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sheenianniSo my vacation isn’t exactly going as planned (it’s been raining for two days, therefore, no swimming). On the upside, I used the time to finish Season 4 of POI – I’d never have this amount of free time on my hands otherwise.
Okay, how am I supposed to wait until January for the show to pick up again?!! Awwww, I want them back now.
I’m not exactly sure at which point this show grew on me. Since the very first episode, I found it interesting, but it wasn’t love at first sight. But there was a lot to like, so I kept watching…
There are so many things I like about POI. For one thing, I love how they play with moral ambiguity and all the big questions like that. At the beginning of the first season, we see Reese running around shooting people to save the numbers (with Finch in the background), and you can’t help but wonder if his playing vigilante is a good thing or if he’s doing more harm than good. Bigger plots are born later (HR, Elias, Root, Samaritan), but those underlying questions still remain.
Action vs. Inaction? From the top of my head, the team could have killed the congressman; Finch could have let Root kill Elizabeth Bridges (the woman from Hong-Kong who would have unknowingly installed the Trojan horse into Samaritan). They chose to not act and save a human life, and also preserve their own humanity, at a terrible cost to the world. Can the lives of a few be sacrificed for the benefits of many? It’s what the government agencies have been doing all along on the show, and it’s also Samaritan’s approach (if we presume it sees itself as the benevolent dictator).
It’s fascinating to watch Finch and Root at the opposite sides of this question. Which brings me to the way this show has made me sympathize and even care for the most unlikely characters.
It’s easy to like people like Finch or Carter and a lot of shows and books have portrayed a sympathetic “struggling protagonist” like Batman or Neal Caffrey :P , but in the end Person of Interest takes it even further. There is Elias, who isn’t some sort of misguided, misunderstood person despite his benevolent attitude – he’s a mob boss who kills people and wants to rule New York. But he has helped the team on occasion and they have helped him, and eventually they’ve become friends or at least friendly with each other. Then there is the leader of the Vigilance who causes grief, death, mayhem and pretty much helps bring Samaritan to power – and yet we can see where he is coming from and how he really thinks he’s doing the right thing. And let’s not forget about Control – she is domineering, egoistical and even cruel, but she is also trying to do her job the best way she knows. Her proposing to go back to the old Machine instead of Samaritan was a significant moment for me in the Season 4 finale, even though her actions were ultimately futile. Root is a whole chapter on her own.
Then there’s the Machine. We don’t see her except for the blinking red light; we rarely “hear” her, but she is as much a character as anyone else. Just how crazy it is that I’ve come to care for this AI which Finch describes as “cryptic at best and borderline homicidal at its worst”? But the Machine “cares” about people (or as close to it as an AI can), and more than that, we saw her grow and evolve – her first versions, her caring for Finch, their chess matches as a teaching exercise, her “escape” to remain free… It’s impossible to be unmoved, especially when we see her sacrifice herself for the team and eventually witness her heartbreaking talk with Finch at the end as she is “dying”.
I have so many thoughts about this show, but I think I’ll stop here.
On a side note, I really liked the friendship between Reese and Finch, and I wouldn't mind more focus on that in the next season. Plus, do we get Shaw back? Will the Machine be reborn and how? (Even though I silently screamed NOOO! as it "died", it's difficult not to think of the cautionary tale of Samaritan or the other forty-two versions of the Machine, who all tried to either trick or outright murder Finch).
Can it be January already?
Okay, how am I supposed to wait until January for the show to pick up again?!! Awwww, I want them back now.
I’m not exactly sure at which point this show grew on me. Since the very first episode, I found it interesting, but it wasn’t love at first sight. But there was a lot to like, so I kept watching…
There are so many things I like about POI. For one thing, I love how they play with moral ambiguity and all the big questions like that. At the beginning of the first season, we see Reese running around shooting people to save the numbers (with Finch in the background), and you can’t help but wonder if his playing vigilante is a good thing or if he’s doing more harm than good. Bigger plots are born later (HR, Elias, Root, Samaritan), but those underlying questions still remain.
Action vs. Inaction? From the top of my head, the team could have killed the congressman; Finch could have let Root kill Elizabeth Bridges (the woman from Hong-Kong who would have unknowingly installed the Trojan horse into Samaritan). They chose to not act and save a human life, and also preserve their own humanity, at a terrible cost to the world. Can the lives of a few be sacrificed for the benefits of many? It’s what the government agencies have been doing all along on the show, and it’s also Samaritan’s approach (if we presume it sees itself as the benevolent dictator).
It’s fascinating to watch Finch and Root at the opposite sides of this question. Which brings me to the way this show has made me sympathize and even care for the most unlikely characters.
It’s easy to like people like Finch or Carter and a lot of shows and books have portrayed a sympathetic “struggling protagonist” like Batman or Neal Caffrey :P , but in the end Person of Interest takes it even further. There is Elias, who isn’t some sort of misguided, misunderstood person despite his benevolent attitude – he’s a mob boss who kills people and wants to rule New York. But he has helped the team on occasion and they have helped him, and eventually they’ve become friends or at least friendly with each other. Then there is the leader of the Vigilance who causes grief, death, mayhem and pretty much helps bring Samaritan to power – and yet we can see where he is coming from and how he really thinks he’s doing the right thing. And let’s not forget about Control – she is domineering, egoistical and even cruel, but she is also trying to do her job the best way she knows. Her proposing to go back to the old Machine instead of Samaritan was a significant moment for me in the Season 4 finale, even though her actions were ultimately futile. Root is a whole chapter on her own.
Then there’s the Machine. We don’t see her except for the blinking red light; we rarely “hear” her, but she is as much a character as anyone else. Just how crazy it is that I’ve come to care for this AI which Finch describes as “cryptic at best and borderline homicidal at its worst”? But the Machine “cares” about people (or as close to it as an AI can), and more than that, we saw her grow and evolve – her first versions, her caring for Finch, their chess matches as a teaching exercise, her “escape” to remain free… It’s impossible to be unmoved, especially when we see her sacrifice herself for the team and eventually witness her heartbreaking talk with Finch at the end as she is “dying”.
I have so many thoughts about this show, but I think I’ll stop here.
On a side note, I really liked the friendship between Reese and Finch, and I wouldn't mind more focus on that in the next season. Plus, do we get Shaw back? Will the Machine be reborn and how? (Even though I silently screamed NOOO! as it "died", it's difficult not to think of the cautionary tale of Samaritan or the other forty-two versions of the Machine, who all tried to either trick or outright murder Finch).
Can it be January already?
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no subject
Date: 2015-08-18 03:33 pm (UTC)It's interesting what you say about the characters because even though I do love the show, I can't say I feel particularly sympathetic to many of them. I care for Harold and John. And Lionel. And I loved Carter, and miss her a lot. But the others? They're just too much into the dark side for my liking.
I find this show very paradoxal, because it is a rather dark, and pretty violent show, and yet it's a show about saving people's lives (as opposed to just solve their murder), and it's also about redemption.
Oh and apparently, Shaw should come back. Probably not for the whole season, but at least a few episodes.