Class of '09

It’s not hard to see what he’s aiming for, even if the results are mixed. The series seems at its most vibrant while following the rookies through Quantico.

The personal lives of the characters can grow emotionally moribund. But the action sequences, and the confrontations between Mr. Henry's Tayo and the homegrown terrorists he's trying to stop, are grippingly violent and intelligently so. Whether "Class of '09" is operating at peak efficiency depends on who is on screen.

Class of ‘09 has ambition but, like many a starry-eyed freshman, spreads itself too thin.

There are worthy performances in the mix, most notably from leads Brian Tyree Henry and Kate Mara, but the actors are working with scattered material that might have benefited from focus and some ruthless paring, particularly when it comes to the awkward expositional dialogue.

By erring on the side of intellectual exercise, “Class of ‘09” deprives itself of the chance to give a fresher take on this evergreen dilemma. It’s a show more engaging to think about than it ultimately is to watch.

Feels like one of those instances in which the trickiness of the split storylines becomes a cover for the sense that, through the four episodes sent to critics, none of the three timelines would be close to interesting enough to sustain interest. The series’ directors, starting with Joe Robert Cole and Sunu Gonera, establish momentum, but struggle to make the individual pieces feel distinctive.

lease. Stop it with the multiple timelines. Of late, TV has a tendency to overindulge the structural device, but “Class of ’09” has enough on its plate already to bother with silly gimmicks. Or it should.