Analysis of an Episode: Person of Interest - Pilot Episode Review

A new show called Person of Interest has recently premiered on CBS! It stars Michael Emerson and Jim Caviezal and was created by Jonathon Nolan (the screenwriter for the Dark Knight!).

The show is about two men who are presumed to be dead and their quest to serve vigilante justice in the city of New York. Finch (Emerson) is a billionaire with resources and Reese (Reese) an ex-CIA agent. Back in the day, Finch built a device for the United States government, capable of predicting crimes before they happen.....Using a back door into the super-computer he informs Reese of these crimes and Reese attempts to prevent them!

Its a refreshing new action show with two incredible actors.

The pilot episode is where it all starts for our two heroes. Finch finds Reese at a NYPD precinct after he is arrested for beating up a gang of punks who jump him on the subway. The thing is, Reese was living on the street. A homeless man drinking himself into oblivion. Something in his past drove him to such a spot....What? An excellent question! Hopefully we will find out eventually! Finch on the other hand is simply a man with a guilty conscience. He built a machine for the CIA that was supposed to track acts of terrorism using information from cell phones, cameras, e-mails, etc... But it ends up being able to figure out the people involved in simple one-on-one murders. But see, the government didn't want to know about these crimes and so Finch tweaked the computer system to delete the "irrelevant" list of people every night. This began to eat away at Finch. There was a list of people that were possibly going to have their life extinguished every day and he knew who they were. Once Finch's contract with the government ended he couldn't take the guilt and as a result tracked down and hired Reese to be the "man of action" for the "man who knows".

This plot brings up the interesting topic of surveillance. George Orwell's 1984 comes to mind when you think about this show. 1984 (if you don't know), being a fictional book about a dystopian society in England run by a dictatorship in the year 1984. They call the dictator Big Brother and people are watched day and night with cameras and the like. Nowadays there are cameras everywhere in cities. There is even talk about people tapping cell phone signals or even using webcams on computers to spy on people. Rumours perhaps, but it has been said! Its sort of interesting that it was in 1948 that Orwell wrote such a book about a society and yet, now look how close we are to that society in terms of surveillance today. Sort of a little bit scary actually.

Check out this interview with the show's creators. They talk about the show and about surveillance in today's society.

It is definitely interesting to see Michael Emerson playing another "man who knows" sort of character. Having played Benjamin Linus in ABC's Lost he has shown just how well he can play that character. Not to mention Mr. Caviezel, who's very "cool" and "smooth" portrayal of Reese gives just another reason to watch this show!

The musical score is also quite pretty impressive for the show. Ramin Djawadi has done one awesome job. He also did the score for Game of Thrones and that score is absolutely incredible. We can expect great things from him for episodes to come.

Check out this musical piece from the end scene of the pilot episode of the show... Fans are calling it The Machine Theme. A great piece!

The montage at the end of this episode is also a great touch! The song by Massive Attack called Angel was played. Great choice in music and a really cool montage.

This episode was a pretty solid introduction to a pretty great looking show. The show has some definite potential. Actors Michael Emerson and Jim Caviezel will slowly gain such a chemistry that I believe will be a force to be reckoned with! I rate this first episode a 7/10.