TV Review: Person of Interest

daniel cohen looks at the new action series …

Plot: A rich scientist named Finch (Michael Emerson) develops technology to predict crimes before they happen, using only social security numbers. While the technology doesn’t tell them exactly when or where the crime will occur, they know one of the potential victims or perpetrators involved. Finch hires a skilled ex-government agent (James Caviezel) to solve the crimes before they happen.

So we got the guy who played Jesus (James Caviezel) and Ben Linus from Lost (Michael Emerson) in a show created by Jonathan Nolan, co-writer of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Sounds like a pretty good line-up, right? Does it deliver? It does indeed. This is a solid pilot. There are a few elements that did irritate me though, but only slightly.

The premise is pretty straight forward. Emerson plays Finch, a wealthy scientist who creates a machine that can predict crimes before they happen, a la Minority Report. Instead of pool balls that roll down a fun slide, though, it’s just a big machine. They don’t get all the information, just one of the people involved, and they go from there. Finch hires Caviezel’s character, John Reese, a super bad ass ex-agent to solve these things. There you go.That’s it.

The biggest problem I have is this random machine. It’s barely explained, very cryptic. They go into no detail about how all this works. I also hate the choppy security camera like transitions between scenes that are certainly linked to the machine somehow. It’s just annoying, like the show is bragging about how they know what’s going on, but you don’t. Now certainly, it’s only the pilot, and they do hint that more of an explanation of this machine is coming, but still…it’s just thrown in here half-assed.

The good news is you can look past this because of how good the two leads are. Michael Emerson is awesome. His voice is always fascinating, but we already know that from watching him in Lost. You just want to listen to him talk.

But the man who steals the show is Caviezel. The pilot goes out of its way to show the audience that this guy is a total bad ass. Reese is given a super cliché background, but that’s alright. He was always fun to watch, and Caviezel really does a phenomenal job of selling this guy’s intensity. One of the highlights is this back and forth he has with a cop (Kevin Chapman) in the back seat of a car. You get a real good depiction of his character there. And because it’s Jonathan Nolan, I couldn’t help but compare Caviezel’s performance to Christian Bale early on in Batman Begins. I’m telling you, he has the same facial expressions and scary look when he fights. And not only that, Reese is dressed as a homeless guy at one point, and he’s identical to when Bruce Wayne dressed as a homeless guy. It’s an exact clone. Caviezel was easily the best part of the pilot for me.

Nolan’s script is also very tight. You jump right into the action. And besides my complaint about the machine, very little set-up is needed for you to get involved with these characters. The first storyline involving this DA (Natalie Zea) wasn’t too predictable either, it kept me guessing. It looks like the show will gear more towards every episode being a singular plot rather than one continuous storyline week to week.

For now, Finch and Reese are the only intriguing characters, but there were a couple of other cops played by Kevin Chapman and Taraji P. Henson who showed promise as supporting roles. Emerson and Caviezel alone will at least keep me invested for a few more episodes. Hopefully there will be more solid characters and continued good storytelling. This is certainly a strong jumping off point though.

Rating: 7 out of 10 (Good)