Person of Interest

In 2008, the Nolan brothers in their role of screenwriters destroyed the machine than “sees and hears everything" in Gotham. Three years later, one of them decided to see what it would be like if that machine hadn’t been destroyed after all... It starts like a dry Martini. First time you almost certainly won’t like it. The question is whether you stop at this first, unsuccessful attempt or if you gain a taste for it in time. And it’s in your own best interests to gain a taste for it because you would be hard-pushed to find a more playful, more self-lampooning and more self-confident feet-up serial. This type of serious (if it isn’t being non-serious) and, despite its sci-fi premise (even if this is more a question of playing with post-9/11 paranoia; as Nolan declared aptly: It doesn’t take place in the future, but in the world as it could be “in five minutes’ time") surprisingly, due to atmosphere and action, thrilleroid, dry action series that doesn’t treat the viewer as an idiot was sorely missing. Unfortunately, it begins like so many other run-of-the-mill series. The promising concept is developed very little, the central duo is disastrously flat and we’ve seen similar plots so many times before... But the creators very soon go back to the drawing board and come up with something very unusual. Seemingly simple plots begin to have unexpected twists or at least courses and they play ingeniously not only with the concept of murderer/victim, but also with the format, genre etc. While each episode is devoted to a (seemingly) separate closed case, about half of each episode is also devoted to the main storyline. Beginning with the ending of episode ten, the proportion of episodes with polished screenplays, sometimes bordering on genius, increases considerably. The characters receive sufficient space not to remain in their beginning state of “silent substitute for Liam Neeson and the limping double of Ben from Lost". Caviezel settles down in it and his whisper certainly commands respect. It like Emerson was born for roles portraying charismatic, mysterious guys and Chapman simply steals the show. Not just the screenwriters, but also the outstanding and charismatic villains have potential; especially Root is a character with infinite potential which despite being based heavily on Nolan’s Joker (and why not, really, seeing as he wrote it himself) and Moriarty from the modern-day Sherlock, but that makes him no less fascinating; quite the opposite. And so only (non)actor Henson is completely out of his acting league, which is annoying twofold because his character isn’t interesting one bit. Even the original, annoying connecting storyline becomes increasingly dramatic and becomes the clear powerhouse of the series, unrivaled among the “relax" series currently being aired. And there is a constant build-up (of both adrenaline and quality), which applies for the entire second season, which isn’t better, but more variegated. The way in which every episode circles around a band of villains, creating a mythology is so incredibly playful (e.g. the episodes paying tribute to classic movies) that if you look back to the very beginning, it’s impossible to believe that the same team is responsible. And also, since the days of the X-Files, there hasn’t been a series more aware of its own mistakes and clichés and less afraid of making frequent, tongue in cheek, self-ironic fun of itself. And this is all the more surprising since the current climax didn’t come “until" season three, when in the first half the creators solve the “police corruption" storyline from the preceding seasons in style and uncompromisingly, moving over to the “hacker espionage" storyline in the second half, giving excellent treatment to the currently topical theme of democracy and freedom in the modern age. And it is the grace with which it chops and changes genres and styles (mafia games, technology/conspiracy thriller, action - and since the later X-Files seasons there has not been a series so aware of its mistakes and clichés and so unafraid of self-ironic criticism) from one episode to the next without seemingly wobbly, that makes this series so surprising and fascinating. S1: 4/5 S2: 4/5 S3: 5/5 S4: 3/5 (24.10.2012) (menos) (más)