Henry and Mara aren’t alone. Sepideh Moafi matches her great work on last year’s “Black Bird” with a strong, vulnerable performance as Hour, a cadet obsessed with data and how the FBI uses it. She realizes there are so many law enforcement officers out there who aren’t sharing information and strives to find a way to connect everything, but that effort leads to the aforementioned conflicts regarding the overreach of tech.
Rounding out the core quartet is Brian J. Smith as Lennix, who seems like just another love interest for Mara in the past timeline but will clearly play a crucial role as he climbs the ladder himself. Jon Jon Briones and Brooke Smith also star as instructors at Quantico.
“Class of ’09” is tough to review because of FX’s habit of never sending an entire season, and this show’s success is a bit unclear without knowing exactly where it’s going. Sometimes, it feels like the timelines aren’t equal in terms of storytelling or viewer interest, but the writers and editors are smart to let long scenes play out within them before zipping to the next. I hope the show doesn’t get more manic with the time jumps because it’s right on the verge of doing that a bit too much already, and I wondered if this wouldn’t be a richer story told chronologically. I’m not yet convinced it’s not a gimmick, even if it’s entertaining.
Despite that, I respect FX for taking a risk on a dramatically unusual show with such high thematic aspirations. A lot of fiction right now is asking how we got here. “Class of ’09” also wants us to consider where we go next.
Three episodes were screened for review. The first two episodes of “Class of ’09” premiere on FX on Hulu on May 10th.