Person Of Interest

What’s it about?

Person of Interest follows a former CIA operative recruited by a software billionaire to intervene in crimes predicted by an advanced surveillance system.

Starring

Jim Caviezel, Michael Emerson, Taraji P. Henson, Kevin Chapman, Amy Acker, Sarah Shahi

An Introduction to Person Of Interest

The show’s initial ‘person of interest’ is John Reese (Jim Caviezel), an ex-CIA and Special Forces operative, now a shell of a man after the death of his lady love. A lost and desolate figure, he has been drinking himself into oblivion on the subway to avoid the pain of his loss.

Harold Finch (Lost’s Michael Emerson) is a reclusive genius, responsible for creating a super-advanced computer system for the government. Once unleashed, its mission was looking for evidence of impending terrorist threats, accessing everything from traffic cams and cellphones through to databases and the internet to highlight trouble probability.

Affectionately known as “The Machine”, it was so good at its job that it spotted other things too – ordinary citizens about to be involved in serious, life-changing situations – sometimes as victim, sometimes as perpetrator, providing only a social security number as an identifier. The powers-that-be deemed this non-national security information as superfluous and irrelevant, something Finch was increasingly uncomfortable with.

What if the Machine could covertly forward those ‘irrelevant’ numbers directly to Finch? Maybe with a little hands-on help, there could be a way to intercept those situations to stop them happening.

On the subway, an apparent vagrant single-handedly floors a gang of tooled-up troublemakers with his bare hands, captured on surveillance camera. Well, hello there!

Summary

“You could help me stop what’s about to happen… the question is, will you?”

Person Of Interest was written by screenwriting legend Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight, Interstellar, Westworld), with producing legends J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk (Lost, Fringe, Star Trek reboot, Star Wars Episode VII+) among its executive producers.

Person Of Interest starts as a good-value procedural crime-fighting show, before slowly and surely transitioning into an increasingly intense, conspiracy-laden science fiction drama. The ‘numbers’ (individuals that the Machine highlights) are nicely unpredictable, particularly as they could equally be the cause of trouble or the recipient.

The main characters of Harold Finch and John Reese are likable and enjoyably contrasting, one an introverted man of numbers and the other a moody man of action. The wider cast includes principled detective Carter (Empire’s Taraji P. Henson) and the more self-serving detective Fusco (Kevin Chapman). As events become increasingly complex, many wildcards join the mix, most notably Root (Angel’s Amy Acker) and Sameen Shaw (Chicago Fire’s Sarah Shahi).

Person Of Interest evolves as it progresses, with events and encounters becoming more and more challenging, while season-spanning arcs begin to emerge with much wider implications, and not just for our heroes. As the odds begin to stack up, can they really make a difference that matters? Fate is waiting…

Check out the Season 1 Trailer here: