Want to hack the Pentagon?

[sovay]

So rushthatspeaks and I are continuing to watch our way through the first season of Person of Interest (and now the second season of Leverage) at the rate of one to two episodes every night or so. I'm enjoying it tremendously. I have become intensely fond of all four main characters, I like the way the show is now generating suspense from the second-order implications of its overlapping ethical dilemmas, and I really appreciate its ability to combine the cold equations of John le Carré with a surprisingly high percentage of character-based and structural humor that doesn't feel at all out of key. I mean, the FBI is now involved. That's just funny. When we get a representative from the NSA, I will applaud.

Also, this thing we've been noticing. Last night's episode opened cold on Finch with a tape measure around his shoulders kneeling before Reese, meticulously fitting his partner for a suit: "The cuff should shiver on the shoe, not break." The scene lasted maybe sixty seconds; it was like watching somebody's very specific Yuletide request. Rush thought maybe they had read it. It would have been by Naomi Novik.

In the two episodes we watched tonight, Reese and Finch temporarily adopted a baby (and had an argument about the fact that Reese had not yet moved his stash of assorted artillery out of the library like he'd promised, meaning that now the baby is teething on a tear-gas grenade) and an MDMA-drugged Finch offered to tell Reese anything he wanted and then called him by his dead partner's name. That was actually quite poignant. Right, and the latter episode also included Reese getting Finch out of a person of interest's apartment by turning the automatic sprinkler system on him and then tossing him a towel when he came dripping and grimly straight-faced home. Michael Emerson's hair makes him look like a very spiky and annoyed cat when that happens.

I am aware that this show enjoys a thriving fandom, but if this is where the canon starts its viewers, what do they write? After Reese asked Finch if he thought they'd ever have kids at the end of "Baby Blue," we joked about the inevitable sex pollen episode. Then we kind of got it. ("You might regret it in the morning. You're a very private person, remember?") I can't wait to see what very specific axis of fanservice we get next.

Comments

[tam_nonlinear]

Annoyed cat is a lot of Finch's mannerisms. I particularly like that his approach to showing affection towards quite a few people comes across as 'persistently tolerating'. He's not the demonstrative type.

One of the biggest underlying themes to the show is what we can hide and what we can show. I love how the story plays with that in part by having such closed-off characters, all of them wary and hesitant and carrying layers of past around them in a cloud.

[umadoshi]

The PoI temporary-baby episode made me SO HAPPY. *^^*

[kore]

I adore PoI but there's a bad plot twist coming I think at the beginning of S3 that threw me badly for a while. I was spoiled for it, T wasn't, and we both kept watching, but it was....urgh. I do love the show but it is a sucky twist.

[kore]

Also ARRRRGH I'm sorry I don't mean to be a spoilery jackass. It was just something that nearly threw T out of the show, and has made me quit watching other shows before. So I kind of wanted to....say something. Argh, maybe I shouldn't have.

[thawrecka]

There sure is a lot of that kind of fanservice in season one. The baby episode is one of my favourites, because it takes a ridiculous cliché idea like that, and actually makes it good. I feel like there's less of that sort thing as the show goes on and collects more characters; less time for it.

[marfisa.livejournal.com]

Wait until you get to the seasons featuring Shah (although it's officially spelled Shaw) and Root.

[desireearmfeldt]

That was my feeling about POI too: there's a lot about it that only makes sense to me if you assume they're writing the show for the benefit of slash-fic writers. (Which is actually slightly different from writing the show *as* slash.)

[sillylilly-bird.livejournal.com]

It's brilliant. I've watched the available seasons twice. Also, what marfisa said.

[aphrabehn.livejournal.com]

Oh this show...I never say this, but I'm currently watching what will be the final season and I don't think the show has lost a single bit of its power. It entertains me, but it also frightens me. And it certainly makes me think.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

The scene lasted maybe sixty seconds; it was like watching somebody's very specific Yuletide request.

Last night, for the wheelchair episode, I hollered at the screen, "fan service!" because it really seemed as if the show was writing with that angle in mind.