Person of Interest: The New Face of the Thursday Night Line Up on CBS
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November 4, 2011 • Vanessa Gonzalez
Filed under Arts and Entertainment, Television
We start off on Thursday night looking for something interesting to watch, something that can replace the almost flop that CSI was before Ted Danson took it to Wednesday which brought better ratings. We need to see something that totally takes the caliber of CSI and runs with it to a tee. Well look no more, Person of Interest is here, and it is here to stay
Person of Interest, which features Jim Caviziel and Michael Emerson, centers on this idea: would you stop a crime if you knew about it before it was going to be committed.
Caviziel is Reese, a presumed dead CIA agent who got out of the business because he hated killing people and the secrecy of the business. He is considered the most wanted and most dangerous criminal in the city, perhaps, ironically, seeing as he got out of the business to stop being a danger.
Emerson plays an eccentric billionaire genius software maker with a personal tragedy that makes him now walk with a limp (though we are not allowed to know this personal tragedy, we see only bits and pieces of it). He has created a supercomputer with an incredible power. It can predict a crime being committed to any one person, no matter who it is. It tallies the chances of them being involved with certain violent crimes, such as assault or murder.
Emerson, now caught with his personal tragedy, is fueled by the desire to help people. “We created this machine to save everyone, not just one person,” he tells his ex-partner. It is then he enlists Reese’s help, to help those who might not have a chance to go to the police. Together they make a vigilante team that is reminiscent of Batman and Robin. Academy Award winner Taraji P. Henson, who plays the NYPD homicide detective drawn into their work by the debris of casualties behind them, aids in picking up the victims or arresting the criminals.
The show, executive produced by none other than JJ Abrams himself (Super 8, Star Trek), is one that is pure gold. Abrams made a show that keeps you on your toes the entire time.
Even though it is reminiscent of a “good guy, bad guy” drama and a procedural drama it isn’t any of those sorts of mold. It takes you in with that presumption that it will be like another CIA formulated show, and it totally blows you away with the beautiful interwoven tangle of intrigue. Then when you are under the impression that it is a “good guy, bad guy drama,” you are totally thrown off kilter because not even the two main characters are immune to suspicion when we question their motives.
Caviziel is the ultimate hero, the cool and calm one who does his work with almost a resigned air. He is resigned to what he has to do, but he keeps on doing it for the good of the people that he saves. Caviziel brings new life to this persona and makes it his own, claims it, and has us believing in him from the get go.
Emerson is such a high caliber actor in this show. He makes you want to believe in him, in his motives, when in reality we do not know anything at all about him. He as an actor is there to make us believe in him, in Finch, the software maker hit with a personal tragedy that now he walks with a limp. He brings the realism and the understanding into the show, the understanding that there is someone fighting for us, somewhere out there.
The show brings new life to the vigilante drama and succeeds in making you watch until the very end. It remains the new face of the Thursday lineup on CBS and will have you satisfied until the very end.
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