Person of Interest 3x03
Basically I'm with the gang over on pofinterest_chat. (loads of spoilers there)
The problem I'm having is, OK, I get it -- they are trying to do actor management here. I can actually SEE it happening -- nightclub scene, Shaw on the roof, got it -- Jim Caveziel got a day off! And yes, totally, for this to work, they need to build relationships between Shaw and the other characters, they need to establish her in our heads as competent, etc, and give her a disproportionate number of character moments.
But this is now three episodes in a row at the start of the season with A plots ranging from OK (Liberty) to a complete mess (this last one in Ladykiller), which drags everything down. And the character bits could rescue them, but the character bits have been mostly BAD. They are drawing Shaw and her relationships SO broadly -- really? she has to gnaw a steak off the point of a knife? -- and they don't seem to have actually nailed down what Shaw's character even is other than "violent," or why she's there other than she occasionally gets the chance to shoot someone.
On top of that, they're fumbling Finch in particular badly. He's had nothing to do but dither and act like a Victorian maiden aunt towards Shaw, and announce in portentous tones that something bad is going to happen! His being the mastermind, the mysterious boss, has been a huge core piece of the show and its pleasure (for me at least). And they're losing it. Plus now that we have Shaw, he should almost never come out into the field or see a number, and instead of finding a smart answer for that, they have decided to just ignore it and throw him in with the numbers ALL THE TIME.
Plus, I was saying in chat the other day that the best way I can headwank Harold's behavior towards Shaw so far is if he's attracted to her and very uncomfortable with the fact -- and I started talking about that but it has turned into a story on me so I'm going to stop there. :P
The best parts of this ep aside from Root's scenes were the bits where Shaw totally thinks Joss is awesome and super hot and she'd totally hit that if Joss was interested, ANYTIME really Joss, just give her a call.
Aside from that, they completely bellyflopped. The way the number went from super creepy American Psycho levels of stalker to an unqualifiedly GOOD GUY was actively gross and bewildering. The scene with the women being bait was verging on ugh and then suddenly everyone was telling Shaw she looked angry and it stopped verging and I wanted her to shoot all of them.
Shaw leading them all out in a conga line onto the dance floor and "whooing" seemed completely inconsistent with the rest of her behavior. The scene with her and John on the roof landed like an anvil and provided zero signal for what they're going for. Are they trying to set up a romantic relationship between her and John? I hope not, and so far I'm getting murder twins vibes and not lovers from them, but I don't understand what else the point was, other than to establish for anyone who hadn't been watching that John and Zoe have a fling going and John and Carter have NOT slept together.
PLEASE, omg, show, do NOT fridge Zoe for manpain and to set up a John/Shaw thing. OMG PLEASE NO. If they do that, IDK, I might just be completely out of there. D: I really hope that is not what they are setting up there. *gets paranoid*
Anyway -- I am sorry to be a downer about my show! Snif! PLEASE GET BETTER, POI! I am hopeful that maybe they are going to give us more Root vs. Harold, which would be super exciting, and use the Root & Shaw relationship too to help pull them together.
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The problem I'm having is, OK, I get it -- they are trying to do actor management here. I can actually SEE it happening -- nightclub scene, Shaw on the roof, got it -- Jim Caveziel got a day off! And yes, totally, for this to work, they need to build relationships between Shaw and the other characters, they need to establish her in our heads as competent, etc, and give her a disproportionate number of character moments.
But this is now three episodes in a row at the start of the season with A plots ranging from OK (Liberty) to a complete mess (this last one in Ladykiller), which drags everything down. And the character bits could rescue them, but the character bits have been mostly BAD. They are drawing Shaw and her relationships SO broadly -- really? she has to gnaw a steak off the point of a knife? -- and they don't seem to have actually nailed down what Shaw's character even is other than "violent," or why she's there other than she occasionally gets the chance to shoot someone.
On top of that, they're fumbling Finch in particular badly. He's had nothing to do but dither and act like a Victorian maiden aunt towards Shaw, and announce in portentous tones that something bad is going to happen! His being the mastermind, the mysterious boss, has been a huge core piece of the show and its pleasure (for me at least). And they're losing it. Plus now that we have Shaw, he should almost never come out into the field or see a number, and instead of finding a smart answer for that, they have decided to just ignore it and throw him in with the numbers ALL THE TIME.
Plus, I was saying in chat the other day that the best way I can headwank Harold's behavior towards Shaw so far is if he's attracted to her and very uncomfortable with the fact -- and I started talking about that but it has turned into a story on me so I'm going to stop there. :P
The best parts of this ep aside from Root's scenes were the bits where Shaw totally thinks Joss is awesome and super hot and she'd totally hit that if Joss was interested, ANYTIME really Joss, just give her a call.
Aside from that, they completely bellyflopped. The way the number went from super creepy American Psycho levels of stalker to an unqualifiedly GOOD GUY was actively gross and bewildering. The scene with the women being bait was verging on ugh and then suddenly everyone was telling Shaw she looked angry and it stopped verging and I wanted her to shoot all of them.
Shaw leading them all out in a conga line onto the dance floor and "whooing" seemed completely inconsistent with the rest of her behavior. The scene with her and John on the roof landed like an anvil and provided zero signal for what they're going for. Are they trying to set up a romantic relationship between her and John? I hope not, and so far I'm getting murder twins vibes and not lovers from them, but I don't understand what else the point was, other than to establish for anyone who hadn't been watching that John and Zoe have a fling going and John and Carter have NOT slept together.
PLEASE, omg, show, do NOT fridge Zoe for manpain and to set up a John/Shaw thing. OMG PLEASE NO. If they do that, IDK, I might just be completely out of there. D: I really hope that is not what they are setting up there. *gets paranoid*
Anyway -- I am sorry to be a downer about my show! Snif! PLEASE GET BETTER, POI! I am hopeful that maybe they are going to give us more Root vs. Harold, which would be super exciting, and use the Root & Shaw relationship too to help pull them together.
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth (
comments)