Person Of Interest is one of my favorite shows of all time with an engrossing story, a likable cast, and some of the best escalation in any TV show I've seen. Season 1 may be a bit on the simple and procedural side, but it does a great job at laying the groundwork for the better and more exciting later seasons.
Season 1 of Person Of Interest starts off with a simple premise. John Reese, a presumed dead CIA agent, teams up with a reclusive billionaire named Harold Finch to use a government machine that he designed, aptly named The Machine, to stop crimes before they occur. There's an interesting twist in that Reese and Finch only learn who's involved in the crime rather than if they're the victim or the perpetrator, but most of the season follows this fairly procedural format. It can get a bit repetitive fairly quickly, and I totally get if you'd lose interest in the show so early. However, Season 1 introduces a bunch of interesting plot threads that surface every once in a while, from a police officer named Carter who finds a fascination with the two, to an elusive hacker named Root, to the interesting backstories of Finch and Reese, to a mob boss named Elias, to a group of corrupt officers named HR. Some of my favorite episodes of the season focus on these subplots, and the way they slowly progress throughout the season is immensely satisfying. I also really like how the season slowly and carefully introduces a sci-fi element, foreshadowing The Machine having sentience before the season finale all but confirms it.
As for the characters, you might not think much of Reese and Finch at first. They have flashback scenes scattered throughout the season, but they also don't seem to have that much to their character. However, Person Of Interest is amazing at subtly introducing character development, and watching the two leads slowly gain trust in each other is incredibly fun. By the final few episodes of the season, I was surprised to find that I did in fact care about Reese and Finch, along with side characters Carter and Fusco. Elias is another highlight, despite being an antagonist, he's easily the most fun character to watch thanks to Enrico Colantoni obviously having a great time in the role. I also thought the action scenes are pretty great throughout, though Reese ends up heading most of them, they're all super frantic and exciting. Thematically, Season 1 is fairly basic, but it introduces its themes of corruption, paranoia, and artificial intelligence for the later seasons to explore even further.
Witness: This was the episode that helped me fall in love with the series, for sure. After six fairly basic procedural episodes, Witness finally introduces us to the elusive Elias, albeit with a twist. Reese spends the whole episode trying to save someone only to learn it's the same exact mob boss they and Carter have been trying to track down. It's a brilliantly-executed twist that shows how Person Of Interest may not be the structured procedural series I initially thought it was.
Number Crunch: This midseason finale starts off fairly standard with Reese and Finch having to save multiple people at the same time. However, the main plotline suspiciously ends ten minutes early, culminating in an absolutely bonkers cliffhanger which has Carter finally meet Reese and Finch in person only to save them from getting killed.
Baby Blue: This episode was an absolute gut-punch. Reese and Finch trying to save a baby is fun and cute at first, but when they strike an alliance with Elias, pretty much everything falls apart. The final ten minutes are devastating and intense as Elias tricks Reese into revealing his target's location and Carter quits trying to help out Team Machine.
Flesh And Blood: The Elias storyline comes to an action-packed and exciting finale. It was a lot of fun to see Carter try to save five mob bosses, and the final battle with Elias is incredibly satisfying and badass. Of course, Elias had to have a victory of his own, but otherwise, his defeat was cathartic and easily one of the season's high points.
Firewall: Person Of Interest pretty much always nailed its season finales, but this one was particularly satisfying in how it brought together the remaining plot threads, from HR taking a massive hit, to Fusco and Carter clearing things up, to the reappearances of Alicia and Zoe, to the shocking ending where Root reveals herself and kidnaps Finch. It has great action, crazy twists, along with that aforementioned confirmation that The Machine is artificially intelligent.
Overall, while it may be a bit basic and procedural, Season 1 of Person Of Interest does a great job of introducing the characters and laying the groundwork for the excellent later seasons of the show.
3/5 Stars
No comments:
Post a Comment