Notes on "Person of Interest"

This is actually a pretty fascinating show. I'm re-watching a few of the first season episodes to catch things I missed before. One thing is that the pilot seems to still be finding the series' "feet" as it were.

Finch's iconic glasses are different, for example (clickable thumbnail):



Also, his computer room is different as well, being in a different library building than the one Finch ends up in for the rest of the series. At some point he also lost the printouts of SSNs from the Machine. (Also clickable)



But the basics were set up and haven't changed: Finch gets a number from the Machine, and Reese swings into action to find out if the person is victim... or perpetrator.

Even though some of the victims are criminals, this show doesn't paint a monolithic picture of criminal activity. Some are people who don't feel they have other options, like Joey Durban in my icon collection (Well that, and he's cute :P ). Others are straight-up jerks, like Rick Morris, who was stalking someone else.

The series, in the second season, has moved into deeper and more dangerous areas, akin to the introduction of the Jem'hadar as THE threat in Deep Space 9. Here, THE threat is a combination of Root (who wants to "free" the Machine), and a shadowy group who has employed Kara Stanton to attack the Machine (and Harold Finch), as well as the legitimate government authorities who eliminate dissemination of knowledge of the Machine with extreme prejudice.

If PoI gets renewed for a third season we will probably see an extension of the anti-Machine arc into that season. If not, the second season finale will probably wrap up a lot of the outstanding loose ends in this series. :)

Notes on "Breakout Kings"

I watched both seasons of this recently, and I really liked it! Amid the "Chase the escapee of the week" theme there were longer, more involved character arcs. I like how the team of Charlie, Ray, Jules, Erica, Lloyd and Shea grew close to each other over the course of season 1 and how hard they all took it when Charlie was killed.

Interestingly, I felt the smaller team with Ray at the head somehow clicked better and more cohesively than the Charlie-led team in Season 1. I think part of that was because the actors themselves hit their stride, and that the show had more time to devote to each person in the team.

I want to give a special shout-out to Julianne (Jules), who's kinda the Felicity Smoak of this show. :)



She's geeky, somewhat socially awkward, but gets shit done like you wouldn't believe :D

The series finale ended about the right way - really wrapping up the loose ends of a lot of character arcs and leaving the viewer to think on what the prisoners might be deciding in a kind of "the Lady or the Tiger" kind of way. :)