopra is the only reason this series exists. This is not to say she's an acting powerhouse (she's sincere and all, and even her ambiguous accent works in context of Alex's half-American upbringing); the entire show seems to be mounted around her to bring in unparalleled South Asian viewership numbers.

This is demonstrated by the writers' get-down-to-business, rather suspense-less treatment of suspense and deceit; hopefully, the breakneck pace and tacky training montages are just red herrings - events that could posthumously make sense once the series goes all True Detective on us.

However, credit where it's due to the spunky Indian actress - she's gone ahead and carved out a massive chunk of celebrity-hood for herself in an industry that hasn't traditionally been welcoming to South Asian superstars.

This lack of exposure on the world stage is majorly down to the fact that these shows require real actors, without their airs, schedules and pre-manufactured reputations - artists who can keep up with the rigors of shooting seasons without prior commitments.

It's why non-mainstream faces like Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur have always stood a greater chance of arresting overseas imaginations - for the precise reason that they'd represent their series without overshadowing it.

For now though, Miss Chopra - all hype and baggage, not unlike certain Indian politicos - has arrived on Western shores. She's swept onto them with an aura of a performer subscribing to the great American Dream. If only it weren't made so glaringly obvious.

(Quantico premieres in India at 9 PM, October 3^rd on Star World)