Person of Interest

[Guri]

CBS - 9pm Thursdays.

Plot: Nerd type teams up with Military lonely heart type to stop crimes they find out about before they happen and save everyday people (Person of Interest) in a superheroish mystery vigilantly action drama.




Spoiler Summary and Review

Spoiler

Michael Emerson (Ben Linus from Lost) plays Finch, filthy rich, CEO and computer programmer who built a machine for the government that takes all the surveillance information collected through the Patriot Act and sorts the violent speech, behavior, motives and intentions to find terrorist threats.



While setting up the project he discovered that the machine is unable to distinguish a threat of national importance that would kill many people from 'irrelevant' threats that would only kill single individuals... what he calls 'Person of Interest'.



The government having that much information seemed dangerous to him, so he left himself a backdoor into the machine just in case he needed to shut it down.


Because it weighed on his conscience to have the information that someone is going to die and not doing anything about it, he used his backdoor to retrieve the social security number of the 'Person of Interest'.



Which he promptly looks up without trouble and learns everything about them - somehow.



But being a nerd type with a wimp, he needed someone else to help him do something. That's where the second half of this duo comes in: Reese, your typical and largely less interesting 'super military trained, lost the love of his life, depressed and needing purpose 'hunk'' type.



Finch offers Reese a job, he takes it and now we have a episodic serial drama with a new 'mystery' every week with a discovery of the situation the Person of Interest is in, a quick win by the super-hunk, who seems to prefer shooting bad guys in the leg, and the only thing that seems interesting about the show so far : Back flashes of Finch's life when he built the machine.


The writing so far is straight forward plot plodding but at times witty, more so when Michael Emerson is speaking, so it makes one wonder if it's the delivery.


The plotholes are huge, though. They build up this machine as being able to trace everyone's every step they make and yet both Finch and Reese hide from it despite their conspiracies to stop (shoot in the leg) people. (and sometimes use hand held rocket launchers in the middle of city streets).

I think it's got promise more than a new mystery every week because of the bigger mystery and drama surrounding the machine, what it does, who uses it, how'd Finch get his limp and what happened to his partner who helped him build it.

IMO, Finch is the biggest 'Person of Interest' in this show so far.

 

[Solo4114]

Oh. I thought you meant this guy:

 

[nickytea]

Loving this show, Guri.

To quote my wife: "This is filling a LOST sized hole in my heart."

 

[Guri]

Solo - heh, those commercials are so over the top.

Nickytea -aw, she likes this show that much, eh? It hasn't grown on me quite as much, but it is so good to see Michael Emerson again. Over at the Lostpedia boards we're calling the partner 'Goodwin'. haha!

 

[TheDoctor]

I LOVe this show!

The only bad thing is I wonder how they're going to keep 'Interest' on a week-to-week basis.

 

[nickytea]

Nickytea -aw, she likes this show that much, eh? It hasn't grown on me quite as much, but it is so good to see Michael Emerson again. Over at the Lostpedia boards we're calling the partner 'Goodwin'. haha!

Haha.
Yeah, we're really loving it. Something about those Nolan boys ... they speak my language. (In a storytelling sense.) It's like they're making it just for me.

Hobo badass, vigilante justice, personal motivation, parallel character development, thematic synchronicity. It's a pastiche of everything I love. I've found myself saying, "It's like _____" with a slew of my favorites filling in the blank. Batman. Lost. The Matrix. The list goes on.

 

[Noeland]

I knew I'd love the show when he fired an m79 into an SUV in the middle of the street.

I was a huge fan of The Equalizer back in the day, and this reminds me very much of that show. Could be the NYC setting, might be the ex military type helping those in need.

 

[Risu]

I thought it wasn't very good. I haven't seen the second episode yet, but the premise just seemed really stupid to me. Oh yea, all of the CCTV cameras in the US are connected together and just by looking at people's faces, this program can tell that they'll be involved in a crime. If it could tell they were the one who would commit the crime or even that they would be the victim, I could see them logically explaining it, but to just say that they'll be involved somehow is nonsense. It goes far beyond suspension of disbelief. I like the actors involved and had hoped to be entertained at least, but the concept was so laughable I couldn't swallow it. I'll give it a few episodes to get going, but I don't see this show succeeding.

 

[Guri]

Oh yea, all of the CCTV cameras in the US are connected together and just by looking at people's faces, this program can tell that they'll be involved in a crime. If it could tell they were the one who would commit the crime or even that they would be the victim, I could see them logically explaining it, but to just say that they'll be involved somehow is nonsense. It goes far beyond suspension of disbelief.

Did you read my extended review? I thought I explained how it worked... But in the second episode Finch explains it more and here's my take shorter:

The machine sorts not just video camera input but email, phone calls as well. So the MACHINE knows exactly what the person of interest is involved in but what the machine can't do is tell what is of interest to national security and what is irrelevant to national security.

Somehow, and this part I don't get yet, those that are irrelevant to national security have their numbers 'tossed'.

Finch isn't supposed to have access to the machine, so he can't get all that other information, his backdoor only gives him access to the tossed number.

 

[nickytea]

I thought it wasn't very good. I haven't seen the second episode yet, but the premise just seemed really stupid to me. Oh yea, all of the CCTV cameras in the US are connected together and just by looking at people's faces, this program can tell that they'll be involved in a crime. If it could tell they were the one who would commit the crime or even that they would be the victim, I could see them logically explaining it, but to just say that they'll be involved somehow is nonsense. It goes far beyond suspension of disbelief. I like the actors involved and had hoped to be entertained at least, but the concept was so laughable I couldn't swallow it. I'll give it a few episodes to get going, but I don't see this show succeeding.

Well, you know, not every show can have the unflappable techno-babble drenched realism of a face-changing nine-hundred-year-old who travels in a blue, wooden time machine space ship.

Guri explains pretty well, above, for the record.

But it's not about the machine. We are told only as much as we need to know what effect the machine will have on the characters.

 

[cboath]

The machine is supposedly able to sort out what's of national security interest and determines the rest is irrelevant - at least to the big picture. I don't remember the line he gave 'goodwin', but it was something to the effect of it wasn't built to protect people, it was built to protect everyone. At the end of the day, the machine determines what's relevant to national security and gives them that information and after 24 hours, tosses the dangerous situations that aren't relevant to the big picture.

Gotta say I loved the opening of ep 2.

It's got 3 mysteries going for it now,

1. Who exactly is harold, and what's his backstory.
2. Same with Caviezel. All we know is he used to be 'with the agency'
3. What actually is happening with the 'important info'/machine?

 

[Guri]

But it's not about the machine. We are told only as much as we need to know what effect the machine will have on the characters.

I'm actually hoping it becomes more about the machine. They've already started to have Reese be trying to learn more about Finch and the backflash and all, so maybe we'll keep getting more on Finch's mysterious past building it and see that Finch knows how to thwart what it does and that's why he can hide so well - and protect Reese from it too.

 

[nickytea]

More about Finch and his backstory, absolutely. The choices and repercusions are the meat, I only meant that we'd received all we really needed on the tech level, from a storytelling/setting-the-stage perspective.

 

[TheDoctor]

Yeah, I think the REAL "Person of Interest" is Finch.

 

[kursosawa]

While the premise is pretty interesting the and lends itself well to a myriad of plot twists, this show runs the risk of falling into the formulaic, cliche ridden drivel that has come to be expected of mystery dramas such as this. The mystery that is Finch is an intriguing over arching element and I hope that it will be used to great effect in later episodes. My main critique of this show is the main actor. His delivery is exceedingly dry and monotonous. I'm a big believer in the idea that great acting and chemistry between the characters can save a seemingly mundane show, but i have to say, Person of Interest has none. I just hope that the writing can overshadow the shoddy delivery.

 

[kalkamel]

Love this show! The only thing missing though is Sinanju master, Chun! :lol

 

[protokev DMD]

I finally caught this show and am enjoying it tremendously. I can't help but hope there will be a group shown to be working to utilize the machine for their own ends...a group lead by terry oquinn.

 

[jedimarkj]

I finally caught this show and am enjoying it tremendously. I can't help but hope there will be a group shown to be working to utilize the machine for their own ends...a group lead by terry oquinn.

:lol


I'm definitely enjoying the show myself

 

[Guri]

I finally caught this show and am enjoying it tremendously. I can't help but hope there will be a group shown to be working to utilize the machine for their own ends...a group lead by terry oquinn.

Ha! Apparently Alan Dale (Widmore) has a planned appearance.

The last episode was a bit boring IMO - too much Reese. He hasn't found a character hook yet and is still playing the empty shell hero.

Also, his ability to take down a group of armed cartel with his hands tied behind his back is just - :rolleyes

 

[cboath]

Well, they were tied in front of him, so that makes it much easier

Don't you love it in TV/Movies when the star gets attacked by a gang of baddies and they only go after him one at a time, almost as if in a single file line? Three 1-1's isn't too bad. All 3 at once is probably another story.

Don't you like how they clone cell's and pagers in a snap? Just while the marks back is turned for a split second?