Grade: B+
Person of Interest is the latest show to boast the JJ Abram’s production credit but what makes it really interesting is that it also touts Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan’s younger brother & writing partner for things like
The Dark Knight &
The Prestige, as its creator & writer. Of course this has set up the show with high expectations for lovers of either Nolan’s or Abram’s works. The great thing is that not only does the premiere episode live up to its hype but it surpasses it with some interesting characters & a very well developed story for a station like CBS.
The series centers around John Reese, played by Jim Caviezel, a former Marine & our person of interest. The show also includes
Lost alum Michael Emerson as Harold Finch, a former tech titan & creator of an advanced terrorist prediction system, & Taraji P. Henson as pesky Detective Carter, the person out to find out who exactly is John Reese & why he is now showing up at a bunch of crime scenes. At the beginning of the episode we are introduced to our hero Reese who is currently spending his time as a grizzled homeless man who likes to drink & beat up wannabe thug kids on the subway. Throughout the episode we are given flash backs to Reese’s former life & probable cause for grisliness. Harold Finch, on the other hand, is a man with a limp & a past that also seems to haunt him but we do not get much on his past besides the little information he decides to divulge to Reese. As the episode unfolds we see the two team up to stop future crimes, not unlike
Minority Report but without all the ridiculous tech & creepy people.
Nolan’s ideas on previous works are apparent throughout the episode, you can just tell that this tracking/prediction system created by Finch is modeled after the system Batman uses in
The Dark Knight & its great to see Nolan expand on the subject of surveillance. Caviezel puts on an above average performance for his role as Reese while Emerson really knocks his role as Finch out of the park.
Person of Interest is clearly out to show that it is not the usual fare of its broadcaster CBS & that procedurals can also have well developed characters & a storyline usually confined to cable networks willing to take the chance. There is no doubt it will be interesting to see where the series takes us & what type of larger picture can develop outside of Detective Carters snooping around.
Ed. Side Note
I wish we could have gotten some more time with grizzly Reese but hopefully we will at least get a flashback dealing with it sometime later in the series.
