rose_griffes (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rose_griffes) wrote2012-01-26 06:15 am
rose_griffes) wrote2012-01-26 06:15 am
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Nine Reasons to Watch Person of Interest
Hey, tonight there's a repeat episode of Person of Interest, so if you haven't been watching, you have time to try it (and do some catching up if you want) before the next new episode.
We're halfway through season one of Person of Interest. The basic premise is this: each week amagic box complicated computer gives a cranky glasses-wearing guy a social security number for someone who is going to be involved in a lethal crime. Cranky guy uses this one piece of information that he can access to Fight Crime! He has various helpers, because he can't do it on his own. Oh, and in spite of the magic technology, neither cranky guy nor his helpers know in advance if the number of the week is the victim or perpetrator of the future crime.
So, nine reasons (in no particular order) why I like Person of Interest.
1. It's a procedural that doesn't make me squirm at the case of the week. I like cop shows but sometimes they're exhausting: so many victims, so many tears over the victimization, so many stereotypes in portraying those victims. While Person of Interest uses plenty of tropes and stereotypes, so far it's managed to find a good balance in the case of the week. Sometimes the person being investigated is a potential victim, other times a potential criminal, and in each case we're presented with people. People with lives and motivations, not just the "damsel in distress" or the cute kid in need of help, etc. The writers give us enough information about those people that we're interested in the person, not just the crime. (Interested enough that nearly every week I see someone mention that they want that particular character to come back.)
Side note: this show has had some truly talented guest stars. Paige Turco, Enrico Colantoni (Veronica Mars' dad!), and others whose names I don't know offhand but who were all fantastic. They're a big part of the reason I perceive the weekly number as a character rather than just a crime waiting to happen.
2. Harold Finch. Finch built The Machine to use any and all information (databases, traffic cameras, everything, including the stuff we'd want to keep hidden) to spot patterns that could be used to stop acts of terrorism before they happen. From flashbacks, we know that initially Finch was uninterested in The Machine's 'by-product' of information about other, more personal lethal crimes. That changed, possibly due to personal tragedy. At this point Finch is a paranoid, guilt-ridden recluse who uses his financial resources and computer skills to try and save the type of individuals whose fates he once ignored. He's played by Michael Emerson--you may remember him as Ben Linus from Lost. Finch's self-protective shield has been fairly impenetrable, even by super-spy John Reese, which means there are still secrets to be revealed. Yay, secrets! Also, Finch's dry sarcasm brings some humor to the show.
3. New York City. This show is actually filmed there. I know! No games of "spot the Toronto landmark" while watching. I've never been to NYC, but it's cool to watch and know that I'm seeing the real city even if some places are repurposed.
4. Detective Joss Carter. The reluctant ally, Carter had thethankless difficult role of antagonist in the beginning. She's dedicated to her job with the NYPD, so helping two men working far outside the law isn't an obvious choice. Anyone who's been hanging around here knows that I'm generally of the Competent lady cops, Yay! persuasion. I'm excited to see what happens when a character portrayed as a force for good continues to work with two morally grey personalities. (Carter may have the potential slippery slope storyline, versus the redemption arc of the other two leads.) Also, Taraji P. Henson has a knack for facial expressions that make her fun to watch.
5. John Reese. A former CIA operative, at some point John became so disillusioned with what he was asked to do for his country that he faked his own death and spiraled into self-destructive behavior patterns. Parts of his background are still murky, but being given a chance to stop potentially lethal crimes helped salvage a wreck of a man. His past isn't done with him, though, and he isn't exactly a trusting soul, not even with the man who offered him that second chance. Reese is portrayed by Jim Caviezel, who is quite possibly the best-looking actor in his forties in Hollywood, and he can act!
6. It's a live-action comic book. Dark brooding hero with amazing skills? Check. Wealthy mysterious benefactor? Check. Reluctant ally committed to ridding the city of crime? Check. Wisecracking sidekick? Check. No capes, though. Or spandex, for that matter.
It's almost impossible to avoid comparisons to Batman, in part because one of the show producers is Jonathan Nolan, who co-wrote the scripts for The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises (as yet unreleased) with his brother, Christopher Nolan. If you put Finch and Reese together you have about two-thirds of Batman; Carter is the newly-minted Commissioner Gordon. Though instead of large servings of tortured pasts, we're getting them in smaller doses, with more time usually devoted to the number of the week.
7. Carter and Fusco as The Odd Couple. Who's Fusco? The wisecracking sidekick, of course. He's the regular cast member who isn't in the opening credits. Fusco is also with the NYPD; he was ready to go along with his corrupt pals and get Reese killed in the pilot, but instead Reese used some leverage (and exploding things) to flip Fusco... and then he used more leverage to get Fusco moved to the Homicide Task Force as Carter's partner, in order to keep an eye on what she was doing. So the (formerly?) crooked cop is paired up with the straight arrow. Fusco doesn't get much screen time, but it's always a toss-up if he and Carter will be working in synchroncity or squabbling over something or giving each other the stink-eye. Some of Fusco's time is spent being Reese's lackey as well.
8. Carter, Reese and Finch as a barely functioning team. Each is a character of agency with differing views on what is right and justifiable. At this point I'm generally gleeful about their conversations each week because they all have reasons to distrust each other, but certain forces and beliefs drive them to work together in spite of that. I really like all the moments that they interact.
9. The Machine. The font of information for each week's action, The Machine "sees everything." What kind of sentience would develop in a program built by a paranoid man trying to stop terrorism? What if no one, not even its creator, could alter that machine once it was finished? We've been getting hints that The Machine has a point of view. It's not only capable of recognizing the future potential of lethal crime occuring, it can label people as assets and threats to its own existence. How scary is that?! In other words, Yay, sentient machines!
I wouldn't say this is the best show ever, nor would I claim that it has a startling originality, but so far I'm finding it entertaining, and I'm pleased at how few of the tropes are the kind that really annoy me. Keep in mind that I have a high tolerance for implausibility and plot holes, though.
Tonight's repeat episode is 1.08 "Foe". It's not bad; a bit cliché but the themes worked well and I really liked one of the characters introduced in the flashbacks. If you can't watch 1.08, you might go online and take a look at episode 1.11 "Super". It's an homage to the Hitchcock fim Rear Window, and it works well as an introduction because a lot of the pieces are in place. The CBS website has it online for free for the US audience. If you do that, here's what you need to know.
*spoilers leading up to 1.11* With all his recent activities, John Reese has come back to the attention of the CIA. They tried to take him out in 1.10, using information given by Detective Carter. She was unaware of their lethal intent, thinking that she was doing the right thing to help bring him in. (Remember how I said she played the antagonist at first? Well, that has only changed in the last couple of episodes.) Reese was injured; he's recuperating, stuck in a wheelchair. So Finch and Reese have to swap roles: Finch doing the legwork and Reese trying to do the online research.
This episode does include a pretty female being stalked, but it was the first episode to go that route, and commentary within the episode itself made it a lot more palatable to me than it might have been. Oh, and there are a few flashbacks to when Harold Finch was still building The Machine (which came online in 2006); you'll see Finch's pal Ingram, who was co-owner of the company that built it.
*end spoilers*
Okay, I think that's it. Give it a try. Then you could read my weekly posts. They include exciting things like random capitalization of Important Things and repeated use of the phrase dun dun DUN when there's yet another plot twist.
screencaps by poetfades2black
We're halfway through season one of Person of Interest. The basic premise is this: each week a
So, nine reasons (in no particular order) why I like Person of Interest.
1. It's a procedural that doesn't make me squirm at the case of the week. I like cop shows but sometimes they're exhausting: so many victims, so many tears over the victimization, so many stereotypes in portraying those victims. While Person of Interest uses plenty of tropes and stereotypes, so far it's managed to find a good balance in the case of the week. Sometimes the person being investigated is a potential victim, other times a potential criminal, and in each case we're presented with people. People with lives and motivations, not just the "damsel in distress" or the cute kid in need of help, etc. The writers give us enough information about those people that we're interested in the person, not just the crime. (Interested enough that nearly every week I see someone mention that they want that particular character to come back.)
Side note: this show has had some truly talented guest stars. Paige Turco, Enrico Colantoni (Veronica Mars' dad!), and others whose names I don't know offhand but who were all fantastic. They're a big part of the reason I perceive the weekly number as a character rather than just a crime waiting to happen.
2. Harold Finch. Finch built The Machine to use any and all information (databases, traffic cameras, everything, including the stuff we'd want to keep hidden) to spot patterns that could be used to stop acts of terrorism before they happen. From flashbacks, we know that initially Finch was uninterested in The Machine's 'by-product' of information about other, more personal lethal crimes. That changed, possibly due to personal tragedy. At this point Finch is a paranoid, guilt-ridden recluse who uses his financial resources and computer skills to try and save the type of individuals whose fates he once ignored. He's played by Michael Emerson--you may remember him as Ben Linus from Lost. Finch's self-protective shield has been fairly impenetrable, even by super-spy John Reese, which means there are still secrets to be revealed. Yay, secrets! Also, Finch's dry sarcasm brings some humor to the show.
3. New York City. This show is actually filmed there. I know! No games of "spot the Toronto landmark" while watching. I've never been to NYC, but it's cool to watch and know that I'm seeing the real city even if some places are repurposed.
4. Detective Joss Carter. The reluctant ally, Carter had the
5. John Reese. A former CIA operative, at some point John became so disillusioned with what he was asked to do for his country that he faked his own death and spiraled into self-destructive behavior patterns. Parts of his background are still murky, but being given a chance to stop potentially lethal crimes helped salvage a wreck of a man. His past isn't done with him, though, and he isn't exactly a trusting soul, not even with the man who offered him that second chance. Reese is portrayed by Jim Caviezel, who is quite possibly the best-looking actor in his forties in Hollywood, and he can act!
6. It's a live-action comic book. Dark brooding hero with amazing skills? Check. Wealthy mysterious benefactor? Check. Reluctant ally committed to ridding the city of crime? Check. Wisecracking sidekick? Check. No capes, though. Or spandex, for that matter.
It's almost impossible to avoid comparisons to Batman, in part because one of the show producers is Jonathan Nolan, who co-wrote the scripts for The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises (as yet unreleased) with his brother, Christopher Nolan. If you put Finch and Reese together you have about two-thirds of Batman; Carter is the newly-minted Commissioner Gordon. Though instead of large servings of tortured pasts, we're getting them in smaller doses, with more time usually devoted to the number of the week.
7. Carter and Fusco as The Odd Couple. Who's Fusco? The wisecracking sidekick, of course. He's the regular cast member who isn't in the opening credits. Fusco is also with the NYPD; he was ready to go along with his corrupt pals and get Reese killed in the pilot, but instead Reese used some leverage (and exploding things) to flip Fusco... and then he used more leverage to get Fusco moved to the Homicide Task Force as Carter's partner, in order to keep an eye on what she was doing. So the (formerly?) crooked cop is paired up with the straight arrow. Fusco doesn't get much screen time, but it's always a toss-up if he and Carter will be working in synchroncity or squabbling over something or giving each other the stink-eye. Some of Fusco's time is spent being Reese's lackey as well.
8. Carter, Reese and Finch as a barely functioning team. Each is a character of agency with differing views on what is right and justifiable. At this point I'm generally gleeful about their conversations each week because they all have reasons to distrust each other, but certain forces and beliefs drive them to work together in spite of that. I really like all the moments that they interact.
9. The Machine. The font of information for each week's action, The Machine "sees everything." What kind of sentience would develop in a program built by a paranoid man trying to stop terrorism? What if no one, not even its creator, could alter that machine once it was finished? We've been getting hints that The Machine has a point of view. It's not only capable of recognizing the future potential of lethal crime occuring, it can label people as assets and threats to its own existence. How scary is that?! In other words, Yay, sentient machines!
I wouldn't say this is the best show ever, nor would I claim that it has a startling originality, but so far I'm finding it entertaining, and I'm pleased at how few of the tropes are the kind that really annoy me. Keep in mind that I have a high tolerance for implausibility and plot holes, though.
Tonight's repeat episode is 1.08 "Foe". It's not bad; a bit cliché but the themes worked well and I really liked one of the characters introduced in the flashbacks. If you can't watch 1.08, you might go online and take a look at episode 1.11 "Super". It's an homage to the Hitchcock fim Rear Window, and it works well as an introduction because a lot of the pieces are in place. The CBS website has it online for free for the US audience. If you do that, here's what you need to know.
*spoilers leading up to 1.11* With all his recent activities, John Reese has come back to the attention of the CIA. They tried to take him out in 1.10, using information given by Detective Carter. She was unaware of their lethal intent, thinking that she was doing the right thing to help bring him in. (Remember how I said she played the antagonist at first? Well, that has only changed in the last couple of episodes.) Reese was injured; he's recuperating, stuck in a wheelchair. So Finch and Reese have to swap roles: Finch doing the legwork and Reese trying to do the online research.
This episode does include a pretty female being stalked, but it was the first episode to go that route, and commentary within the episode itself made it a lot more palatable to me than it might have been. Oh, and there are a few flashbacks to when Harold Finch was still building The Machine (which came online in 2006); you'll see Finch's pal Ingram, who was co-owner of the company that built it.
*end spoilers*
Okay, I think that's it. Give it a try. Then you could read my weekly posts. They include exciting things like random capitalization of Important Things and repeated use of the phrase dun dun DUN when there's yet another plot twist.
screencaps by poetfades2black