In Frankly Astonished Praise of… Person of Interest

The premise of this show is this: a few years ago, a computer-genius made a machine – wittily dubbed ‘The Machine’ – which could access all the world’s surveillance feeds, every computer, smartphone and technological nitbit you can name, and with this information predict crime.

He then gave the Machine to the government, on the understanding that it will only give information about Big Acts of Disaster where many, many people will die, and generically speaking the privacy of the citizen will not be violated.  It is a big spying tool… but it’s ok, because the Machine just gives a social security number of suspects rather than footage of the would-be killer naked.  The humans can’t see what it’s seeing; they just have to follow the clues it gives.  Because that’s a different kind of oddly disturbing, right?

Yet as will always be the case (partially because a lot of the time in these things government = evil) shady powers wanted more control of the Machine, and attempted to kill our genius creator.  Years later he’s still alive, but in hiding, and teams up – as you would – with an ex-super-duper-spy-of-duperness to solve crimes generated by the ‘irrelevant’ numbers – people who are probably gonna be killed/kill, but who’s crimes aren’t on a big enough scale to merit their information being sent onto the government.

And there, pretty much, you have it.  Every week you get a new number, solve the crime, try to dodge being being killed, while behind the scenes Deeply Sinister Powers, usually driving black cars, try to hunt you down because the Machine is like, totally mega awesome, dude.

I first saw it a few years ago, and I didn’t give it a write-up here, because frankly, it was pretty pants.  Here’s a few of the reasons why…

• So you’ve got a machine that can spy on the entire universe.  That’s a big deal.  There’s huge questions to be asked there.  We’re basically talking Minority Report without the psychics, and if you’re looking at a topic that Philip K. Dick took a bash at then that should be a signpost that Serious Shit could go down.  And yet… for the fast majority of the time these issues are not flagged and their consequences are not at all explored.  They’re just not.  More bazookas, less soul-searching is the main theme of this symposium.
• The characters are, in theory, interesting.  They certainly should be, but again the emphasis on blowing stuff up tends to get in the way, I personally feel, of people actually being people.  Especially as I am very much of Team Geek and would quite enjoy watching nerds talk their way out of a situation occasionally, instead of entirely relying on super-ex-spy-ninja-dude’s timely and mighty fists of steel.
• That said… don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good fight!  But we are not talking Daredevil levels of fighting skill here.  Environmental awareness?  Nope.  Improvised weaponry?  Not so much.  Use of feet?  Barely?  99% of the time it’s bare-knuckles, with the exception of a few characters who are bright enough to pick up that handy gun that’s around and my god – my god there are So Many Guns around.  It’s basically the chewing gum of New York.
• There’s a lot of damsels in distress, certainly in the early days.  Women in this series traditionally fall into two camps: highly functioning ninja sociopaths, or deeply needy.  Even the ones who don’t have ninja skills are more Awesome High Functioning, than they are people.  Credit though to some of the actors for finding the people within the script.
• For a ninja-super-spy, the ninja-super-spy seems to only have one disguise.  Which is as a ninja-super-spy.  Maybe it’s like a meta-disguise…?  Maybe….?
• Funny thing, but it’s often only really beautiful, quite wealthy people who are in danger.  Skint people with problems… not so much.
• “We’ve got a problem you say?  Hold on I’ll just hack the Pentagon… ok I’ve done that and I’ve found an email immediately which says that the answer is in this bank… give me a moment… right, I’ve just hacked the bank the door will open as you enter, also your name is now Bob and here’s an entire life story I invented earlier complete with childhood photos… you’re still having trouble?  Give me a moment and… hey!  I’ve accessed the villain’s mobile phone and do you know he’s left a text at the very top of his message feed, first thing I saw in fact, which reads ‘X marks the spot and kill them all with bazookas!’  I know!  Less than 30s and we’re basically sorted.  BOOM.”  That trope.  All the time.

So it’s got some problems.  Enough problems, in fact, that I don’t actually tune in weekly, but tend to record episodes as they come up and then binge when I’ve got flu, or have just done an overnight shift or something of that ilk which means my IQ is pretty low.  Oddly enough the only other thing I’ll binge on when I’m that tired are Jane Austen adaptations.  Go figure.

It’s still, in many ways, pretty pants, but certain things have changed that have mildly altered my opinion.

• The words have sort of vaguely got a bit better.  Or at least, less pants.  They’re still pretty weak, but occasionally a moment of rare wit will manifest, or a character will express a vaguely complex idea, and I cheer.  I cheer muchly.
• The women have got… if not exactly free of the sociopath/damsel dichotomy, certainly more engaged.  There was a sad moment when arguably the most fully rounded female of the show went off to pursue her career elsewhere, but thankfully a nod has been made towards more women who are permitted not only to shoot people, but to have personalities afterwards.  It’s been a long, slow slog for them to get personalities, but it’s getting there.
• By the end of the 3rd series (I’m now up to the end of the 4th) while there’s still a Dude of The Week to save/solve, the writers have started really going for the overarching story thing, and one of the more delightful elements of this has been the addition of another super-powered Machine of awesome, this time called Samaritan.  By this point (spoiler) both the Machine and Samaritan have basically achieved AI sentience, and our characters are to a degree reduced to agents running round while these technological gods have a massive falling out about the nature of their responsibilities or otherwise towards humanity and what ‘best for people’ even means in this age of surveillance.  Or to put it another way – the full SF potential of what the series could have been is finally, by the 3rd or 4th series, being roundly embraced, and the result is kinda lovely.  Yes, we’re still following the dramas of people trying to do right in this world, but we’re also following a war between our potential superlords being fought out entirely in the shadows, and all the questions that are churned out by that.  And there are loads of questions – way more than arguably the series tackles, but who cares?  Big shit can go down.  Big stakes are now being shot at with bazookas.  Dubious moral choices are being made, alliances are being formed and broken, enemies become friends and visa versa, and characters are actually being taxed by their decisions!  Whoopee and rock on.  Rock on so much, in fact, that maybe if the 5th series ever airs in the UK, I might try watching it when I’m not full of snot.

And it’s this last – the fact that over time the writers basically seem to have thrown their hands up and gone ‘ah shit, let’s make it about something interesting!’ that has me, late to the party, gently cheering.  It’s still pretty bad, despite the sterling work of some of the cast and the odd flash of thoughtfulness here or there, but basically, it’s on the up, and I for one am now engaged enough to be annoyed that I’ll probably have to wait another year to find out what happens next.