Person of Interest 4×03 – Wingman
The past two episodes of Person of Interest was a cooling off period before the real action begins, Wingman featured the story of a Pick-Up Artist, one of the more surprisingly decent ones. Harold and Shaw taps Fusco for this undercover job to get to know the new Number, while John tries to get into his Police Captain’s good graces.
John Reese might be really great with his vigilante work, but his work as a cop gets him lousy reviews especially when he fires his weapon willy nilly in a crowded New York street.
Shaw plays into Harold’s role, as Root taps Harold for a job the Machine tasked for them. As always, its a joy watching Fusco and Shaw work together, its an unlikely friendship that works especially with how much Shaw enjoys teasing Fusco.
The highlight of this episode, though, is watching Harold slip into the role of the mysterious and dangerous Mr. Egret:
Event Shaw gets to show that while she might be playing by the rules, when life and death is on the line she’s still the lethal operative that she was:
It’s interesting how the Machine are making the team handle more roles than they’re used to, and with the upcoming war ahead, there might be a reason for that.
Person of Interest 4×02 – Nautilus
If the season premiere was setting up the set pieces, Nautilus is showing all the fans what season 4 is capable of being and it is nothing short of fantastic. This is also the episode where the show premieres its new title credits.
The biggest change, aside from the graphics in the title credits is Harold’s opening voice over: “We* are being watched…”* he has now included himself as one of the people being watched and its this shift that still has Harold discomfited.
He found the team a new sanctuary, underground and hidden (some fans call it the Batcave, I’m adamant and call it the Turtle Hideout because its more Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtle than Batcave, fight me on this!) but he is still reluctant to rejoin the fight against Samaritan.
His fear and stubbornness is something that’s not easy to circumvent but John tries his best and his current ploy: give Harold a number that he can relate to.
Person of Interest – 4×01 Panopticon
Something awesome, John.
Panopticon:
The concept of the design is to allow a single watchman to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) inmates of an institution without the inmates being able to tell whether or not they are being watched. Although it is physically impossible for the single watchman to observe all cells at once, the fact that the inmates cannot know when they are being watched means that all inmates must act as though they are watched at all times, effectively controlling their own behaviour constantly.
Person of Interest lives in the interesting conceit that it started out as a procedural with trappings of a science fiction deus ex machina engine that slowly became a serialized show that’s now operating on a premise of a sciences fact thanks to Edward Snowden’s revelations about PRISM.
The conceit being that Harold Finch created a massive system that collates and analyzes all surveillance feeds from the government and everything that’s connected to telecommunications and the internet in order to predict when and who will commit acts of terror, except it sees everything. Every premeditated crime that’s about to happen.
Person of Interest has gone through the motions of a Case of the Week procedural with a lot of elements of a serial with fantastic, layered writing with each story building upon the next.
Five Fall Shows 2014
The US Fall Shows are starting now and these are the 5 shows I’m looking forward to watching:
Person of Interest
Person of Interest is one of the top shows I’m looking forward to watching, I didn’t fully commit to the show until season 3 but once I got caught up with the show, its been nothing but fun.
Person of Interest started out about two men setting out to help stop crime with the help of massive surveillance system that can help predict acts of terror and crime. The government uses the surveillance system (simply known in the story as The Machine) to stop acts of terror, while the ‘irrelevant’ crimes are ignored.
This was a show, as the showrunners liked to joke, that started out as science fiction, and now with all the revelation about PRISM is science fact.
One of the reasons I love this show so much is how fantastic the characters are, and the long arc of the story. It was a long form sci fi story masquerading as a procedural and by the third season, the training wheels have come off.
Season 3 ended with a massive loss for the heroes, and I’m so excited to find out how the team of heroes will come back from it.
Elementary
I love the conceit of the show and that being, what if John Watson became Joan Watson, as played by Lucy Liu?
It was a brave premise and one I really loved exploring because first and foremost Elementary is about the partnership between Holmes and Watson, in whatever form they are.
It was also really fun to watch a series that took Sherlock’s addiction seriously and the repercussions of being a smart ass genius. So many shows let their Geniuses go with a light slap on the wrist, but in Elementary Sherlock has to learn to navigate relationships and he’s always held accountable to all his actions.
Lucy Liu certainly holds her own against Jonny Lee Miller’s Sherlock, never giving quarter but offering a real friendship which he seemed to lack growing up.
Sleepy Hollow
Of all the wacky premises out there in mainstream TV, this is the wackiest. Ichabod Crane died 200 years in the past, only to wake up in the present to battle the apocalypse along with Lt. Abbie Mills of Sleepy Hollow PD.
Its wacky in all the ways that involve America’s Found Fathers and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and judging from the premiere, we’re in for an even wackier season.
The Good Wife
This show, this show is a testament to the TV network’s 24 episode program. If you haven’t seen the absolutely fantastic episodes last season, I encourage everyone to go and watch.
Its an ensemble show even if Alicia is front and center and every relationship in that show just pays off so beautifully.
Gotham
This is also something I looked forward to a lot. I would prefer if it were Gotham Central but in lieu of that, I’ll have this. This is Gotham before Bruce Wayne donned the cloak and became Batman. This was the interim between the city falling into darkness, where organized crime and the police sat on a precarious knife edge and Jim Gordon is still coming into his own as the Commissioner everyone knew and loved.
How about you guys? What US Fall shows are you all looking forward to?
TSCC: 2×07 – The Brothers of Nablus
Another fantastic entry for the second season. Sarah Connor Chronicles keeps coming up better and better and I admire the creative team behind this show. TSCC is science fiction and started its roots as a shoot ’em up thriller but TSCC is more than that, it’s become a cerebral and thoughtful drama about faith, freewill and destiny.
I love the pacing of the show, which others might find laborious, I find it refreshing and brave.
HIMYM: Happily Ever After (4×06)
Hey. So, yes. I’ve been neglecting this blog after just one post. Not good. But I’m going to rectify this starting now.
Last episode Stella left Ted at the altar but surprise of all surprises Ted doesn’t react with any sort of anger, in fact he’s very mellow about the whole thing. Most fans find Ted annoying or unlikeable but I’ve never been part of that since I always liked him but this episode really brought it home. I like Ted this way, this really mellow guy from Ohio living in New York.
Hello, World [The Fixer 1×01]
This is my first attempt at a semi-professional type of blogging. I love television and movies, but mostly, television. I’ve been a fan of the telly since I can remember. So, in honor of that (and as suggested by some friends and relatives) I’m trying my hand at maintaining a blog about television. The latest news, reviews and gossip.
I mostly watch American and Brit TV with the occasional foray into anime and KDrama. I’m a sci-fi fan but I’m also open to drama and procedurals. Especially one procedural but more on that later. Since this is about beginnings, I thought I’d start with a show I’ve just started watching.
The Fixer
Episode 1×01
John Mercer (Andrew Buchan) is a government assassin, hired straight from prison after killing his aunt and uncle for child abuse.
On paper, the show reminded me a little of Le Femme Nikita, an American show a few years back about a woman sent to prison and was recruited to be a government agent for a shadowy branch of the government.
teevee junkie 
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