Person of Interest

[HaemishM]

This started last Thursday night on CBS. Starring Jim Caviezel (he of Jesus torture porn fame) and Michael Emerson (Ben from Lost), produced by J.J. Abrams. It has lots of the Abrams trademarks. It's going to be a slow story building to something which you probably don't expect. I watched the first episode and about halfway in thought, "Well this ending is telegraphed." Only that telegraph was really a feint for the left hook the story gives you. It's not ZOMG surprising, but it is a nice twist. The premise is that Emerson's character designed a computer system for the government to find terrorists plotting future events after 9-11. It worked too well, spitting out a list of relevant targets (future events where big losses of life would happen) and irrelevant targets (individuals who were likely going to die or be involved in something violent but not mass death related). He takes the irrelevant list and tries to prevent whatever is going to happen to them. Caviezel is a washed-up former super government assassin who does the ass-kicking part.

Just on evidence of the pilot, this one looks worth watching.

[adjunct]

How much lens flare?

[HaemishM]

Surprisingly, none that I can remember.  Abrams didn't direct it, I'm not actually sure how much Abrams has to do with it. Jonathan Nolan isl listed as the creator - he also worked as a screenwriter on The Dark Knight, and is listed as a screenplay writer on the new Batman and Superman films.

[Velorath]

Surprisingly, none that I can remember.  Abrams didn't direct it, I'm not actually sure how much Abrams has to do with it. Jonathan Nolan isl listed as the creator - he also worked as a screenwriter on The Dark Knight, and is listed as a screenplay writer on the new Batman and Superman films.

In other words, he's Christopher Nolan's brother.

[Pennilenko]

I caught this. I was dissapointed when it ended becuase i wanted more. If this never makes it past pilot i will be dissapointed.

[TheWalrus]

Liked what little I got to see. Can't wait till son starts sleeping in his room all night. Damn kids.

[stu]

This show looks cool and I like Caviezel and the Lost guy. Is Person of Interest more action-oriented or is it more Freakonomics: The Series? http://www.freakonomics.com/tag/terrorism/ Either way, I'd be happy.

[Pennilenko]

In my opinion it was a nice fifty fifty split of action and drama/suspense/plot.

[HaemishM]

Yeah, the action was there but it was small shots in between longer, suspense-oriented bits. It was so well done that when it came, it had a lot of impact. Loved the part where the main character rescues a kidnap victim with a grenade launcher into a van (not too much of a spoiler, that part's about halfway in).

For some reason, I knew Nolan was Chris Nolan's brother, it just didn't register for me when I looked at IMDB.

[Merusk]

In my opinion it was a nice fifty fifty split of action and drama/suspense/plot.

Yeah, quite.  Much like the first season or two of 24 before it became torture porn involving a guy who's died more often than Jesus.

[Lucas]

Enjoyed it, but I'm suspending the judgement: hopefully it won't be *that" slow in building an overarching plot, and offer situations that escape the usual "criminal of the week" cliche. Emerson is very good: yes, if you watched "Lost", you can hear "Ben" from time to time, but not that much. Jim Caveziel seems up for this.

[Arthur_Parker]

It's like the Incredible Hulk, Terminator 2 and the Fugitive had a kid.  I thought it was ok but the shooting people in the leg thing is going to get old quick.

[Bunk]

This was a pleasant suprise, certainly going to give it a couple episodes to see. The leg shooting thing does bug me. Its nearly as bad as the "knocking a guy out cold by hitting his head with your gun butt never does any lasting harm (let alone kills anyone)" trope. People do usually die if shot in an artery in the leg.

[shiznitz]

I didn't watch this, but from the perspective of someone they were probably trying to get interested, the name of the show sucks given the description by the OP.

[Arthur_Parker]

2 was meh except I liked the anonymous IT nerd with the arsehole boss owning the company angle.  But maybe a lot of that was just down to it being Michael Emerson in the role.

[Lakov_Sanite]

This show was fun, not awesome yet but I realized it basically boils down to "what if batman was two people instead of one"

[HaemishM]

The second episode definitely wasn't as good as the first, but still worth watching. The fight in the laundromat was the highlight. There are LOTS of the echoes of the surveillance nation aspect of The Dark Knight, so I can see where Nolan got the inspiration for writing this. Emerson is still the standout part of the show.

[stu]

I *finally watched the first two episodes on re-run tonight. Holy moley, Caviezel is an absolute badass in several scenes. The show reminds me of The Pretender, although I can barely remember that one from back in the day.

[MahrinSkel]

I like the show well enough, but I really hate the ideological subtext (Big Brother could take care of you if he was watching, but he's too lazy so this mysterious billionaire and his mercenary are picking up the slack).  It's basically an ongoing infomercial for the Surveillance Society.

--Dave

[Soln]

It's new version of the Equalizer.  Hope it gets better.

[HaemishM]

I like the show well enough, but I really hate the ideological subtext (Big Brother could take care of you if he was watching, but he's too lazy so this mysterious billionaire and his mercenary are picking up the slack).  It's basically an ongoing infomercial for the Surveillance Society.

--Dave

I actually don't get that vibe at all. Sure, there's some of that, but I think that's a growing undercurrent in popular entertainment for the last decade. Shows like Burn Notice and this are all about the guy with "NO RULES!" saving everyone when the government's authorities can't because they are constricted by rules. Only we know in real life, that shit ends up with innocent people getting their faces shot off for being in the right place.

I think as the show goes on, we're going to get a bit less of a White Knight feeling from the whole thing, as we start to learn more about Finch and his motives and his past. And we still don't really know what the machine is really doing, nor what role Elias is going to continue to play.

I see this as Johnathan Nolan taking the germ of an idea about massive, super-surveillance in Dark Knight and expanding it out to an entire universe built on it.

[Pennilenko]

Is there anybody that has kept up with this show other than me? I haven't missed an episode this has turned into such a damn good show.

[Surlyboi]

Still watching it. Still fucking amazing.

[Pennilenko]

I really think they have done an amazing job at building the characters. There are very few shows where I actually get invested emotionally to the leads. This is one of them.

[Surlyboi]

Oh. Holy. Shit.

[Merusk]

Fuck my DVR didn't catch this....  Aaaarg.

[satael]

[Surlyboi]

[Pennilenko]

This show is so good.


What I like the most about this show is that it isn't shy about making the characters experience real difficult, totally grey zone, moral choices.

[Surlyboi]

And the characters are so much more than the two-dimensional cutouts they could be.

[Venkman]

Yea totally. The thing I really like is that within the context of the show, everyone acts consistently, believably, and just over the edge of how normal outside-the-law shows work. Usually such shows have bad guys who are outside of society where the good guys push the boundaries but never cross. In this show, almost everyone is outside of society, except for the few characters that become even more important because they won't cross that line no matter how close they got.

[Pennilenko]

Yea totally. The thing I really like is that within the context of the show, everyone acts consistently, believably, and just over the edge of how normal outside-the-law shows work. Usually such shows have bad guys who are outside of society where the good guys push the boundaries but never cross. In this show, almost everyone is outside of society, except for the few characters that become even more important because they won't cross that line no matter how close they got.

I worry that this show isn't going to get a long run.  My wife, as much as it pains me, is representative of the demographic that TV panders to. She doesn't understand this show, and it makes her uneasy. In the eight years I have been married to her anytime she walks in while I am watching a show and says that she doesn't get it, it ends up getting canceled shortly after.

[Venkman]

Well damn man, then you owe us all to sit her down and walk her through it. I'll even chip in some flow charts

[Surlyboi]

What's not to understand?

Badassery is its own reward.

[grebo]

I'm 7 episodes in.  I feel like I've been tricked.  Is there going to be anything to this show that wasn't in The Equalizer 30 years ago?