Thoughts on Person of Interest 3x05 Razgovor
Oh, whew, I'm so happy. \o/
The awesome:
THE ENDING YESSSS ROOT/SHAW YES
Carter! Carter Carter Carter!
For the first time ever I cared about an HR-centric plot. The dovetailing of John and Carter's pursuits was great, her feeding HR the bad intel and both calling out and suborning Lasky, John beating the crap out of Simmons (although I would have liked it if John had beat the crap out of Simmons just a bit more thoroughly - Simmons is not a government-trained assassin!)
Harold and Shaw in the last quarter of the episode. I'm not thrilled that apparently we were supposed to be reading Harold's nitpickery these last few weeks as somehow legit and something Shaw had to actually change in response to, but I AM thrilled to see the two of them move past it, and as long as it stops, I will happily ignore what the writers apparently thought they were doing.
Also YAY for Harold actually having a "better idea" and doing something significant in the episode that felt actually mastermindish.
Shaw's flashback and their fleshing out her personality disorder into something that now feels like part of a human being instead of just a paper-thin writers' excuse for her to want to shoot people all the time, and using the tragedy with her father as the point of reveal rather than the cause.
Also just the competent, tight plot, with a POI I cared about. She was almost a little too perfect, veering close to the edge where they might have lost me - especially that treacly scene at the end with Shaw, but the actresses managed to pull it off together. And hahaha "ward of a reclusive billionaire." Now I totally want to see Harold collecting up his growing stable of hackers - Monica from Trojan Horse, the kid from 2PiR, now even tiny little phreaker Jen - at some point.
The endiiiiiing! WHOO ROOT/SHAW!
The not awesome (only a few small bits this time):
I was not super thrilled by the two jokey "competence at the expense of other characters' competence" bits - the "Shaw just got made by a 10 year old girl" and then Shaw bugging the library and "still haven't found it, have you". It's just, OK, the lines were cute, but no, please don't do that. DON'T have Shaw get caught tailing by a ten year old. DON'T have Harold getting bugged in the library. I want to be convinced a character is competent by seeing them be awesome themselves and not in the failure of another supposedly hypercompetent character. (This is the same thing they did with the gambler guy in All In. It's really annoying.)
Also HAROLD'S TEA SET WTAF. OK, writers, Harold IS NOT IN FACT A VICTORIAN MAIDEN AUNT. PLEASE STOP.
But, to be fair, I would have minded these bits a lot less if the last few eps hadn't been bad (especially with Harold in particular) and so I was tense and primed for badness during the first half or so. And I am now so relieved and no longer feeling that way!
And I have seen the promo for next week and I am excited which is all I will say about that. :D
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The awesome:
THE ENDING YESSSS ROOT/SHAW YES
Carter! Carter Carter Carter!
For the first time ever I cared about an HR-centric plot. The dovetailing of John and Carter's pursuits was great, her feeding HR the bad intel and both calling out and suborning Lasky, John beating the crap out of Simmons (although I would have liked it if John had beat the crap out of Simmons just a bit more thoroughly - Simmons is not a government-trained assassin!)
Harold and Shaw in the last quarter of the episode. I'm not thrilled that apparently we were supposed to be reading Harold's nitpickery these last few weeks as somehow legit and something Shaw had to actually change in response to, but I AM thrilled to see the two of them move past it, and as long as it stops, I will happily ignore what the writers apparently thought they were doing.
Also YAY for Harold actually having a "better idea" and doing something significant in the episode that felt actually mastermindish.
Shaw's flashback and their fleshing out her personality disorder into something that now feels like part of a human being instead of just a paper-thin writers' excuse for her to want to shoot people all the time, and using the tragedy with her father as the point of reveal rather than the cause.
Also just the competent, tight plot, with a POI I cared about. She was almost a little too perfect, veering close to the edge where they might have lost me - especially that treacly scene at the end with Shaw, but the actresses managed to pull it off together. And hahaha "ward of a reclusive billionaire." Now I totally want to see Harold collecting up his growing stable of hackers - Monica from Trojan Horse, the kid from 2PiR, now even tiny little phreaker Jen - at some point.
The endiiiiiing! WHOO ROOT/SHAW!
The not awesome (only a few small bits this time):
I was not super thrilled by the two jokey "competence at the expense of other characters' competence" bits - the "Shaw just got made by a 10 year old girl" and then Shaw bugging the library and "still haven't found it, have you". It's just, OK, the lines were cute, but no, please don't do that. DON'T have Shaw get caught tailing by a ten year old. DON'T have Harold getting bugged in the library. I want to be convinced a character is competent by seeing them be awesome themselves and not in the failure of another supposedly hypercompetent character. (This is the same thing they did with the gambler guy in All In. It's really annoying.)
Also HAROLD'S TEA SET WTAF. OK, writers, Harold IS NOT IN FACT A VICTORIAN MAIDEN AUNT. PLEASE STOP.
But, to be fair, I would have minded these bits a lot less if the last few eps hadn't been bad (especially with Harold in particular) and so I was tense and primed for badness during the first half or so. And I am now so relieved and no longer feeling that way!
And I have seen the promo for next week and I am excited which is all I will say about that. :D
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth (
comments)