TV Series Review : Person of Interest

Synopsis : 

PERSON OF INTEREST is a crime thriller about an ex-CIA agent and a mysterious billionaire who prevent violent crimes by utilizing an all-seeing machine that can predict the events before they happen. Although John Reese and Harold Finch have successfully prevented numerous crimes thanks to The Machine’s omniscience, the team was unable to stop the malevolent artificial intelligence known as Samaritan from coming online. Brought to life by Greer, head of the private technology corporation Decima, Samaritan has the full power of the U.S. government behind it and is using those resources to hunt Finch, Reese and the hacker, known as Root. The trio, along with Det. Lionel Fusco, suffered a major loss when Samaritan’s operatives wounded and captured Sameen Shaw, their comrade-in-arms. Upon gaining full autonomy, Samaritan set its sights on destroying The Machine, which now exists only as a few lines of source code in a briefcase held by the team. On the run and without access to The Machine’s intel, the team must find a way to continue saving lives as they attempt to reboot The Machine and fight back against impossible odds.

Review : 

I really like this series after Suits. The concept is simple but able to distinguished itself from other crime thriller like NCIS, Hawai 5-0, Criminal Minds, etc. The inclusion of "Machine" is what makes the story unique. The story focus on the plot but still care about characters development. We can see Harold and John past via flash back. Because of that, we understand why they do what they do right now. You can say the story is intriquing and pick your curiosity until the end of each episodes

I like the main characters John Reese played by Jim Caviezel and Harold Finch played by Michael Emerson. Besides another great character is Detective Joss Carter played by Taraji P Henson. They played their characters very well and have great chemistry. The relationship are amazing too. There's no black and white here. Everyone do what they believe is the right thing to do because of their past experiences. Unfortunately, the story become less crime drama after the inclusion of rival organization. The rating have been downhill after that too.

I respect the producer and writer decision to make it more interesting and bigger. But unfortunately it was done at the expense of great crime drama thriller story. Worse the resignation of Joss Carter (because Taraji P Henson doesn't renew the contract) also make the story less interesting. Some people like the relationship between Root as psychopathic hacker and Shaw as assassin, but personally I don't like it. They try to recreate the relationship between John and Harold but it doesn't work. Great crime thriller drama doesn't need complicated character but simple and interesting character to complement each other not over shadow each other. 

The good thing is I like the ending. It was quite a bitter sweet one. John sacrifice is appropriate based on his character. At the first episode we know that he is a mess but due to Harold interference, he finds meaning to his life. Now at the end, he acknowledge that Harold is his best friend and it's better for him to die to protect his best friend and people he care about. 

Rating : 9 of 10 (season 1), 6 of 10 (season 2-5)   

Regards, 
Angela