"Run" (pilot) Aired 9/27/15

ABC  says its new TV show Quantico is about a new group of FBI agent recruits. They are the best and the brightest. It would seem impossible that one of them is the mastermind of the biggest attack since 9/11.

The FBI is frequently the subject of movies, TV shows, and books. But it's not an organization most people really know much about. There are a lot of misconceptions based off of fictional portrayals of the bureau.

So how well does this new show do in depicting how the FBI really operates?

MISS:  Alex’s mom doesn’t know she’s been hired by the FBI and is headed to Quantico. This is extremely unlikely.  If she were living with her mother as it appeared, her mother would have been interviewed during the hiring process. Their neighbors also would have been interviewed. Background checks would have been run on all family members, and former spouses (if any).

HIT: They carry the guns with the red handles. Agents in training are given fake guns with red handles to carry the around the academy. This is to get them used to always carrying a gun, as they will have to after they graduate.

MISS:  Trainees investigate to find out what is missing about from a classmate’s file.  This is not an assignment they would be given. Additionally, personnel files are held closely. Only select people would have access to them. They wouldn’t be tossed around as they were on the show. They would contain not only personal information about the employee but also personal information about family, roommates, former employers etc.

MISS: The trainees were shown shooting the wrong type of gun. The guns they had at the range were 1911s. Special Agents who are also SWAT team members would be the only ones assigned those weapons. Agents at the academy would be using Glock 22s or 23s.

A FEW SIDE NOTES:  

No one is recruited into the FBI in the matter that they are suggesting. They don’t actually go out and recruit individuals to be agents. The closest thing might be if an agent knows someone who thinks he or she would make a good agent he might encourage them to apply.

A Mormon being in the FBI is nothing unusual.

The scruffy beards that some of the actors had wouldn’t be permitted at the academy.

Pull ups are no long a part of the PT test.

They were using the wrong type of target at the range. They would use a “Q” target not a “new standard police” target.

The only time a trainee has been shot at Quantico was in 1995. A black female and a white male were accidentally shot by an instructor in the gun cleaning room.  They were both hit by the same bullet. It went through the female and hit the male.They both survived and graduated    with a later class.