Contains some small spoilers.

2021/10/03

See Also 10th Anniversary BLOG

Few months back I wrote the 10^th Anniversary blog for Person of Interest, also called POI. When I wrote that blog, like with Star Trek: Enterprise, I got the POI fever again! Last time I watched in 2017, without my partner, this time she wanted to watched it again also. When I watch something with my partner it normally means it will take longer, but in this case this has not yet been the case because she wants to see it almost every day of the week!

As I said, I got the POI fever again, this is one of my favorite shows of the last decade for sure but I understand if some of you say that this isn’t really sci-fi. Certainly the first season it is more like procedural show but with the following seasons this gradually changes. In 2011, when the show started, The Machine probably was still sci-fi-ish, but 10 years later this is of course no longer sci-fi and probably not like in the show, but it is for sure that this is happening for a number of years now in our present day life.

What of course is a major plus for this show is the main cast! In season one there are only four main characters but they are all very interesting and of course we also get to meet Root whom later on will become a main character on the show. Jim Caviezel is John Reese, he used to be a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces and CIA, throughout the season, we see in backflashes a bit of what kind of a man he was. In the present day he lives on the streets, no longer has a purpose, but he still has his fighting skills. Harold Finch (Michael Emerson), is the one who built the Machine, but he soon finds out the Machine cannot distinct sorts of crime, so Finch divided this in relevant and irrelevant, relevant is to be followed by the agencies, irrelevant are the cases Finch and Reese want to follow-up. So he recruits John Reese who is called by law enforcement, the man in the suit.

Detective Joss Carter (Taraji P. Henson) at first is assigned to capture the man in the suit but it won’t take long before Carter starts to work with Harold Finch and John Reese. Joss Carter, a strong female detective who also has a history in the military, her specialty was interrogation.

Lionel Fusco is also a detective, a dirty cop who Reese also recruits. But in a different way than Detective Joss Carter, Reese respects Carter but this is not the case, at first, with Lionel Fusco. Reese uses him anyway he sees fit. Like Joss Carter, Lionel Fusco also has a son.

So the first season, it starts out pretty procedural but immediately I found this show interesting, mostly because of the characters and during the first season, very quickly you do see story arcs being built. Like HR, Human Resources, FBI, Elias and also the history of how Finch and his former partner Nathan Ingram (Brett Cullen) came to built the Machine after 9/11. In the 3^rd episode the name “Elias” (Enrico Colantoni) already is being mentioned. He becomes an important recurring character although he only is in 24 episodes out of 103! Of course there is another story arc which began in season one, that of Root (Amy Acker). In episode 13 “Root Cause”, you do not see the face of Root but by the time of the season finale “Firewall” you do!

Some interesting recurring characters of the first season definitely is Zoe Morgan (Paige Turco). Zoe is a fixer, when Reese and Finch save her at one point (first appearance episode 1x06 “The Fix”), she returns the favor and helps them out from time to time. Nathan Ingram (Brett Cullen), is the co-creator of the Machine, and the founder of IFT., he also is a friend of Finch and Nathan really is shocked by the fact that the Machine qualifies people who are in danger of a “normal” crime as “irrelevant”. Of course Elias is also a very interesting character, a bad guy but still one with a code who can be hard but also can show mercy. Of course we all know Enrico Colantoni from the movie Galaxy Quest where plays such hilarious role. Other interesting recurring characters are Officer Patrick Simmons (Robert John Burke), creepy guy who works for/in HR. Mark Snow (Michael Kelly), former partner of John Reese at the CIA. Also Kara Stanton (Annie Parisse), also a former partner of Reese and Snow, quite an annoying character but it means the actress does her job well I suppose.

The Episodes:

There is only one episode in this first season that I find a bit bland 1x16 “Risk”, it’s about Wallstreet. And although I find this one less interesting, it is still an important episode heavily linked to Elias. It’s certainly not awful but it was kinda so so. The best season one episodes: 1x09 “Get Carter” where Elias has a price on detective Carter’s head. 1x21 “Many Happy Returns” where Finch gives Reese the day off, for a reason of course. And also the season one finale where Root makes her appearance 1x23 “Firewall”. But overall the season is quite good, these 3 episode I rate at a 9/10, most other episodes in season one, 7.5/10 or even an 8/10.

Final Word:

As said earlier, season one certainly feels more procedural, like shows like NCIS, CSI and so on, but in my humble opinion, this changes towards the end of the first season. Person of Interest has lots of rewatch value, I believe much more rewarding than shows like NCIS because of the many story-arcs, this is actually going somewhere, not a neat bow at the end of every episode. Person of Interest is very much becoming a reality today, which scares me more than I’d like to admit.

Screencaps taken from: Recapguide.com