2021/08/27

10 years ago, on September 22, 20211, the first episode aired on CBS. It ran for five seasons, four full seasons and one shortened season of 13 episodes, which was the final season. There were 103 episodes in total. The creator Jonathan Nolan who is also responsible for Memento, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar and many more.

I believe for me Person of Interest is one of my favorite TV shows of the last decade. It’s a crime show, with a touch of SCI-FI. Although I believe today this isn’t SCI-FI at all anymore, this is happening all over the world as we speak today, at least the part about “the machine”. Anyways 10 years ago it still sounded like SCI-FI but I now believe (and I think 10 years ago too) that this wasn’t SCI-FI back then either but nowadays more evolved and more visible.

So there were a number of factors why this became a fan favorite of me and many others like me. The most important one is the cast! At first 4 characters and then they added 2 more of the finest actors out there which made Person of Interest so believable. Jim Caviezel was John Reese, a troubled man when the show starts with not much left for him to do, living and looking like a wanderer but Harold Finch, played by Michael Emerson, sees the perfect candidate in him with his desire to save at least a few people of whom he believes, are worth saving which, for The Machine, are irrelevant numbers. Finch built and  designed the machine with his friend Nathan Ingram (Brett Cullen), it is a computer system for a secret operation within the United States government known as "Northern Lights". Finch is an odd fellow, at first Reese does not know anything about him and Finch is not really forthcoming about that either. Michael Emerson played this character brilliantly.

The third character is of course detective Joss Carter (Taraji P. Henson), a detective, a single mother of one son, who gets involved with John Reese and Finch. At first she is trying to catch Reese but soon she starts working with them. Really like this character, real shame she exited in the 3^rd season of the show. Lionel Fusco (Kevin Chapman), started out as a character which seemed to be not there for the long whole, he was a dirty cop and Reese treated him as vermin. It took awhile but Fusco also joined the team. Fusco is the “normal” man, okay he has done bad things but he is trying to do better.

Two female characters joined the team, first one Amy Acker who plays Root. At first she works against the team, she really is seen as a adversary but at some point she also joins team Finch/Reese. Amy Acker, I love her in everything, she is such an amazing actress. First saw her in Angel, back in 1999-2004, after that I’ve seen her in many shows, she is one of my favorite TV actresses, although last few years I lost her a bit. Last but certainly not least, Sameen Shaw, played by Sarah Shahi. She also joins the team although not without a fight! Shaw has no emotion, hard to keep a character with no emotion interesting but Sarah Shahi had no problems with that, she became also one of my favorite characters…in fact they all became my favorite characters! Just brilliantly cast!

As I said, the cast is the most important part of Person of Interest to become a personal favorite of mine. But of course that is the main ingredient of any TV show, if the cast isn’t perfect, the show isn’t either. Other point I love about Person of Interest is the multiple story-arcs: The Machine; Samaritan; Decima Technologies; Vigilance; HR and of course Elias. Most of these story-arcs sounds familiar to me of course but I have to admit I had to search a little bit about “Decima Technologies” but at as I read about it here, I had this – a-haa – moment. I love story-arcs and although there are a number of standalone episodes, most of them still point out to one of the story-arcs mentioned above. And as a result the characters evolve also which is ultimately the most important reason to binge a certain TV show. If a character remains mostly the same from pilot to finale, he or she is simply not interesting as a character to me.

On some level I think this show was fresh in terms of the premise but of course it is still good guys against the bad guys, trying to help the helpless, the less fortunate. This is usually what we apparently as a viewer want to see, so in that regard Person of Interest is not much different than any other crime shows but of course “The Machine” is that what differs it from the rest, makes it more interesting than other crime shows like NCIS, CSI and so on.

Physical Media:

What is of course common knowledge is that Person of Interest has been released on DVD as well as Blu-ray world wide but what I did not know till now, is that there also have been 4 soundtracks released on CD (also digital). The Original Soundtrack, which seems to be season one, is not clear to me. Also season 2 has been released and finally also seasons 3 & 4 as one release! Only season five is missing, which is a shame, not to be able to complete the (CD) set.

Final Word:

I still miss this show, I am grateful that this show was given 5 seasons and it did get a proper ending. Of course I can rewatch it on my Blu-ray copies but it’s a special show, rare, it’s not like these kinds of show come by every year. It is definitely in my top 10 of the last decade, together with shows like Fringe, The Expanse, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Dark Matter. 10 years, time goes by so fast, it’s been off the air for 5 years now (2016) but Person of Interest has a big rewatch factor, because of the great characters and the many story-arcs I was talking about earlier. It is so much more fullfilling rewatching this than a show like CSI or NCIS.