CLASS OF ’09 on Hulu is a new FX series that plays out over several decades. We follow FBI agents who graduated in 2009. This includes a storyline ten years from now. Personally, I was completely hooked from episode 1. Read our Class of ’09 mini-series review here!
CLASS OF ’09 is a new Hulu mini-series. It’s an FX production and it’s one of the best I’ve ever watched from them. The storyline and overall vibe just hit a real sweet spot for me. Also, I love the actors portraying the main characters. We follow a group of FBI agents who graduated in 2009. Each one is from a very different background.
The mini-series plays out over several decades, so we also see them age. There’s a storyline in the past, the present, and the future. All of which is to show what has shaped both the characters as FBI agents and the world on a wider scale. There are eight episodes in the series and it premieres with the first two episodes – I was hooked from the first episode!
Continue reading our Class of ’09 mini-series review below. It premieres on Hulu on May 10, 2023.
The past, the present, and the future
Having a story play out across three time periods does require quite a lot. Not only do you need to do it in an organic way when it comes to storytelling, but you also need to elegantly keep the viewer looped in at all times. Fortunately, Class of ’09 has a simple way of just showing it on screen – plus, the characters we follow visibly age.
Aside from aging, they also change in other ways. Often they seem to become more jaded in ways. Of course, they also witness more terrible crimes and brutal sides of human nature with each decade (or more) that passes.
The past all takes place in 2009, which is when they were trainees at Quantico. Hence the title of Class of ’09. The present is the actual present, as in 2023. The future is ten years later when an AI is very much in charge of “investigating”. FBI agents have been reduced to bringing in the criminals flagged by the AI.
It’s Minority Report meets The Artifice Girl which I know totally mixes a blockbuster hit with an indie hit. But it does make sense.
I knew I’d love the cast
Admittedly, I did expect to love Class of ’09 based solely on the core cast. Watching the trailer for this FX-produced Hulu series just made me even more sure of this. However, most people also know that expectations can just as quickly lead to disappointment.
Fortunately, Class of ’09 is one of those wonderful cases, when it turns out even better than you had hoped.
The core cast consists of Kate Mara (Morgan), Brian Tyree Henry (The Woman in the Window), Sepideh Moafi (Black Bird), and Brian J. Smith (Sense8, The Matrix Resurrections). These are the four characters on all the cover imagery and posters.
I wanted to know more about each of them and loved seeing them evolve across the decades!
Along with these four, we also have a few more key characters that you’ll see a lot of from the first episodes. They are portrayed by Jake McDorman (What We Do in the Shadows, Mrs. Davis), Raúl Castillo (Mother/Android), Mark Pellegrino (Lost), Jon Jon Briones (Ratched), and Brooke Smith (Them).
Start watching Class of ’09 on FX on Hulu now!
Tom Rob Smith is the creator and writer of the Class of ’09 mini-series. He previously developed season 2 of American Crime Story “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” and the BBC mini-series London Spy (2015). As an author, he wrote the novel “Child 44” which was adapted into the 2015 movie directed by Daniel Espinosa.
The directors of the series are Joe Robert Cole (All Day and a Night), Sunu Gonera (Snowfall), Steven Canals (Pose), and Amanda Marsalis (Invasion, Ozark).
The two first episodes are released as the premiere with weekly episodes being released on Wednesdays. The final episode (which is episode 8) is released on June 21, 2023. I’ve only watched the first two episodes for this review, but you can be damn sure I’m watching the remaining six as soon as I possibly can!
Class of ’09 premieres on Hulu on May 10, 2023.
Details
Creator: Tom Rob Smith
Cast: Brian Tyree Henry, Kate Mara, Sepideh Moafi, Brian J. Smith, Jon Jon Briones
Plot
Class of ’09 follows a class of FBI agents set in three distinct points in time who grapple with immense changes as the U.S. criminal justice system is altered by artificial intelligence. Spanning multiple decades, the series examines the nature of justice, humanity and the choices we make that ultimately define our lives and legacy.
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