Person of Interest season 3 disc 6
Beta
To start with my big criticisms: the chronology of this episode didn’t work and every character had a habit of uttering extraneous dialogue.
Anyway, nobody could find Finch, not Reese and Shaw, nor Samaritan, so Decima decided to look up a contact of Harold’s, which brought Grace back into the frame. GRACE! (I understand that Tascioni is on The Good Fight, but I feel that my break with The Good Wife was too decisive for that to be enough to make me try to pick up with the spin-off.)
She was the NOTW, and with Samaritan’s testing period activated, NYC was hostile territory for Team Machine, so the team had to include Root and the Machine. And Grace still got abducted. I was impressed that she elicited some consideration from Greer, HER KIDNAPPER.
A moment that deserves a mention is on the bridge when a hooded Grace stumbled while a passing Harold, who was exchanging himself for her, steadied her. That’s the Harold she thought was dead, who she’d been giving a glowing testimonial about (to HER KIDNAPPER).
It’s also worth noting that Grace was sent away to Italy, which has already featured in the episode where John got a new suit.
Root did some scavenging of servers rather than the destruction I was urging.
A House Divided
This followed on quickly after the last episode, with Root convincing Reese and Shaw to work with her/for the Machine until they got some numbers. And those numbers were Control and government people who were considering Decima’s terms for the use of Samaritan. Vigilance were after them, of course. Shaw had to fight her understandable instincts around her former boss, but John was focused on doing what they must to save Finch.
We also got flashbacks about how nice Peter got cross because government surveillance let to a grave injustice against his brother and thus became Vigilance fodder. While there have been many flashbacks I’ve cared about more on this show, I did wonder who was messaging him (I am so proud of myself for that, in hindsight.)
Finch was now the one having face to face conversations with Greer, but failed to convince him about AIs.
It was fun to watch Root be in charge and making use of the geeks she’d collected over the season, but she and the Machine always seemed on the backfoot because there was so much going on. And so we ended on a cliffhanger.
I had fewer issues with that episode than ‘Beta’.
Deus Ex Machina
There was a sense of inevitability that they’d someday use this title.
More backstory as Peter Collier became Peter Brandt.
Reese had to team up with Hirsh, which was amusing, to try to find Finch and Control. Because it was a finale they found something for Lionel and Bear to do. Shaw had divined Root was up to something dangerous and went to help her on her mission in New Jersey (I’m not actually sure how she knew Shaw was there, but it’s hardly the first time someone in the team has done that.)
Meanwhile, at the show trial, Harold was noble and gave up his secrets to save others’ lives, but Decima swooped in to save Greer (who you feel is old enough to know better than his fanaticism) and then came the big reveal, which was that he/Decima had created Vigilance and Collier to get the government to do what they wanted. (I felt a little bit smug and relieved that I’d asked pertinent questions, and it was a neat tying up of two of this season’s strands). Collier and Hirsh got killed off and Vigilance was framed for a terrorist attack, while the big show trial never went public. Ah well, Finch thought his admissions were going public. And Samaritan was a go.
Root and the Machine’s plan went into action, which was to hide her seven assets who might (in season 4?) be able to bring Samaritan down. It occurs to me that I was just like Shaw, wanting to destroy the servers, but of course the scale of operations was too big for that to work.
The ending was an excellent montage, with the Team saying their goodbyes and going off their separate ways to live new lives as a new police/surveillance state emerged and Radiohead - perfect choice! - played over it all. I can’t see our lot living normal quiet lives for long.
Bravura finale.
I was pleased by the extras, as we got a gag reel, a commentary and features, plural, on interesting subjects. The QandAs, especially the one between the writers and experts in AI etc, were interesting. Michael Emerson did the commentary for the finale, which was often him reacting as he watched the episode for the first time, but he’s just about charming enough to get away with it. One of my biggest takeaways from the commentary was how important shooting in New York is for the show - many of the actors they cast have a stage background and there’s the ever present location, architecture and buildings that, as a viewer, I take for granted, even as they help to ground what’s happening. What also came out in the extras was this was around the time that the Snowden revelations were coming out, and showing that PoI wasn’t so very far off reality.
Next on the DVD pile is season 5 of Smallville. I know - I rewatched the season 4 finale the other daym which can be summed up by the punctuation marks '!?' and mostly not in a good way.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/277832.html.
To start with my big criticisms: the chronology of this episode didn’t work and every character had a habit of uttering extraneous dialogue.
Anyway, nobody could find Finch, not Reese and Shaw, nor Samaritan, so Decima decided to look up a contact of Harold’s, which brought Grace back into the frame. GRACE! (I understand that Tascioni is on The Good Fight, but I feel that my break with The Good Wife was too decisive for that to be enough to make me try to pick up with the spin-off.)
She was the NOTW, and with Samaritan’s testing period activated, NYC was hostile territory for Team Machine, so the team had to include Root and the Machine. And Grace still got abducted. I was impressed that she elicited some consideration from Greer, HER KIDNAPPER.
A moment that deserves a mention is on the bridge when a hooded Grace stumbled while a passing Harold, who was exchanging himself for her, steadied her. That’s the Harold she thought was dead, who she’d been giving a glowing testimonial about (to HER KIDNAPPER).
It’s also worth noting that Grace was sent away to Italy, which has already featured in the episode where John got a new suit.
Root did some scavenging of servers rather than the destruction I was urging.
A House Divided
This followed on quickly after the last episode, with Root convincing Reese and Shaw to work with her/for the Machine until they got some numbers. And those numbers were Control and government people who were considering Decima’s terms for the use of Samaritan. Vigilance were after them, of course. Shaw had to fight her understandable instincts around her former boss, but John was focused on doing what they must to save Finch.
We also got flashbacks about how nice Peter got cross because government surveillance let to a grave injustice against his brother and thus became Vigilance fodder. While there have been many flashbacks I’ve cared about more on this show, I did wonder who was messaging him (I am so proud of myself for that, in hindsight.)
Finch was now the one having face to face conversations with Greer, but failed to convince him about AIs.
It was fun to watch Root be in charge and making use of the geeks she’d collected over the season, but she and the Machine always seemed on the backfoot because there was so much going on. And so we ended on a cliffhanger.
I had fewer issues with that episode than ‘Beta’.
Deus Ex Machina
There was a sense of inevitability that they’d someday use this title.
More backstory as Peter Collier became Peter Brandt.
Reese had to team up with Hirsh, which was amusing, to try to find Finch and Control. Because it was a finale they found something for Lionel and Bear to do. Shaw had divined Root was up to something dangerous and went to help her on her mission in New Jersey (I’m not actually sure how she knew Shaw was there, but it’s hardly the first time someone in the team has done that.)
Meanwhile, at the show trial, Harold was noble and gave up his secrets to save others’ lives, but Decima swooped in to save Greer (who you feel is old enough to know better than his fanaticism) and then came the big reveal, which was that he/Decima had created Vigilance and Collier to get the government to do what they wanted. (I felt a little bit smug and relieved that I’d asked pertinent questions, and it was a neat tying up of two of this season’s strands). Collier and Hirsh got killed off and Vigilance was framed for a terrorist attack, while the big show trial never went public. Ah well, Finch thought his admissions were going public. And Samaritan was a go.
Root and the Machine’s plan went into action, which was to hide her seven assets who might (in season 4?) be able to bring Samaritan down. It occurs to me that I was just like Shaw, wanting to destroy the servers, but of course the scale of operations was too big for that to work.
The ending was an excellent montage, with the Team saying their goodbyes and going off their separate ways to live new lives as a new police/surveillance state emerged and Radiohead - perfect choice! - played over it all. I can’t see our lot living normal quiet lives for long.
Bravura finale.
I was pleased by the extras, as we got a gag reel, a commentary and features, plural, on interesting subjects. The QandAs, especially the one between the writers and experts in AI etc, were interesting. Michael Emerson did the commentary for the finale, which was often him reacting as he watched the episode for the first time, but he’s just about charming enough to get away with it. One of my biggest takeaways from the commentary was how important shooting in New York is for the show - many of the actors they cast have a stage background and there’s the ever present location, architecture and buildings that, as a viewer, I take for granted, even as they help to ground what’s happening. What also came out in the extras was this was around the time that the Snowden revelations were coming out, and showing that PoI wasn’t so very far off reality.
Next on the DVD pile is season 5 of Smallville. I know - I rewatched the season 4 finale the other daym which can be summed up by the punctuation marks '!?' and mostly not in a good way.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/277832.html.