Reviewed by Kevin Finnerty
“I’m offering you the chance to be there in time.” That’s Mr. Finch (Michael Emerson), a mysterious billionaire scientist who’s recruiting John Reese (James Caviezel) – an ex CIA operative – to help him save people from violent crimes in the pilot episode of the new CBS drama-thriller Person of Interest.
After 9-11, Mr. Finch, if that’s his real name, helped create a high intelligence super computer for Homeland Security to go through everyone’s social security numbers in New York. The purpose was to analyze who’s most likely to be a target of terrorism, or a terrorist himself, and who is about to become a victim of a violent crime or commit one. Homeland Security, only being interested in stopping the relevant threats (terrorism) and not caring about the irrelevant threats (individual violent crimes), had Finch set the computer to erase non-terrorism material after 24 hours. This act has been eating away at Finch’s soul, knowing he could have helped keep innocent citizens safe from horrific crimes and instead deleted their only hope.
Now, in present day, Finch still has a back door into the computer he designed and created and decides to use the discarded list. He sends his new ally, Reese, to find the person who is either the target or the enemy.
When the computer generates the social security number of a young prosecutor, Reese has to follow her and observe to see if she is the potential victim or the perpetrator and stop the crime from happening. Reese, who until being recruited by Finch was hiding in plain sight as a homeless person from his ex-agency friends, finds the opportunity enticing. Being able to make a difference and not having to deal with any red tape or government officials appeals to the ex-agent.
In episode 2 titled “Ghosts,” Reese and Finch get the social security number of a young teenage girl who was supposedly killed two years ago. This causes Reese to begin to question the infallibility of the computer. “The Machine is never wrong,” insists Finch. After the two of them start to investigate the horrific massacre of the teen’s family, they discover her body was never found. The two men quickly realize that she is on the run, hiding from whoever had her family killed and is still looking for her. This puts Reese and Finch against not just average thugs but a professional hit man.
Person of Interest is an intriguing, original, drama/thriller that is hands-down one of the best new fall 2011 series on television. This is a sharply written, well-acted show with an excellent cast. James Caviezel gives a pitch perfect performance as Reese the ex CIA assassin who’s truly lost and without purpose until meeting Finch. Distrusting anyone and everyone around him because of tragedies that happened to him in the past but still yearning to make a difference for the better in the world, he tracks the potential targets and fights the villains with fierce determination and menace.
Caviezel’s delivery of his lines to the predators in the show have just the right inflection, and at times a little humor reminiscent of the famous secret agent 007. A perfect example of this is in the scene in episode 2 when the mastermind behind the girl’s family’s murder is driving away from closing a deal only to be crashed into by a big diesel truck. Caviezel slowly gets out of the truck, walks over to the trapped injured villain and says, “You should have watched where you were going.” It’s truly crowd-pleasing.
Michael Emerson is simply great as Mr. Finch, the rich computer genius who has found his soul and is trying to use the technology he created to spy on people to now save them. He’s the one character in the series that has a long and extremely complicated background, including his severe injury to his back. The audience only gets to see glimpses of the haunted past of these two men.
The show has a strong cloak and dagger style and feel to it. There’s a heightened sense of paranoia, as well with shots of all the characters at times being viewed on hidden security cameras. The action scenes are solid but toned down for prime time television viewing.
Suspenseful and engaging, Person of Interest is an exciting, surprising spy thriller that will keep the audience fascinated to discover who these two heroes really are, while rooting for them to take down the bad guys in every episode.
GRADE: B
Person of Interest debuted on CBS on September 22, 2011.
