Hasian uses Zero Dark Thirty to demonstrate his idea of military orientalism: promoting the concept that the only way for military or law enforcement to be successful in protecting the American people is by breaking the laws and rules they’ve sworn to uphold.
This concept is perpetuated in Quantico as we constantly see FBI agents going outside the law to protect us from a “greater evil” or to protect themselves.
Season one’s main villain, Liam O’Connor, uses his role as a Deputy Director and Quantico instructor to gain information to frame Alex (the main character) for a terrorist attack. We then see Alex repeatedly break into FBI facilities, bypass security measures, and lie to superior officers in order to protest the lives of people she cares about. She even gets arrested. So not only is the villain operating outside the law, so is the hero.
Alex saves the day in every instance.
“What we are left with is a mass-mediated production that allows U.S. audiences to celebrate their views on American exceptionalism” (Hasian, 465).
Quantico isn’t real agents. It’s what the government would like you to think. Our FBI is exceptional, regardless of following the law.
Feminist Film Studies Fall 2018 