Person of Interest thoughts on last 3 episodes
I've been way happier with the last three episodes, man!
Spoilers for Razgovor, Mors Praematura, The Perfect Mark, and next week's promo below!
I will start by getting the not-good stuff out of the way. Last night was yet another absolute asshole inexplicably being presented to us mid-episode as someone where we should care about him.
I deeply appreciated them having the girlfriend turning out to be a con artist too, because that was the only thing that redeemed her character choosing to go talk to him, but it didn't rescue the bizarre section where the con artist starts earnestly telling our heroes how he's going to change, like he/the writers expects them/us to (a) believe him, and (b) care. I don't care!
And at the end they loose this unethical asshole on the world to go set up another therapy practice, and we're apparently supposed to be fine with that?
Same thing with Laskey. Just, no. Don't first give me him saying proudly that he's been given the right to punch Carter's ticket anytime and then try to suddenly sell me this bullshit of he's in HR for loyalty and is shocked, shocked to discover that this involves murder! Also, incidentally, he has to spend presumably ~8 hours a day hanging out with Carter in a car, why are they having a stupid secret meeting in the mailroom of his building after hours just for the purpose of getting caught?
It just feels overall like the writers can't be bothered to make the characters consistent from scene to scene. They want us to just accept that in this scene, this character will now be someone who got in too deep but is now trying to do the right thing! In this scene, this character will now be someone who really loves his girlfriend despite having made mistakes! But five minutes ago that character was a RAGING ASSHOLE, and they aren't conveying anything like remorse.
At least with Laskey, Carter very clearly had none of that, but John and Harold suddenly having sympathy for the conman instead of calling up the girlfriend (not to mention the rest of the victimized clients), telling her the truth about this guy, and worrying about her? Those are really screwy priorities.
Also, I have to say, the writers badly missed the chance to tie this episode off by having the kid selling the drinks wind up with the baseball. It was such an obvious next turn to me that I felt kind of sigh that they didn't take it, so instead the poor black kid remains an exploited prop in the lives of these two rich asshole con artists.
If it had been me, the episode would end on the kid, who would have been wearing a backwards baseball cap, and he's packing up his stand, and he goes to catch a subway uptown, and as we pass a sign saying Yankees Stadium, he turns his cap around on his head and it's got a Yankees logo, and he takes the ball out of his pocket, smiling down at it. They wouldn't have even have had to give him a speaking part! It would have been so right - the fan who really cares but could never afford it ends up with the ball! SIGH.
OK and now the heaps of good:
Harold being sincerely worried about Root and vice versa - which, you know, go Michael Emerson and Amy Acker, because they sold that scene to me. I am super excited for the Machine's coming evolution, and I love this incredibly weird Harold/Root thing which is like, IDK, somewhere in between Batman/Joker and Batman/Catwoman, this kind of unwilling-on-one-side intimacy between people who are too much alike, funhouse-mirror reflections of each other.
Shaw still totally hearteyeing Carter. :D In fact just so much actually good Shaw stuff the last three episodes! Shaw/Root, Shaw/Carter, Shaw's fridge!
The Finch/Reese last episode - John all protective and rescuing and also the plaintive wanting Harold to need him! And in this one his calling Harold up just to bitch and make his deeply irritated babysitting comment.
Bear being totally indignant about this other nonexistent dog Scout! Also that tiny and perfect throwaway moment of John's deep smugness over Bear coming to him over Shaw.
Carter, omg. Carter with Laskey at the end of Razgovor was amazing. I loved her having no patience with him afterwards, either. I'm just generally thrilled with her material this season; I feel like last year I couldn't care less about her plots, this year I'm totally there. They successfully upped her stakes and gave her a mission.
And I think they are going to wrap up the HR plot soon (and I hope they do because it's tired and boring and full of too many mustache-twirling villains none of whom they have ever managed to turn into real people for me - and man, what a criminal waste of Clarke Peters, who after 2 seasons of the Wire is MY FAVORITE).
But I am crossing my fingers a lot that she's going to bring down all HR, bring the Russians down with them, and then have this horrible realization that she just cleared the whole field for Elias, who has been planning all along and now grips the city in an iron fist. And it's her fault, and now she has to bring him down - but at the same time he's become her evil friend, and they'll be doing a Clark/Lex thing with the two of them and I would be SO THERE FOR THAT. In fact, I might totally write some Carter/Elias in the basement while I wait and see, cough.
Finally, sadly to end on a down note, I've seen the promo for the 3 episode thing - and I know this would be really depressing for a lot of fans, but IDK, I think the writing is on the wall for Fusco. They don't have enough air in the episodes for all the regulars anymore, much less the side characters - cesperanza was saying they've got Elias and Root both sitting around in cells doing nothing until they're needed; they also have bad stuff like Shaw goes with Reese or goes with Carter to do things that either of those characters could do on their own. And part of the bad guest-character development that I was complaining about above is also a function of not having enough time.
So either they need to transition to a style where we don't see all the regulars in each episode and the cast rotates in and out (which I would actually like, but I don't see any signs they're going that way), or they need to cut down the number of regulars, and he's the obvious one to go. He fills no necessary function, his arc of redemption is complete. And it would make a lot more sense to take him out now, while he's still significant to viewers and it can make a huge impact, rather than just dwindle him out little by little the way they effectively have been doing.
I'm not sure they're going to do this right now - from the promo I would in fact almost guess that they're setting up a bait-and-switch and Fusco does make it. But, IDK. Now or later this season, I think he probably goes.
The one thing I do still miss is, well - I miss what I think mollyamory called the claustrophobic Reese/Finch, isolated in the library. I am in fact gradually getting sold on their evolution out of there, although I still don't like Harold coming out unnecessarily with inadequate excuse, or hanging out in this safehouse. But there's a bit less of a frisson between the two of them for me. They've become an established relationship - I wouldn't find it remotely out of character if one day they just had Harold and John having breakfast together in his apartment, in pajamas, no explanation.
And that is in fact lovely, but I feel like the writers haven't figured out what to do with that. I mean, I get this is why MEmerson would always say in interviews, even last year when they were obviously becoming deeply intimate, that the relationship needed to remain prickly and tense. But it is not in fact impossible to keep excitement in an established relationship, Moonlighting notwithstanding.
But that said, overall, I feel like those pieces they put on the table in the first episode are starting to get paid off in a good way, and I'm super excited to watch the coming episodes. \o/
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Spoilers for Razgovor, Mors Praematura, The Perfect Mark, and next week's promo below!
I will start by getting the not-good stuff out of the way. Last night was yet another absolute asshole inexplicably being presented to us mid-episode as someone where we should care about him.
I deeply appreciated them having the girlfriend turning out to be a con artist too, because that was the only thing that redeemed her character choosing to go talk to him, but it didn't rescue the bizarre section where the con artist starts earnestly telling our heroes how he's going to change, like he/the writers expects them/us to (a) believe him, and (b) care. I don't care!
And at the end they loose this unethical asshole on the world to go set up another therapy practice, and we're apparently supposed to be fine with that?
Same thing with Laskey. Just, no. Don't first give me him saying proudly that he's been given the right to punch Carter's ticket anytime and then try to suddenly sell me this bullshit of he's in HR for loyalty and is shocked, shocked to discover that this involves murder! Also, incidentally, he has to spend presumably ~8 hours a day hanging out with Carter in a car, why are they having a stupid secret meeting in the mailroom of his building after hours just for the purpose of getting caught?
It just feels overall like the writers can't be bothered to make the characters consistent from scene to scene. They want us to just accept that in this scene, this character will now be someone who got in too deep but is now trying to do the right thing! In this scene, this character will now be someone who really loves his girlfriend despite having made mistakes! But five minutes ago that character was a RAGING ASSHOLE, and they aren't conveying anything like remorse.
At least with Laskey, Carter very clearly had none of that, but John and Harold suddenly having sympathy for the conman instead of calling up the girlfriend (not to mention the rest of the victimized clients), telling her the truth about this guy, and worrying about her? Those are really screwy priorities.
Also, I have to say, the writers badly missed the chance to tie this episode off by having the kid selling the drinks wind up with the baseball. It was such an obvious next turn to me that I felt kind of sigh that they didn't take it, so instead the poor black kid remains an exploited prop in the lives of these two rich asshole con artists.
If it had been me, the episode would end on the kid, who would have been wearing a backwards baseball cap, and he's packing up his stand, and he goes to catch a subway uptown, and as we pass a sign saying Yankees Stadium, he turns his cap around on his head and it's got a Yankees logo, and he takes the ball out of his pocket, smiling down at it. They wouldn't have even have had to give him a speaking part! It would have been so right - the fan who really cares but could never afford it ends up with the ball! SIGH.
OK and now the heaps of good:
Harold being sincerely worried about Root and vice versa - which, you know, go Michael Emerson and Amy Acker, because they sold that scene to me. I am super excited for the Machine's coming evolution, and I love this incredibly weird Harold/Root thing which is like, IDK, somewhere in between Batman/Joker and Batman/Catwoman, this kind of unwilling-on-one-side intimacy between people who are too much alike, funhouse-mirror reflections of each other.
Shaw still totally hearteyeing Carter. :D In fact just so much actually good Shaw stuff the last three episodes! Shaw/Root, Shaw/Carter, Shaw's fridge!
The Finch/Reese last episode - John all protective and rescuing and also the plaintive wanting Harold to need him! And in this one his calling Harold up just to bitch and make his deeply irritated babysitting comment.
Bear being totally indignant about this other nonexistent dog Scout! Also that tiny and perfect throwaway moment of John's deep smugness over Bear coming to him over Shaw.
Carter, omg. Carter with Laskey at the end of Razgovor was amazing. I loved her having no patience with him afterwards, either. I'm just generally thrilled with her material this season; I feel like last year I couldn't care less about her plots, this year I'm totally there. They successfully upped her stakes and gave her a mission.
And I think they are going to wrap up the HR plot soon (and I hope they do because it's tired and boring and full of too many mustache-twirling villains none of whom they have ever managed to turn into real people for me - and man, what a criminal waste of Clarke Peters, who after 2 seasons of the Wire is MY FAVORITE).
But I am crossing my fingers a lot that she's going to bring down all HR, bring the Russians down with them, and then have this horrible realization that she just cleared the whole field for Elias, who has been planning all along and now grips the city in an iron fist. And it's her fault, and now she has to bring him down - but at the same time he's become her evil friend, and they'll be doing a Clark/Lex thing with the two of them and I would be SO THERE FOR THAT. In fact, I might totally write some Carter/Elias in the basement while I wait and see, cough.
Finally, sadly to end on a down note, I've seen the promo for the 3 episode thing - and I know this would be really depressing for a lot of fans, but IDK, I think the writing is on the wall for Fusco. They don't have enough air in the episodes for all the regulars anymore, much less the side characters - cesperanza was saying they've got Elias and Root both sitting around in cells doing nothing until they're needed; they also have bad stuff like Shaw goes with Reese or goes with Carter to do things that either of those characters could do on their own. And part of the bad guest-character development that I was complaining about above is also a function of not having enough time.
So either they need to transition to a style where we don't see all the regulars in each episode and the cast rotates in and out (which I would actually like, but I don't see any signs they're going that way), or they need to cut down the number of regulars, and he's the obvious one to go. He fills no necessary function, his arc of redemption is complete. And it would make a lot more sense to take him out now, while he's still significant to viewers and it can make a huge impact, rather than just dwindle him out little by little the way they effectively have been doing.
I'm not sure they're going to do this right now - from the promo I would in fact almost guess that they're setting up a bait-and-switch and Fusco does make it. But, IDK. Now or later this season, I think he probably goes.
The one thing I do still miss is, well - I miss what I think mollyamory called the claustrophobic Reese/Finch, isolated in the library. I am in fact gradually getting sold on their evolution out of there, although I still don't like Harold coming out unnecessarily with inadequate excuse, or hanging out in this safehouse. But there's a bit less of a frisson between the two of them for me. They've become an established relationship - I wouldn't find it remotely out of character if one day they just had Harold and John having breakfast together in his apartment, in pajamas, no explanation.
And that is in fact lovely, but I feel like the writers haven't figured out what to do with that. I mean, I get this is why MEmerson would always say in interviews, even last year when they were obviously becoming deeply intimate, that the relationship needed to remain prickly and tense. But it is not in fact impossible to keep excitement in an established relationship, Moonlighting notwithstanding.
But that said, overall, I feel like those pieces they put on the table in the first episode are starting to get paid off in a good way, and I'm super excited to watch the coming episodes. \o/
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth (
comments)