In The Past (2009), The Present (2023-25) and The Future (2034) a group of FBI trainees/agents grapple with the high challenges of their work, with some also pursuing the lofty goal of reforming the criminal justice system in the US so that it serves everyone. A sophisticated AI system seems to be the answer, which can gather evidence on suspects without suffering bias or corruption. However, this may really just make things worse...
A miniseries, it was released from May 10-June 21, 2023 by FX on Hulu. The series stars Brian Tyree Henry as Tayo Michaels, Kate Mara as Ashley Poet, Sepideh Moafi as Hour Nazari, Brian J. Smith as Daniel Lennix, Jon Jon Briones as Gabriel, Brooke Smith as Drew, Jake McDorman as Murphy and Rosalind Eleazar as Dr. Vivienne McMahon.
Has no relation to the visual novel of the same name.
Tropes:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The Future parts of the series are set in 2034. Holographic technology is fairly widespread then, along with AI-driven surveillance (which has significantly reduced crimes), while Poet has a functional cybernetic eye and also lives in an apartment with voice-controlled smart systems.
- Action Girl: Poet, Hour and Drew, along with the supporting female FBI agents, are naturally well trained in fighting skills. However, overall Poet is the one to show her stuff in the field most.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The AI the FBI uses for fighting crime in 2034 is very effective, to the point that crime rates have plummeted to historical lows. However, it also does this by mass surveillance and detaining people merely predicted to commit crimes rather than anything specific. Further, it turns out that even the FBI Director can't abort the drones it sends out (to his horror), showing that it's gone out of human control. Attempts to turn it off make the system go after even a US Senator, since then it's unable to stop crime. It soon graduates to murder, even setting up an FBI agent so he's killed by the police, who had been investigating the AI's flaws.
- Alone with the Psycho: Poet goes alone to interview a man she suspects of serial murders, even getting inside his truck by herself as well. Naturally, he tries to murder Poet once she's onto him, but is taken down with help from the AI system.
- Amicable Exes: Poet dates Daniel and then Hour, whom she even gets engaged to. Both relationships end, though she stays friendly with them after this.
- Anachronic Order: The series jumps across twenty five years, from The Past (2009), The Present (2023-2025) and The Future (2034).
- Assassination Attempt: Tayo is stabbed by a masked man in his house after he's investigated the corrupt banks and politicians who have gotten away with many crimes. Naturally he thinks it's an attempt to get rid of him and investigates, finding that due to his investigations there are many suspects. He's prevented from uncovering who ordered the attempt on him by his higher ups.
- Attack Drone: The AI deploys drones which tase people if they resist arrest.
- The Beard: Hour married a nice man whom she liked to hide her lesbianism, afraid of coming out to her parents. She expresses guilt about having wasted years of his life when their marriage ends.
- Big Brother Is Watching: In 2034 US citizens are more surveilled than ever by the AI system, and many are afraid to talk where they aren't watched as this could draw suspicion of wrongdoing. This expands even further once Tayo gets fired as FBI director and replaced, with his successor supporting the system zealously. Protests against this erupted in the early days, turning violent, with many also moving to rural areas with no surveillance so they could escape.
- Blaming the Victim: Drew was shot mistakenly by a fellow agent in 1997 when attempting to aid her colleagues. She was blamed for it, not him.
- Car Fu: Vivienne rams a man trying to shoot her, then does the same to the truck he got out of.
- Closet Gay: Hour stayed in the closet about being a lesbian for years because she feared her parents' reaction, even getting married to a man as cover.
- Computerized Judicial System: By 2034, juries have recommended verdicts from the AI system, and it's strongly implied very few go against them. Judges also rarely deny its requests for warrants.
- Cyborg: In 2034 Poet is equipped with a cybernetic eye to replace her natural one on the left side.
- Damsel out of Distress: Vivienne, when attacked by an armed gunman, kills him by ramming him with her car (as Tayo had replaced the normal windshield with bulletproof glass, she's unharmed).
- Darkest Hour: The worst loss the FBI ever suffered, with 44 agents dead in a single day, comes from two simultaneous attacks by far-right terrorists. One infiltrates Quantico and shoots several agents or trainees, while others pose as workers at their headquarters, collapsing it through using work on the foundations as cover to destroy them, bringing the whole building down.
- Dirty Cop: Poet infiltrates a highly corrupt police department, going undercover among them and busts the group with the evidence that she gets.
- Disability Alibi: Poet investigates a suspect in serial murders of women who's been cleared multiple times due to using a wheelchair. She learns he's very much capable despite this and really is the killer though.
- Disappeared Dad: Tayo relates to Poet how his father, a police officer, was killed in the line of duty by a racist white man who'd been let go while possessing a gun. The white cops who'd stopped him didn't check if he had any warrants out, nor even if he'd legally had the gun. After this, the department tried to cover up all of it. Tayo later joined the FBI to fight such corruption in law enforcement from the inside.
- Everything Is Online: By 2034 in the US this has become the case, to the point that all cars now have connections to the Internet helping them drive (with police able to remotely stop them). Unfortunately, it also means they can be hacked and cars driven recklessly to injure or kill people remotely too.
- Evil Cripple: As a first test of the AI system, Poet uses it to help identify a suspect in serial murders of women across the US. He turns out to be a man in a wheelchair, which has made multiple other FBI agents and police detectives clear him. Poet soon realizes he's still quite capable though, and really is the killer.
- Eye Scream: Poet lost her eye in the attack on the FBI headquarters. Afterward, she's got a cybernetic replacement in 2034 though.
- Fair Cop: Most of the main FBI agent characters are attractive people.
- FBI Agent: The whole series is about a large group of them, going from 2009 as trainees in the Academy across twenty five years up to 2034.
- Gaydar:
- While undercover, Poet is asked by a corrupt police captain whether she's into girls or boys. Her refusal to answer makes him conclude it's girls. It turns out that he's half right-she's bisexual and likes both.
- Poet later discerns two fake suspects from a training scenario are in fact a gay couple, and uses this for saving all the hostages by advising Tayo on how to approach them. No one had ever figured this out before.
- Hollywood Law: A lot of the things in place by 2034, such as surveillance everywhere or arresting people for what they might do beforehand, would be massively unconstitutional. There's no mention of any constitutional changes in the US however.
- Inappropriately Close Comrades: Poet and Daniel see each other while they're both trainees at Quantico. Drew notes that, although not forbidden, this will hurt Poet rather than Daniel if it goes wrong. They break up later, and Poet gets involved with Hour instead, even getting engaged to her-this has no discernible repurcussions.
- The Infiltration: Poet is skilled at undercover work, infiltrating a corrupt police department so well it results in the greatest FBI bust of dirty cops ever.
- Kangaroo Court: Trials by 2034 have become predetermined by the AI, whom the judges and juries almost always follow. Often the 'crimes' are of what someone might do or only thought about as well. After the AI is overthrown though Vivienne, who'd been tried this way, gets released immediately.
- Killer Cop: In 2023, Poet is undercover working as a police officer with a corrupt department. Her partner murders a man who lets them into his house when they get called there over supposed gunfire, then he plants a gun by his side to excuse this. It's revealed he'd been an FBI informant whom they got rid of this way.
- Last-Name Basis: Poet's first name is Ashley, but everyone just calls her by her last name Poet.
- Love Confession: Hour confesses to Poet how she's loved her for years after her marriage ends (but doesn't use the specific word).
- Minority Police Officer:
- Tayo is a black FBI agent who becomes Director by 2034. He relates once to Poet having been wrongly arrested and slapped as a boy by a police officer without having in fact done anything wrong, so he's well aware of how law enforcement's power can be abused. His own father was also a police officer who'd been murdered due to his white colleagues' corrupt indulgence toward the killer, a racist who they gave a pass. Tayo wants to reform the system from within and thus end institutionalized racism.
- Hour is Iranian-American, and her parents had fled Iran due to political persecution. She wants to be a part of a system which won't persecute people simply for dissent, as her father had suffered. However, her parents are displeased at her joining the FBI, as Middle Eastern Americans have born a lot of suspicion in the US. They're afraid Hour will simply help uphold this status quo.
- The Mole: Far-right terrorists get one of their members into the FBI academy, and he then shoots many agents or trainees while going in for firearms training.
- Old Flame: Poet and Hour were engaged before, but the latter is married to another woman by 2034. When both of them begin working together again however it becomes clear they have feelings for each other still. In spite of this, neither acts on it.
- Parental Abandonment: Poet never knew her father, and wasn't interested to after he left. Her mother died as she was in college at age 18. She's tearful on her graduation day from the FBI at the fact her mom's missed seeing what she has achieved.
- Police State: The US has become one by 2034, with constant surveillance of citizens and preventative arrests just for what they might do, as calculated by the AI system the FBI now has. Enough support this it seems as a result of crime falling drastically given such measures that it's maintained at first. The AI is later overthrown however, with the prior status quo restored.
- Precrime Arrest: By 2034, it appears that the FBI is arresting people for no clear crime as a result of what their AI has predicted they'll do. Further, state police can take over people's cars by remote control, forcing them into stopping and getting checked out. Once the AI system gets overthrown by the heroes, all cases that are based on this become immediately nullified.
- Profiling:
- Tayo suffered this along with his brothers while in their youth, as (implied white) cops stopped them for no real reason but due to their race. It's one reason he's determined to fight institutionalized racism and remove human bias from law enforcement.
- Hour's parents are opposed to her joining the FBI as Iranian Americans (and others who are of Middle Eastern descent) like them have been targeted for scrutiny just over their background quite often. They mention having often gone out of their way when traveling to avoid this.
- Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: In The Present (2023) Tayo investigated a group of these, which grew into a shootout while only he and Nunez were visiting their compound. After escaping, the group also tries to murder Tayo's wife Vivienne and commit a bombing, both of which he foils. However, they later do succeed in getting a mass shooter into Quantico who guns down several trainees and also bring down FBI headquarters through undermining its foundations.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: In 2025, Tayo starts investigating corrupt corporations with the new AI system, relating how the FBI's conviction rate on such charges fell steadily over the prior decade due to them having vast money to pay for good defense lawyers. With the AI's help, he gets evidence to nail a bank despite this. After that, he decides to go after corrupt politicians using it too. He is soon nearly murdered for this, and he's forced to accept having certain high-level people exempted as suspects who the AI would consider for it being used by the FBI at all.
- Shoot Him, He Has a Wallet!: Murphy is set up to seem he'd attacked the police while driving over the speed limit and when dazed getting out tries reaching for his credentials showing that he's a cop himself. However, the police are keyed up because of this and they shoot him dead. In fairness, they warned him not to get up, but in his state Murphy apparently didn't hear or comprehend.
- Smart House: Poet lives in one by the 2020s, which has automated systems that order her groceries, get clothing taken for cleaning etc whenever a need has been detected.
- Spiteful Spit: After her undercover op helps bust a corrupt police department, Poet's superior while there spits right in her face after he's arrested.
- Surveillance Drone: The AI in 2034 frequently deploys them to gather intelligence against American citizens and better "protect" them against crime. Many however despise them as the tools of a repressive and out of control surveillance state.
- Thoughtcrime: Vivienne, Tayo's wife, is arrested by the FBI in 2034 as she's written a book and associated with students that both have anti-AI views. The AI views them as a possible epicenter of a plot to destroy it. Under its system, simply having thoughts in that direction is a crime, even if they're not actually acted on. She's released when the AI is later shut down.
