Person of Interest: The Perfect Mark

A perfect episode!  Finch and Reese featured and joined by Carter, Shaw and Fusco to help solve a real mystery. 

We have a hypnotist who is bilking wealthy clients out of their money by stealing password information while they're under.  This guy is able to turn on the charm and even when he is totally being a eel, you want to like him.

Unfortunately for him, he is stealing money from an antiques dealer who is laundering money for HR.  Also, he has a girl he loves and he won't make his planned escape without her.

Carter, with Lasky's help, is closing in on the head of HR.  The disillusioned rookie gets help from Carter and Finch faking deaths ordered by HR, but it all comes tumbling down in the end, with detective Terney coming upon Lasky and Carter, he shoots Laskey as ordered by Simmons.  Carter shoots him and extracts at the last an indication of who heads HR.  Terney puts a bloody fingerprint on Quinn's picture to show her who he is.

Meanwhile, the hypnotist's sappy girlfriend turns out to have been playing him, as she grabs a four million dollar baseball and walks away with it.

Person of Interest: Mors Praematura

Tonight's episode has the vile and smug Root kidnapping Shaw who is becoming more likeable each episode.  Maybe they are trying to soften the harsh character of Shaw and being roughed up by Root will gain sympathy in a second.

In tandem with that we have Finch working with a guy who roots through dead people's things trying to find relatives who might claim their things and their estates.  The young man is quite appealing and I found myself thinking the team could use someone like him.  No no, too many people already, not enough Reese/Finch time.

Bizarrely Root's complex plot to be taken prisoner and rescue a man from shady government baddies dovetails with Finch's helping his young "death detective" evade death himself. 

I dislike Root so much that when she was in an adjoining cell with the guy she intended to rescue, and she was working off a bit of metal fencing, I just wanted him to move away from the wall because she's sooo creepy I thought she might pierce his neck or head with it.  You can't tell with her.

Satisfyingly that all ties up nicely with Root a prisoner at Finch's place, but not before Shaw gets to punch Root.

An interesting side story with Carter has her trying to use her traitorous rookie cop to bring down HR.  It turns out he is a Russian and the Russian mob is being used by HR to infiltrate NYPD ranks.  Nothing good is ahead for this kid, tsk.

Person of Interest

A new night and time for Person of Interest. 

They are taking a team approach to the show, and annoying Shaw wasn't quite as annoying as usual,  She just isn't a likeable character.  They're taking a bit of a lighthearted humorous approach to everyone and their abilities though so maybe I'll get used to her.

Carter has been busted to street cop.  Poor Carter.  On the plus side when not in uniform they're playing up how gorgeous she is, as well as being loyal and smart.  Don't open her closet.

Fusco remains a detective with a new partner who is "a bag of rocks" or something similar.  Fusco gets to be in disguise and defuse a bomb, a step up for him.

Finch and Bear are actively out on the streets, showing up just when needed.

Reese coordinates everyone and is the natural leader. For such a lonely man, he seems very happy to be leading this merry group.

Root is in an asylum with the most idiotic psychiatrist on the planet.  In every scene I just kept looking at the pencils on the desk and was expecting her to grab one and stick it in his throat.  When she finally did unleash on him, it was in a far more damaging way, since she knew (of course) all of his secrets and had made friends with his young daughter online as well.

The main case this week of a sailor in trouble with some bad guys over stolen uncut diamonds, meh, not very good at all though the actor who played the sailor was really cool and I wanted to see him added to the team.

 

 

http://www.cbs.com/shows/person_of_interest/

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_Interest_(TV_series)

 

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1839578/

 

 

http://www.person-of-interest.net/

Person of Interest: Proteus

The prophetic old man of the sea occurs in the earliest legends as a subject of Posiedon and is described as seeing through the whole depth of the sea, and tending the flocks (the seals) of Poseidon. At midday he rises from the sea, and sleeps in the shadow of the rocks of the coast, and around him lie the monsters of the deep. Anyone wishing to compel him to foretell the future, was obliged to catch hold of him at that time; he, indeed, had the power of assuming every possible shape, in order to escape the necessity of prophesying, but whenever he saw that his endeavours were of no avail, he resumed his usual appearance, and told the truth.   Proteus  has a general meaning of "versatile", "mutable", "capable of assuming many forms".


In a very intense episode The Machine gives out six names at once.  All except one of the names belong to people who have gone missing over a period of years. 

A serial killer has taken on the identities of his victims over time, living their lives after having observed them for some time.  As a huge storm moves in Reese chases the killer to a small island outside of New York City that is soon cut off from everyone.  One of the handful of people remaining on the evacuated island is a chameleon like killer, waiting to assume the identity of someone new so that they may escape undetected.

This is one of those classic setups where a small group of people are cut off from eveyone and they are picked off one by one.  Reese races to figure out which of them is the Proteus like shape changing ruthless killer, incredibly joined by Harold in the thick of the storm via bi-plane.

Nice side story with Carter trying to ignore Cal Beecher's attempts to establish a personal relationship after being turned down for the FBI post because of her relationship to Cal, a dirty cop according to the FBI.  They appear to have a confrontation on the topic of his activities but they don't show the entire conversation so you don't know.  It is possible he is innocent.   I've been wishing Carter and Reese could have a romance, but if Cal is a wronged man then maybe he is the one for her.  Love Carter.

Person of Interest: Bad Code

I asked Mr. DOA what significance bad code has in his world and he gave me a couple of explanations that went right over my head and didn't seem to fit the episode.

So we shall posit that Bad Code is modern lingo for Bad Seed.

In tonight's episode Finch is still in the possession of Root, the aforementioned Bad Seed. 

We get some flashbacks of a night in small town Texas where a girl gets in a car and disappears.  Reese and Carter are certain this is Root and go to investigate the old crime.  Not only do they uncover what happened in the past, they show the good old boys who is boss and find out where Root currently is. 

This showed some real mental agility that Reese hadn't previously revealed.  I think he has been smart as a killing machine but has not been able to turn his mental skills towards good.  Carter is a fine foil and is able to fill in some of the human elements and procedural methods that Reese doesn't have.

Any frame that Root is in is of course painful, whether she is using torture tricks on a government agent or just getting in Finch's face and being cooly slimy.  I am really unhappy they let her get away, I do not want to see her again.

On the plus side, Reese figured out just where Root was holding Finch, got there just after they had left but he followed the breadcrumb trail Finch left for him of a cufflink and code typed into a cell phone...decoded the code at good speed, raced to the train station...rescued Finch, but let Root go when he could have easily gotten her.  Grr.

Finch will now have that Dutch speaking watchdog as a companion.  He accepts it even though the dog ate an Asimov rare title. 

Kudos to the show for not quite going with the stereotypical librarian who was more than key to the disappearance of Not Root.  The librarian was warm, friendly to everyone, but flawed in her choice of loves.  Happens.

Person of Interest: The Contingency

Reese asks the machine directly for help in this season opener.  What he gets is a phone call from the local phone booth, yo its The Machine!  He hears a series of words, jots them down and goes back to the home base. 

A book of cryptography is useless but then John notices that the book has a code on its spine!  This code is known in the super secret librarian world as a DEWEY DECIMAL NUMBER!  I love this show!  The key to everything is Dewey.  Dang.

The code leads him not to Finch but to a new "victim" named Leon who is an accountant skimming millions from a nasty gang.  Reese brings in Carter and Fusco to help, and it is nice to see them both working side by side for Reese but wary of each other.

Flashbacks to 2002 or so show Finch working with the machine to train it and set its priorities.

Finch is so proud of his creation as he puts it through its paces.  He could win at a casino and clean them out but he pulls back and loses all the money on purpose.  Finch doesn't want himself or the machine to be amoral, he wants to save everyone.

Finch also appears in the present time, prisoner of the ever pleasantly repulsive "Root".  She has the smooth facade of a serial killer and the remorseless instincts of a torturer.  I am really starting to be creeped out anytime Amy Acker plays a character because at some point the claws are going to come out.  Eeeww.

John Reese doesn't disappoint in the bad guy busting.  Only one giant tattooed guy gives him any trouble. 

Without Finch, John depends a bit more on Carter and Fusco, and maybe picks up a dog.  Despite his awesome fighting abilities, he has a fragile personality and the pain with which he begs the machine to help him find his friend shows how much he needs these people.

TVNotes Week of Oct 17

Dancing with the Stars

I was a little relieved to see someone with lesser dancing skills get sent home this week. Although Carson Cressley really worked hard on his dancing skills, he just didn't have what he needed to move forward dancing wise. As the judges are always saying, with ballroom dance, its the whole package that has to be there in order to be good.


Survivor



Silly to send home good competitor Mikayla over good egg Edna, but I think the teams may be getting merge-itis and they're altering their game a bit to take out individual threats who they think may not be loyal after a merge. I've seen it happen too many times where they do this though too early and cause their team to go into a losing streak. Let's hope Mikayla can at least unseat bratty Christine from Redemption Island. I don't think Mikayla will be so brooding and whiny and all around bleh as a Redemptioner.

Person of Interest

Nice episode for Reese who gets to be both a very sympathetic character and a bad ass.

He is always those things, but he was so determined to ease the suffering of the judge who he felt for, and yet he had that old drive the guy in your trunk around in circles to make him dizzy and get him to talk trick up his sleeve. Then he tosses another guy in with him like no problem. He's got subtle torture tricks we can only guess at in his repetoire.

I like how he keeps trying to get in under Finch's skin. The interplay between those two is fun.

Ye Eggs Benedict



Terra Nova

Another weak episode, and they only have 13 episodes and no renewal flag yet. They should have made much stronger storylines, it's just lazy that they did not.

The theme is a little girl from the Sixers comes out of nowhere and wants to join them, she has run away she says. She acts all feral and grubby, but as soon as she is cleaned up a bit she steals something from Mira's old house and tries to get out with it. She makes eyes at Shannon and says wah wah Mira made her do it and Mira would hurt her lil brother Sam...

Of course Shannon cruises right over to the Sixer's area (though nobody knows, wink, where they are) gets beat up, hears a sob story from Mira about the future holding her own daughter hostage (made up is my thought since they were looking a week ago to find a way to get at the new security chief).

Shannon goes back home with Sam and a sort of bond with Mira over family matters...Kinda weak sauce.

TV Notes: Last Week's Edition

How time is flying!

Dancing with the Stars

Another snoozer of an episode. Missed most of it. What can I say. I did see pro Tony really being a twit to Chynna who seemed pretty wounded by his jerky behavior. I think she lost confidence in their partnership and it played out on the dance floor. I would have thought people would feel sorry for her, but noooo. Taking out the best dancers seems to be what we're getting this season. It will be sort of a farce to watch the finals with poor dancers stumbling the light fantastic.

Survivor

The world's grossest challenge as the survivors have their hands tied behind their backs and they bite off roasted pig and spit it into a basket to be weighed. Spit. Meat stuck in teeth. Winners get to take their basket home...vomit city!

Cocky Ozzie, who looks like a dream but thinks like a bonehead gets his snuggle mate voted off in a blindside. Elise had no personality and nothing to offer on her own so no loss to the tribe, and a good strategic move orchestrated by villanous Jim.

Person of Interest

Good episode with a nice plot twist and an ending that we can only guess the outcome of. A dedicated doctor becomes the Person of Interest for a sexual predator who uses date rape drugs. As it turns out, she is actually stalking him. Very brave lady, determined to get vengeance at all costs. She had a great plan for ridding the world of her vermin-esque prey.

Terra Nova

Classic sci-fi plot with a remote science station that has fallen to some unknown organism. Can our heroes help figure out the cause and the cure in time?

I think the Malcolm character is becoming a bit too much of a punching bag, they need to give him some dignity.

Hints that the security chief has the hots for Commander Taylor.

At episode's end, Mira, the stylin' leader of the Sixers is revealed to have the ability to communicate with the future and get people sent through and who knows what else.

TVNotes: Kind of a Blah Week

Kind of a blah week in the tv trenches.

Dancing With the Stars

I thought everyone danced well this week, gone were the obvious flubs. I couldn't guess who might go but I was surprised when it was Kristin Cavallari. She (was) one of the most promising dancers. I do watch the show to see people gliding effortlessly across the floor looking wondrous. Luckily I am not attached to anyone this season so I don't mind so much seeing someone really good get popped because they lacked personal oompf.

Survivor

Stacey has got to be the grumpiest Survivor ever. I wasn't sorry to see her go at all. She never exibited any of the snuggly mom behavior I hoped for when she started. She was more like a scary "I'm to to whoop you" mom. Glad Christine beat her at Redemption so she can go poof from the show. Sheesh.

Person of Interest

Not a favorite episode, with a theme of returning vets robbing banks to make extra cash. Everyone was pretty unlikeable.
Small glimpse of Reese's old love (whom I had thought was dead) running into him and offering to try again with him.





Terra Nova

I admit I read all the reviews of the episode before watching and I was prepared to hate the episode, but I liked it. The family was much more normal and likeable, even the dad. They toned all the jerkiness out of everyone and it was more what I had hoped for in the first place--colonists dealing with the the incredible environment they were now living in. If they can stay on that path they'll be alright.

TVNotes

I'm behind on my new season viewing notes, so here they are in brief:

Dancing with the Stars

I fell asleep zzzzz through the last few dances and missed the Nip Slip. I was more disappointed to see the worst dancers of the night who really stumbled and lost step and somebody even stopped and paused a couple of times to find their place and zero marks were taken off for any of them. Are the judges just being kind to them or something so they don't give up?

This week the worst dancer was Chaz, who was in such pain he could hardly dance. David Arquette was next worst, with a terribly frenetic dance, even worse than last week, with lots of missteps. Elisabetta Canalis really could not keep up with the quick foot work, and though the judges let her sail, she was low personage on the dance pole and was booted.


Survivor South Pacific

Mikayla tried to go head to head with Brandon to see what his problem was, and he was all offended as if she had come out of nowhere with these accusations, doh. He's gotta go.

Sad to see Papa Bear go, Cochrane is next, no question. Dawn did shockingly well in the Immunity Challenge. Good for her. Semhar was beaten in a balancing contest with Christine, after preparing for the challenge with a wierd and rambling poem sort of thing.


Person of Interest

James Caviezel's Reese character seems to be enjoying his role of savior/vigilante and he is super good at it. I think he is attempting to warm up to Finch's character a bit, but Finch is very self protective and will have none of it.

It was revealed that Finch has a partner of sorts who helps ? with the research and takes credit for everything, but he had no idea quite what Finch has been up to in the background. Finch also mentioned that there are 8 people who know about the project in the world. Now we know three of them.

Nicely plotted episode about a teenage girl who comes up as the Person of Interest for the week, though she has been legally dead for two years.

Terra Nova

The new series features time travel, dinosaurs and some mysteries. I think that the device of having the colony in an alternate time stream and thus avoiding paradox is a bit cheap. The show had lots of action. Characters are a bit steely jawed.

I really fought dislike of the family at the forefront all through the episode, though by the end I merely disliked the dad and the son, a couple of jerky hot heads. I'll watch another episode, but the characters will have to be more likeable going forward.

Person of Interest (Premier)

The new show Person of Interest premiered last night.

It's a mystery series with a few twists. Our heroes are:

John Reese (Jim Caviezel) a former special agent who is presumed dead when he is found by Mr Finch (Michael Emerson), a brainy man with a conscience.

Tracking Reese is Detective Carter (Taraji P. Henderson) once he becomes a Person of Interest to her. Reese seems to be wanted for a wide variety of crimes nationwide and she means to find him.

Hapless Detective Fusco (Kevin Chapman) is snared as a accomplice for Reese. A good man with no good options.

Finch created a vast surveillance network after September 2011 for the government which would look daily through many portals of information from emails to traffic light cameras for any Persons of Interest who might involved in terrorist activities. Information is run daily and all Irrelevant (not terror likely) information is wiped at midnight.

The Irrelevants, however, are identified by the program as being likely to commit or have a crime committed against them. Finch is no longer working on the project, but he created a backdoor to the information, and he gets lists of those most likely to be involved in a large crime or incident which might be prevented if he can get to them in time. He cannot tell who is perpetrator and who is victim, so asks Reese to track the Person of Interest with ace spy skills, and stop whatever is going to happen.

There were plenty of plot twists in the pilot. Surprisingly both Reese and Finch came across as very likeable and somewhat vulnerable.

Person of Interest Wiki