A decade ago, a genius computer programmer named Harold Finch (Michael Emerson) created the Machine, a powerful AI capable of detecting crimes before they happen. The US government wanted to use the Machine solely to forecast large-scale threats, like terrorism, whilst Finch wanted to use it to help solve everyday crimes as well. Finch still has a line to the Machine, which feeds him the social security numbers of people who are about to be the victims - or sometimes the perpetrators - of crime. With an old injury inhibiting his ability to work in the field, Finch recruits ex-CIA operative John Reese (Jim Caviezel) to assist. Reese, living off the grid and suffering trauma after the death of his girlfriend while he was overseas, reluctantly agrees and finds the work is giving him a sense of purpose again. But their laudable actions soon attract the wrong kind of attention from the police...and Reese's old bosses.
Back in 2011, Jonathan Nolan, brother of director Chris and co-writer on many of his movies, went solo to work on a new procedural TV series, with J.J. Abrams producing. Person of Interest eventually ran to 103 episodes airing over five seasons, attracting significant critical acclaim and wider popularity in the process. It also gave Nolan the springboard to work on Westworld for HBO and now Fallout for Amazon.
This first season gradually eases the viewer into the world and premise. In fact, it might be a bit too gradual. The show spend a lot of its time on its mystery of the week format. The Machine spits out a social security number, Finch does some data-searching and Reese then saves/neutralises the person accordingly. Finch's seemingly infinite hacking skills and Reese's one-man army combat skills overcome almost every obstacle with ease. Complicating matters are Reese being hunted by both the police (represented by Taraji P. Henson's Detective Carter) and various former CIA colleagues.
The show does start to mix things up by bringing in serialised elements, with the hunt for the mysterious criminal mastermind "Elias" and the hacker "Root" forming key story arcs in the latter part of the season, along with the well-meaning Carter getting closer to Reese and Finch meaning they have to consider the risks vs reward of bringing her onto the team. This also leads to the development of the main cast. Just having Reese and Finch with Carter pottering around in a B-plot in the background risks getting a little claustrophobic, hence bringing in recurring characters like Kevin Chapman's Detective Fusco (a dirty cop Reese blackmails into helping him, but later decides to go straight) and Paige Turco's Zoe, a con-artist and political operator, is a good idea. Brett Cullen also recurs as Nathan Ingram, Finch's partner in the creation of the Machine and the public face of its design (hence how Finch is able to operate undercover). Ingram only appears in flashback, in an occasionally surfacing storyline about how the Machine was created.
These ongoing storyline elements make the show more interesting, but are treated with a light touch. From start to finish, the season is primarily concerned with its person-of-interest-of-the-week format and everything else is subservient to that. This means the serialised storylines are usually held off at arm's length which can be refreshing - arguably too many other shows ditch their interesting format too quickly to embrace serialisation, which can devolve into soap opera if the writers are not careful - but also frustrating. Whenever Person of Interest's main story arc starts building any momentum, the show kills it stone dead for another 3-4 episodes of self-contained adventures.
It's fortunate that the self-contained stories are usually pretty good. Reese's one-man army/Batman-without-the-mask spiel and Finch's savant-like IT skills are toned down a bit and complicated by increasingly effective and smarter opponents as the season goes on, to keep things fresh throughout. The serialisation does return with a vengeance in the last few episodes, leading to a hell of an effective cliffhanger that paves the way for the wider-scaled and scoped second season.
The performances of the leads are effective, with Michael Emerson (Lost) especially sympathetic and engaging as the stiff-upper-lipped Finch, whom we learn has made some questionable decisions and is now trying to atone for them. Kevin Chapman makes Fusco likeable and loathsome by turns, and Taraji P. Henson is engaging as Carter, at least after some initial abrasiveness in the character is toned down a bit. More of a mixed bag is Jim Caviezel as Reese. Caviezel seems to have trouble settling on a tone for the character, which to be fair is reflected in the writing. It's very easy to take a character who's supposed to be reserved, analytical and stoic and make them just dramatically inert instead, and the writers and Caviezel make that mistake a few too many times. Whenever Caviezel is stretched with material delving into his character's past or requiring more emotion, he can be quite good, but there's a few too many episodes where he comes across as checked out. Still, he's never terrible.
The show is often mentioned in the same breath as another Abrams project from the same time, Fringe. Both shows are contemporary dramas with science fictional themes laced into them (Fringe much more obviously so, and more upfront), and both shows start off as almost rote procedurals until the creators feel confident to slam down the accelerator on the main story arc, where the shows promptly improve and become more compelling. Both shows also last for five (well, four-and-a-half) seasons. Interestingly, whilst Fringe only ever did okay at best and was on life support for at least its last two seasons, Person of Interest was a much bigger crossover hit and enjoyed a larger viewership, which tailed off significantly towards the end. Both shows are also have a reputation for being somewhat underrated, and have pretty well-regarded endings. The similarities end there, as their stories and aesthetics are quite different, and I do have to say that Fringe after its first season felt like its main story arc had engaged more decisively and interestingly than Person of Interest's.
Still, Person of Interest's first season (***½) starts okay and quickly becomes quite strong, even if Caviezel's performance and the writing can be a little uneven throughout. Both the serialised plots and the stories-of-the-week can be quite good, and the other castmembers are excellent. The tail end of the season hints at a much bigger, more epic story unfolding behind the scenes as well, providing a good impetus to carry on. The show is available on physical media and streaming worldwide.
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