The thing about the FBI franchise, is someone needs to sit the teams down and say you see what you did here with the final scene – there is a time and a place and this is not the place. This is actually not the time.
With any show, you have to start on a bang, and if there is anyone who knows how to do that, it’s the Dick Wolf machine. Launching a third FBI series was a smart thing to do, money wise, but also franchise wise. If you keep people entertained and loving a series, they will invest in another one.
And Wolf has managed to do that many times over. Whether it be the Chicago Shows or the numerous Law and Order franchises. But in FBI: International they’ve done one of two things – they either made us creeped out by the characters who want to have sex after shutting down a sex trafficking ring or they’re trying to force a couple by us.
And it doesn’t work.
But I digress. Lets go back to the beginning. As we know from FBI and FBI: Most Wanted, they are on the hunt for Colin Kent. He’s a sick fuck who has fled to Croatia with a 14 year old girl.
Since Croatia is a country that does expedite criminals, you have to wonder why the choice. And that’s simple – he has a friend. A sick fuck just like him.
We meet the FBI: International team, Special Agent Scott Forrester, Special Agent Jamie Kellett, Special Agent Cameron Vo, Special Agent Andre Raines. Forrester is the head guy in charge and I automatically like him. I like him because Jubel likes him and that’s saying something.
I also have a weakness for a man with a hot jaw line, attitude and can pull off a trench.
Forrester is a take charge, no nonsense man. He doesn’t play by all of the rules, but that’s okay. He’s about getting the crime solved and doing what it takes to make it stick. He knows his standing and he knows what he can do. He doesn’t like to be guided or under anyone else’s rules.
So when OA shows up, he thinks that Isabel has sent him there to babysit. But OA doesn’t want to be a babysitter. He wants to be the one to find the people that did this, because his only concern is bringing a pedophile to justice.
OA and Forrester may not see eye to eye. They both have distinct ways of doing things, but they are both good men.
They are working their connections and they are figuring out how to find Colin.
There is not a one of them that doesn’t have connections – well except Agent Vo. She’s new and she’s learning. Forester has asked Kellett to show her the way. And the thing about Vo is that she’s really willing to listen. She wants to make an impression. She wants to make her mark.
Kellett has proven herself indispensable. She has contacts everywhere, knows everything and is quite convincing. She is like Forrester, strong and doesn’t back down. She isn’t afraid to do it all. She wants to be on top.
And she wants to get the sick fucks that they are chasing.
With her and Vo – they make a strong team. Each one is filled with strength and love, but a sense of vulnerability too. They aren’t held back by anything.
When Vo has to be the one to come up against Colin to give him a phone, she shows her worth. She doesn’t waiver. She can play the part that she needs to play. I do believe that she’s going to be the one that surprises us.
What I didn’t like about this show is right now is that we don’t get to learn a lot about Raines and I want to be interested in all of the characters. But he has so few lines and I feel like they could have done better with that.
The team is a “fly” team, meaning that they could drop and go anywhere at anytime. They do just that. And that is part of what will make this show interesting. It’s part of what will make it great.
They are able to hunt down Colin and I legit stood up and cheered when OA came out of nowhere and kicked his ass. OA is a standup man who wants to do good and wants to protect people.
And we can never look bad at that.
The only issue I have with the episode is the last scene where Forrester returns to his hotel room to find Kellett naked in his bed. They are both into it – you can tell they’ve been sleeping together for a bit. But the issue is that introducing this in this episode is weird, and also undermines the views that you have on both.
It was too much too soon. We need to establish character personalities, before anything else. And right now it just paints a bad light. It will be interesting to watch unfold, but in the same breathe, I would have wished that they would have waited til a few episodes in.
Right now, it feels forced and I hope that they can recover from that.
FBI: International is heavily built on action and like its predecessors, the story line is complicated, built in real life, and the characters are magnetic. You can’t look away. It’s a great addition to the FBI franchise.
