Person of Interest Posts Are All Up

~ Jenny

The Person of Interest posts are all back up. I think they’re all linked so that you can just click on the next one at the bottom of each post, but I know they’re all linked in both a Page (look under the Post Series list in the top menu) and in this post. I did promise to go back and do another post on the finale, but reading the post I already did almost put me under. This series is so excellent, so involving, so beautifully crafted, and so true, that I don’t think I can write any more about it. But the posts do talk about craft, so they’re valuable for that, too.

See, I worked on Working Wednesday.

15 thoughts on “Person of Interest Posts Are All Up”

  1. So glad these are back up. I actually just came here to check for them because I’m re-watching the series on Netflix now and just finished season 2. I had forgotten how early so many things were introduced. Elias showed up in episode 7, then Root in episode 13. Still love Zoe. I would have watched a show that was all about her. Kind of afraid to watch season 3 given what happens. That will be rough and I’ll have to do it on a day off with a large chocolate supply to comfort me while I cry.

    1. I can’t watch that episode. But I must have seen “The Devil’s Share” at least a dozen times. I just watched it again tonight. Along with 4C and the one-percenter episode and the Root scenes from Wingman. So good.

      1. One Percent was a lot of fun. And then I watched All In – I had completely forgotten that Harold gave that insanely expensive broken watch to the number so he could buy the diner where he met his wife. It was lovely.

        Watching Relevance again has been one of the highlights so far. I may head for my Life DVDs after I finish Person of Interest just for more Sarah Shahi.

  3. It’s interesting to see how thoroughly Westworld didn’t do what made PoI so good, despite sharing one of their head writers, Jonathan Nolan. The other PoI showrunner, Greg Plageman, has much more experience with crime procedurals, and it looks like that had more impact on keeping PoI from going off the rails than we thought. (Nina Tassler’s network notes were also likely a big influence, as she was responsible for Carter getting brought into the fold much earlier, and her one season of Supergirl was notably superior to the ones that came after, on a different network.)

    The weird thing is that Nolan has been doing Westworld with his wife, Lisa Joy, who has genre procedural experience from Burn Notice. So how did all of that get lost in the nonsense of “we will change the story if the people on Reddit predict the plot twists?”

    1. Argh. That’s the problem with basing your story on plot twists. It’s the old Surprise vs Suspense thing, and the suspense is always better. As long as the story is based on character truth, people will watch/read over and over even though they know the reversals are coming. The key isn’t to surprise the reader, it’s to make watching/reading this characters so compelling that it’s not what happens, it’s how it happens. I know exactly what happens in “The Devil’s Share,” and I still rewatch it and ache with the characters every time. I’ve re-read Thief of Time so many times I’ve lost track and it’s still a delight. It’s never about the surprise, surprise is a one-off and any clever reader can usually figure it out; it’s always about the character in motion.

      Makes me crazy.

  6. So good, sometimes it was the little things like when Root showed up on a motorbike needing Shaw for an adventure and Reese wishing he’d gone too when he got stuck body guarding Or big things like how Finch gets Reese a doctor. Logan Pierce was one of my favourite characters and I think Razgovor was practically a perfect episode.

    1. The show had a bit of a “grim and gritty” image to it, so it was always delightful how they would stick these tropey bits in completely deadpan. Accidental baby acquisition. Finch and Reese delivering exposition while giving Bear a bath. Fusco’s supermodel adventure. Leon Tao.

      1. Root showing up in a wedding dress, Finch threatening a guard with a briefcase and a fitbit, All the ladies turning up armed for a date with a possible serial killer, Shaw trying to recruit a jewel thief to their cause with no money and certain death as an incentive.Nathan telling Finch, we agreed you’d do all the work and I’d get all the glory, but it’s exhausting. I have to go find my boxset

        1. Reese finding the guys who attacked him in the subway buying guns.
          Carter taking the hood off after saving Elias and Elias saying, “Isn’t this a funny old world?”
          Reese meeting Zoe “Who wouldn’t want to take her out?” double meaning.
          Shaw’s entry into the series.
          Shaw and Gen.
          Shaw and Root.
          Fusco on the phone with Shaw after she saves his son.
          “Where’s Sills?” “He’s in your trunk, Lionel.”
          Finch pretending to be a badass arms dealer.
          4C “Mr. Tall Dark and Stormy.”
          Carter and Fusco realizing they’re both working for Finch.
          If/Then/Else

          I could go on. Superb television.

  7. the link for 3-6 seems to be broken. Not that I am binge reading or anything.

    1. For some reason, I did not publish that one. Well, there are a lot of them.

      Should work now, thank you for the head’s up.

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