Person Of Interest – Even if you paid close attention, you still got twisted

WowZah. This was an action-packed premiere filled with somewhat calculated drama and convoluted plot twists.

But … Person Of Interest has got an interesting premise:

“Eight million people. You know what they all have in common: None of them knows what happens next. Someone is murdered in New York City every 18 hours. At the end of the day, one of these people will be gone.” – Mr. Finch

“There are things that happen to people every day. You can’t stop that.” – John Reese

“What if you could? Not the things that happen in the heat of the moment, but so many crimes are planned … days, weeks in advance. What if you could stop those? I’ve got a list … a list of people who are about to be involved in very bad situations.” – Mr. Finch

John Reese (James Caviezel) is an ex-CIA hitman. Mr. Finch (Michael Emerson) has apparently followed Reese and sought him out for this own devices. Finch is a brilliant millionaire who once worked for the government and now monitors people whose lives’ details could possibly reveal inevitable crimes … whether against them or otherwise.

With lines such as “You left the government because they lied to you … I never will,” I can’t help but give Finch a nod for his intrigue. But he’s not as convincing as you’d expect. He can persuade you … but not overwhelmingly so. And only to a point. I enjoy the characters Emerson portrays, but he gets lost in all the complexity of this vehicle.

Same goes for Caviezel. His cliched down-and-out government assassin with too many unique abilities fits the bill a little too neatly. The thing is, he definitely needed all those abilities in order to accommodate all the twists and turns this episode pulled out of its hat.

That “list of people” Finch mentioned? He got if from a government system he developed to monitor cell phones and other communications after the tragedies of 9/11. Finch’s system helped to shed light on all sorts of crimes — relevant and irrelevant. At some point, Finch got a conscience and decided to do something about them … especially where there were lives at stake. He mysteriously refers to himself as a “concerned third party” in the game. We’ll see down the line how this pans out in the grand scheme of things.

Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? But this program had me confused. A lot of the action was pretty in its own way, but damn … was some of it baffling. Literally. I want to like Person Of Interest, but I don’t want to have to work at it in order to do so.

“The world thinks we’re both dead,” Finch told Reese at one point. We’ll see. After all, J.J. Abrams‘ name is attached to this new fall entry. That could mean anything going forward.

Notes:

• Spiffy background music swirls in and out of the program. I caught a lot of nods from Heat with DeNiro and Pacino.
• The way Finch threw out needed identities, credit cards and more at Reese added to the way-too-cushy feel of the program for me.
• Reese’s past life with the CIA afforded him a leg up on his initial mission. A bit too easily and comfortably for my taste. I’m being picky, but I want to see more “messy” in this show. Things are just too systematic. I trust it to flesh itself out in the coming weeks.
• I do like Reese playing a kind of asshole, however. But … I didn’t like some of the indiscriminate killing he committed.
• Finch: “Sooner or later, both of us will probably wind up dead. Actually dead this time. I said I’d tell you the truth … didn’t say you’d like it.” If this series doesn’t step up and find itself, that statement may be truer than one thinks.

Clacked by Michael Noble
on Sep 23, 2011 @ 11:41 EST5EDT