Series Rewatch: Person of Interest
Episodes: S1E1 – S1E4
Summary from Wikipedia
Person of Interest is an American science fiction crime drama television series that aired on CBS from September 22, 2011, to June 21, 2016. Its five seasons comprise 103 episodes. The series was created by Jonathan Nolan; executive producers were Nolan, J. J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Greg Plageman, Denise Thé, and Chris Fisher.
The series centers on a mysterious reclusive billionaire computer programmer, Harold Finch (Michael Emerson), who has developed a computer program for the federal government known as “The Machine” that is capable of collating all sources of information to predict terrorist acts and to identify people planning them. The Machine also identifies perpetrators and victims of other premeditated deadly crimes; however, because the government considers these “irrelevant”, Finch programs the Machine to delete this information each night. Anticipating abuse of his creation, Finch included a backdoor into the Machine. Tormented by the “irrelevant” deaths that might have been prevented, he eventually decides to use his backdoor to act covertly. To escape detection, he directs the Machine to provide him with only a tiny fragment of its data: the social security number of such a “person of interest”. This may be a victim, a perpetrator, or an innocent bystander caught up in lethal events. The first episode shows how Finch recruited John Reese (Jim Caviezel)—a former Green Beret and CIA agent, now presumed dead—to investigate the person identified by the number the Machine has provided, and to act accordingly. As time passes, others join the team.
From its first episode, the series raises an array of moral issues, from questions of privacy and “the greater good”, the concept of justifiable homicide, and problems caused by working with limited information program. At the end of the program’s first season, Finch discovers that the Machine has achieved sentience, introducing questions, from human oversight and other issues inherent in the use of artificial intelligence, to the complex ethical questions which the series addresses.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_Interest_(TV_series)
My Take:
This is a fascinating show. It has tight writing, masterful acting. This show’s pilot is one of the best TV pilots I’ve ever seen. They seemed to have a hold of the overall themes of the show from the jump. They easily introduced the characters and even managed to make the exposition dump scene about the Machine to be engrossing. The ethical questions about such a surveillance device are provocative. And on the rewatch, I am seeing the beginning strands of long story arcs laid down earlier than I remembered.
TL;DR:
Person of Interest is a great show and deserves a watch if you haven’t seen it. I am looking forward to continuing my rewatch of this series.