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The Daily Star, Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, October 30, 2015 2 By Kyla Brewer TV Media I t's tough to have a network TV hit these days, but thanks to a heady mix of intrigue, romance and mys- tery, freshman ABC thriller "Quantico" seems to have audiences hooked. In fact, ABC has shown its confidence in the new hit drama by giv- ing the series a full-season pickup — a total of 19 epi- sodes, and possibly more to come. Created by "Gossip Girl" writer Joshua Safran, the show follows a group of FBI recruits through their training at the famed FBI Academy. A new episode of "Quantico" airs Sunday, Nov. 1, on ABC. In the series premiere in September, New York's Grand Central Station had just been hit by the city's worst terrorist attack since 9/11, and new FBI recruit Alex Parrish (Pri- yanka Chopra, "Fashion," 2008) had been arrested for the crime. "Quantico" follows Parrish's escape and subse- quent struggle to prove her innocence, while also using flashbacks to tell the story of her training at the FBI training academy. "'Quantico' is a show where you can't trust any character. You can't trust any- one — you can't trust Alex," Chopra explained in an ABC press clip. She went on to say: "Everything is deception. There's conspiracy, there's setups. Even I don't know what's going to happen in the end of the show. Even I don't know who the terrorist is. And I'm looking forward to finding out with everyone else." If Parrish was truly framed as she claims, it seems just about everyone else is a sus- pect in the bombing. At the FBI facility in Quantico, Virgin- ia, Parrish makes the acquain- tance of other new recruits, each of whom seems to have something to hide. Shelby Wyatt (Johanna Braddy, "UnREAL") is a blonde beauty who's been se- cretly communicating in Ara- bic with a mystery caller. Wy- att's potential love interest — Caleb Haas (Graham Rogers, "Revolution") — initially flunked out of the FBI acade- my, but weaseled his way back in as an intelligence an- alyst. Yasmine Al Massri ("Crossbones") does double duty playing twins Nimah and Raina Amin, who are posing as one person, unbeknownst to the other recruits. The twins seem to be of particular interest to Simon Asher (Tate Ellington, "Re- member Me," 2010), a rookie who spent some time in Gaza. Parrish's biggest rival is Nath- alie Vasquez (Anabelle Acos- ta, "Ballers"), who appears to be sporting a fake scar behind her ear. Ryan Booth (Jake McLaughlin, "In the Valley of Elah," 2007) is actually an un- dercover FBI agent posing as a new recruit so he can keep an eye on Parrish. Booth was planted by Liam O'Connor (Josh Hopkins, "Cougar Town"), the seasoned FBI agent who oversees the re- cruits, training under the di- rection of FBI mentor Miran- da Shaw (Aunjanue Ellis, "The Help," 2011). With increasing competi- tion from cable channels and even streaming services, tra- ditional broadcasters have taken a hit in recent years, but they're fighting back with high-quality shows like "Quantico," and stars like Chopra, who is the first South Asian actress to headline a major American drama. While American audiences may not be familiar with her work, she is an international superstar with more than 40 Bollywood films under her belt. Chopra fell into the acting biz after her mother sent some photos of her to Miss India, which led to her later being crowned Miss World 2000. Her win re- sulted in a number of movie offers. In an interview with ABC's Albert Lawrence, the self-proclaimed geek who once intended to become an engineer explained that when opportunity knocked, she an- swered. "I've always been instinc- tive," said Chopra. "Whenev- er anything comes to me, I'm like 'Hmmm, that's interesting — let's do it, let's take a chance." She went on to explain that, after 40 movies, she feels like she's trying it all over again on "Quantico," her first real television series save a celebrity hosting gig in India's "Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi" in 2010. "I have newfound respect for television actors and peo- ple who work in TV because you're doing, like, nine scenes a day and working, like, 16 hours a day. It's nuts," she ad- mitted. "And to keep up with it — to know your lines and your character and your moti- vation ... that's a lot." Like the confident, tough Parrish, Chopra is a force to be reckoned with as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for children's rights, GQ maga- zine's Woman of the Year in 2010 and an advocate for various women's issues and women's rights campaigns, particularly the education of girls in India, through her charity The Priyanka Chopra Foundation. More than just a pretty face, Chopra is also a writer, having submitted piec- es for The New York Times and The Hindustan Times, as well as her monthly column "Pret- a-Priyanka" for Elle.com. As a recording artist, she released her debut single "In My City" featuring will.i.am in 2012, a song that was later used as the intro for NFL Network's "Thursday Night Football." Her latest project seems to be elevating her career even further as audiences become smitten with Parrish and her colleagues in "Quantico," a series she admits is unpredict- able. Described as "Grey's Anatomy" meets "Home- land," the new ABC drama has the pacing of a thriller with a Shonda Rhimes flair for romance, which shouldn't be too surprising considering the fact that "Quantico" ex- ecutive producer Mark Gor- don spent a decade oversee- ing "Grey's." The drama also shares the kind of ethnic di- versity seen on "Grey's Anat- omy," another audience draw. "Quantico" attracted more than 12 million viewers to its debut episode and it's been holding strong, thanks to plot twists and turns that keep au- diences guessing. Chopra promises "It's going to be a ride that you will not forget," so tune in to a new episode of "Quantico," airing Sunday, Nov. 1, on ABC. Robynwood Home 2 x 2 coverstory Trust no one Everyone has something to hide in ABC's 'Quantico' By Adam Thomlison TV Media Q: Is there a reason the car flies at the end of "Grease"? Is there an explanation I missed, or is it a ref- erence to another movie or something? A: It depends who you ask. The meaning of the flying car at the end of the 1978 film "Grease" is a hotly debated point of movie symbolism/trivia that has spawned both simple and crazy answers. So, of course, we'll start with the crazy ones. One grim theory posits that Sandra Dee was actually dead throughout most of the movie, and that the final scene is her flying off into heaven. It goes like this: The backstory for Danny and Sandy's love affair is that he saved her from drowning (revealed in a line of the song "Summer Nights"). But what if he didn't save her af- ter all? If so, then the whole movie is just her pre- (or post-, de- pending on your take on the afterlife) death fantasy. Another even darker theory is that the line "Goodbye to Sandra Dee," at the end of the song "Look at Me I'm Sandra Dee (Reprise)," which is supposed to signal her change from good girl to bad girl, in fact signals her intention to commit sui- cide. Again, the flying car is taking her to heaven. Q: I want to know if "Black Box" is coming back. In the last episode, Catherine was fired from her job, which left everything up in the air. A: This is yet another show that was canceled quietly, leav- ing fans with no idea what happened. The plot of ABC's "Black Box" revolves around the efforts of a brilliant neuroscientist to hide her own mental illness, in or- der to keep her job at the Center for Neurological Research and Treatment. The show's first (and only) season ended, back in 2014, with her losing that job. That left the show without a central plot driver. Of course, the writers could have figured that out — she could have got- ten her job back, found a different job where no one knew her secret and started the whole process over, or a number of even less plausible solutions that would still have been more believ- able than what goes on elsewhere on TV every day. But in- stead, ABC decided to just cancel it. That decision was likely driven more by the ratings, though. The numbers started off weak and only got worse, drawing fewer than four million viewers per episode in July 2014, at the end of its run. Have a question? Email us at questions@tvtabloid.com. Please include your name and town. 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