Person Of Interest

[Pex]

A final farewell to a show that once was exciting tv, paired well with its sister freshman show "Elementary" that aired right after it. It was a new premise for a "cop show", to stop a murder before it happens and sometimes the focus was on the would be murderer who had to be stopped.

Then they screwed up the formula, turning the show into a wannabe spy thriller and the idea of stopping murders was left behind as an afterthought. It became melodramatic nonsense. Ratings didn't tank low enough to be prematurely canceled, but it was enough CBS lost care about it. Not owning the show outright but contractually obligated to air it, this last season they crammed into the end of the year just go air them and get rid of it.

If you hadn't been watching the show you would have no idea what was going on. Problematic as the show as, I can at least appreciate they still kept with the show and die hard fans got closure.

[nightwyrm]

While I enjoyed the early season standalone stories, I thought it was way more engaging once the ASI war started. There are quirky procedurals all over the TV landscape. A cyberpunk drama about the implications of massive global surveillance and emerging AI is unique. Although it probably would've done better if it was on cable than on network TV.

As for not understanding what's going on if you don't watch from the beginning....you don't jump into the fifth season of Breaking Bad either...

YMMV.

[The New Bruceski]

It was a procedural whose B plots were often more interesting than the A and eventually took over the story. The cops trying to catch them torn between legality and morality, coming to a head with the HR situation. Elias building a criminal empire leading to the question of whether "stopping a murder" should depend on who the victim is, one that he was happy to bring up later as he became both an asset, a complication, and in some ways a friend to the man who thought he could never have one. Intrigue about the government's use of the Machine that they're piggybacking off of turning into a competing ASI and eventual war between two gods with different goals being born into a space that only had room for one. That was the meat, the irrelevant numbers was just a way of pacing it.

[huttj509]

It hit all the right chords for me. The writers did great with the high point episodes. Running through a hotel, swapping perspective between Reese protecting someone, Finch, the Feds trying to catch Reese, the Bad Cops trying to kill Reese, Fusco spying on the Feds for Reese, a mole spying on the Feds for the Bad Cops, and it felt hectic and awesome instead of cluttered and incomprehensible, somehow.

The last season, there were a few episodes in a row that led to me as a viewer saying "oh, this again...wait, was that another simulation or real?" Got me in just the right headspace that when Shaw was wondering the same thing, it worked.

All the actors did a great job. The writing was spot on IMO. From the start to the end it just felt like a solid series.

[Raddish]

I loved this show from start to finish. The ending was well done I my opinion and at the right time, though it is a shame they could not have been given a full length final season. It didn't get held on for another 5 or more just to turn it into the sort of lacking show that just doesn't seem to die.