Person of Interest Check-In.
So, I'm now up to Season 3 episode 4. Yay me. And now some quick thoughts.
Do I like the show? Yes. I would recommend it to others as well.
I do like how it has a bit of a minority report to it. Like pre-crime. Investigating and trying to figure out what will happen before it happens. That's a nice twist from the usual crime mystery set-up on T.V. Of course, some mysteries/episodes are better than others but that will happen with most broadcast shows.
Is it what I thought it would be? Yes and no. Yes, in that I always took the concept of the show to be a criminal/ex-con who is told to investigate people and save them from the information given through a system designed by a computer genius. As fellow watchers know, that isn't too far from the episode by episode premise with just a couple incorrect points there. The idea that they don't know if a person will be a victim or the villain is an interesting set-up that sadly doesn't get used to often. It is usually more on the saving side. Plus, there's a whole other arcing story and various forces at play that is going on beyond the episodic missions that I didn't expect.
That said, there are certain things that bug me. Maybe it comes from watching a lot of this stuff in a shorter span of time then when it airs but here are my current thoughts:
It bugged me that in the early episodes there often seemed to be a death involved despite the fact they are doing this work to save lives. Save a life and lose a life. What? Of course, I later get that it is only pre-meditated murder crimes that they are out to stop or that the machine can track. However, even then, some of the missions start because of the death of someone else and that death seems as though it should have fallen under the pre-meditated murder side of things. I guess the machine only figures out some of the plots after it has gone into motion from someone else's death?
Does Reese's quiet low talking slow-paced speaking voice ever get to you? Sometimes it's like he's doing a bad Clint Eastwood imitation. Everyone else speaks normally and so I wish that Reese would too.
Of course, I could tell as the first episode began that it was going to introduce many questions and mysteries about the past of the two main characters but I did not think they would drag it out so long. The first season we basically see what happened in Reese's past to lead him to his meet-up with Harold and partial glimpses of Harold's past in building the machine and season 2 finally gives us the rest of the secret origin of Harold. I'm not sure if season 3 has much more of the past backstories to provide now but they've got Shaw and Root now so I suppose they could do some with them or Fusco and Carter. It also bugged me how in one episode in Season 1, Harold is drugged and tells John to ask him anything and he will tell him but he doesn't. However, he'll just keep on trying to spy on Harold and figure him out that way because it's more... chivalrous, honorable? To me, it was one of those TV moments of stretching out a plot.
Elias. Where to begin? I like the actor who portrays him because of his work in another series and he gets your interest everytime he's on screen. However, I hate the way they finally introduce him. He's a growing threat from the second episode on yet his first onscreen appearance has always undercut him to me. Here's a guy that's supposedly feared by the mobs and Russians and could control the underworld. He's supposed to be extremely smart, cunning and dangerous. Yet, in his first appearance, he is nearly killed by the Russian mafia. The Russians kill one of his men and he knows they are after him, yet he goes and hangs out in his apartment with plenty of time passing between the shooting of his partner to the Russians coming to his building including time for the machine to give Finch his number and Reese to start spying on him. Then when Reese goes to save him, he gets shot and is bleeding away. Reese fixes him up and saves him thereby creating this bond and antagonistic relationship between him and Finch/Reese. I just don't see how if Elias is supposed to be such a great threat, he allowed himself to be in that situation in the first place. Couple this with him later getting arrested and then nearly dying in prison only to be saved by Carter who he clearly wasn't expecting or counting on just keeps me from ever seeing the guy as a credible threat. I'd like to. There are times where he does seem to have some power or can make a play on the heroes but he just is to inconsistent to me between powerful and weak. It's a love/hate thing I got going on there.
HR. I'm sick of this plot point. I thought it was over at the end of Season 1 but then it kept going a bit into season 2 and then it further kept going with the few left trying to resurrect it. It's still going into season 3. Part of me was hoping that by having a second operative in Shaw, maybe now Reese could take some time to tear down and destroy that organization but instead it is two people working together on the weekly cases.
For that matter, why are they still letting it exist? Reese wanted Fusco to stay undercover in it but there has been very little plot or development with that to make it seem like there is much benefit to it. For that matter, I don't know why HR cares about Fusco or want to use him. It always seems like there is a new member popping up so that there numbers are never that low and there has only been one time where Fusco has ever seemed to be of use to HR in an episode where he got his name and Simmons ripped out of an accounting book listing various HR members. Other than that, when has he ever actually been seen helping out or doing something successful for them? I'm surprised they haven't dropped him a long time ago. Why are Reese and Finch being such dicks about HR? They have the means to easily expose and take down the organization. It's been a problem throughout the entire run of the show with them constantly fighting elements of it. It's caused problems for both Fusco and Carter with Carter now being demoted to patrolwoman (like Officer Lance from Arrow). When Fusco and Carter need help because of HR, they're always are too busy with the current case but they still want Fusco and Carter to drop everything and help them. What jerks.
Anyways, that is the big complaints. I'll probably be posting more stuff in the days ahead as I keep catching up but here's a starting point as I keep processing this show.
Topic: Rate the last TV show you've seen (Read 1199378 times)
