ABC Apologizes for ‘Quantico’ Episode About Indian Terrorists
ABC’s Quantico recently came under fire by fans for a storyline they’re deeming offensive.
The June 1 episode, “The Blood of Romeo,” centered on Indian terrorists planning an attack with the aim of framing Pakistan. Why? To prevent peace talks between Pakistan and other countries. Needless to say, fans weren’t happy and began calling out the show and star Priyanka Chopra, who is of Indian descent.
Priyanka Chopra. (ABC/Bob D’Amico)
ABC was quick to apologize and point out that Quantico is a fictional series only meant to entertain and not meant to be taken so seriously. The statement reads (via Variety):
“ABC Studios and the executive producers of Quantico would like to extend an apology to our audience who were offended by the most recent episode, ‘The Blood of Romeo.’ The episode has stirred a lot of emotion, much of which is unfairly aimed at Priyanka Chopra, who didn’t create the show, nor does she write or direct it. She has no involvement in the casting of the show or the storylines depicted in the series.”
“Quantico is a work of fiction. The show has featured antagonists of many different ethnicities and backgrounds, but in this case we inadvertently and regrettably stepped into a complex political issue. It was certainly not our intention to offend anyone,” the statement concludes.
As Quantico was canceled by ABC in May, there are only a few episodes remaining in the third and final season. After all of the drama with Roseanne, the network is clearly not wasting any time in responding to fan backlash.
Quantico, Fridays, 8/7c, ABC
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I'm not sure how this is offensive. At least, any more offensive than the plots of half the action/political/thriller TV shows and movies we see every week.
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So we are just going to let social media outrage to dictate everything now? What is the difference between this episode and the plotline of any show or movie that deals with agents working to stop terrorist plots?
These shows and movies always revolve around either openly terrorist groups or a shadowy group in some nation or another's government working without the rest of their governments knowledge to spark a war or whatnot using an act of terror or assassination to achieve whatever goal.
The shadowy organization trope can and should involve any nation that it is possible for the writers to write a good (I'm kind of using the word "good" loosely here) show using them. I have seen shadowy organizations in the U.S government used in this manner probably at least 10X more often than India.
Why should India be the one nation exempt from this type of plotline?
If you are going to be offended by the writers possible choice of nations to use for this kind of story, perhaps espionage thrillers simply aren't right for you. I am a highly patriotic citizen of the U.S for example, but I enjoy movies and shows depicting people trying to stop say, the CIA or some evil congressman or whatever, engaging in something horrific. In fact I can't remember the last time I saw the CIA depicted as anything other than evil, or at the very least morally bankrupt. I do not get offended by this.
I did not see the show, so it is possible I am missing a key piece of information, if so let me know, also if so, the writer on this article did a poor job since whatever the cause of the outrage it should be included in the piece.
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Berlin Station(SPOILER) plot was our right wing gov working to put in place a right wing party in Germany. Our evil gov was working against the caring people of the CIA(deep state). That didn't get any backlash at all.
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You mean that ABC didn't apologize for any complaints.
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