Person of Interest 1.09
Person of Interest had some nice character development this week. Detective Carter got a first name, yay! And she's a mother to a young teenage son who actually seems non-bratty so far. He even knows how to smile.
(My theory about Carter growing up a city kid hasn't been stomped on yet. "Grandma" lives in the area--close enough for the grandson to stay with her sometimes.)
We knew Carter had been in Afghanistan and Iraq, but this gave us more information about her role (at least one of them): interrogator, getting information from potential terrorists. Yet we didn't see her use torture or undue coercion for this particular target; instead she used her perceptiveness and empathy in an entirely appropriate and effective way. Yusuf wasn't a hardened terrorist, just a guy trying to get by in a dangerous place.
Carter still doesn't trust Fusco enough to treat him as a friend. Hasn't lost her gift of perception in the intervening years; as much as I like Fusco, I wouldn't consider him particularly trustworthy, especially not as a fellow police officer. I wouldn't want to make him angry, but I don't blame Carter for not wanting be chums. (And yes, Fusco seems to have turned a corner, but he has a long way to go to redeem his reputation from before.)
Implications that the father of Carter's son was killed--death of a loved one being one more thing Carter has in common with Reese and Finch.
As for the Carter and Reese interactions: she wore her bullet-proof vest because he warned her! He called her by her first name! He gave her a speech about not being alone! Granted, that whole speech coming from him probably doesn't make her feel better at all, but hey... he tried.
There is one thing I'll nit-pick: Elias leaving the flowers on Carter's desk. Taking them there himself, too. I get that the show runners probably want to keep Elias in the spotlight, but really? I though he was supposed to be scary 'cause he's an old-school mafia dude, not because he's a creepy stalker (who telegraphs his evil intentions in an almost comical way).
Speaking of criticisms, my 'one thing' to complain about in the episode wasn't really mentioned at an LJ comm discussion. Plenty of other things were. The worst episode so far, what?! *sigh* We're watching a show in which a magical machine magically provides a number each week. Yeah, there's a (totally implausible) pseudo-technology explanation, but gritty realism isn't what this show is about. "Get Carter" wasn't the strongest episode, but it's not like it had lots more plotholes or silly character moments than the other episodes. And I can't decide if it's me being overly sensitive or not, but it feels like it's the episodes with the most action for female characters that get criticized the most.
And then I made the mistake of going to the TWoP forum, where the Carter (and Tariji Henson) disdain) is full-blown and unmistakeable. Why did I do that? I know better! There's a reason why I hadn't read anything there in months. Lesson (re)learned the hard way, blergh.
I had to delete a userpic in order to upload this one. *sobs* (This, by the way? The only userpic I've seen of Carter anywhere. Yeah...)
Posted at Dreamwidth: http://rose-griffes.dreamwidth.org/218883.html. Comment where you wish.
(My theory about Carter growing up a city kid hasn't been stomped on yet. "Grandma" lives in the area--close enough for the grandson to stay with her sometimes.)
We knew Carter had been in Afghanistan and Iraq, but this gave us more information about her role (at least one of them): interrogator, getting information from potential terrorists. Yet we didn't see her use torture or undue coercion for this particular target; instead she used her perceptiveness and empathy in an entirely appropriate and effective way. Yusuf wasn't a hardened terrorist, just a guy trying to get by in a dangerous place.
Carter still doesn't trust Fusco enough to treat him as a friend. Hasn't lost her gift of perception in the intervening years; as much as I like Fusco, I wouldn't consider him particularly trustworthy, especially not as a fellow police officer. I wouldn't want to make him angry, but I don't blame Carter for not wanting be chums. (And yes, Fusco seems to have turned a corner, but he has a long way to go to redeem his reputation from before.)
Implications that the father of Carter's son was killed--death of a loved one being one more thing Carter has in common with Reese and Finch.
As for the Carter and Reese interactions: she wore her bullet-proof vest because he warned her! He called her by her first name! He gave her a speech about not being alone! Granted, that whole speech coming from him probably doesn't make her feel better at all, but hey... he tried.
There is one thing I'll nit-pick: Elias leaving the flowers on Carter's desk. Taking them there himself, too. I get that the show runners probably want to keep Elias in the spotlight, but really? I though he was supposed to be scary 'cause he's an old-school mafia dude, not because he's a creepy stalker (who telegraphs his evil intentions in an almost comical way).
Speaking of criticisms, my 'one thing' to complain about in the episode wasn't really mentioned at an LJ comm discussion. Plenty of other things were. The worst episode so far, what?! *sigh* We're watching a show in which a magical machine magically provides a number each week. Yeah, there's a (totally implausible) pseudo-technology explanation, but gritty realism isn't what this show is about. "Get Carter" wasn't the strongest episode, but it's not like it had lots more plotholes or silly character moments than the other episodes. And I can't decide if it's me being overly sensitive or not, but it feels like it's the episodes with the most action for female characters that get criticized the most.
And then I made the mistake of going to the TWoP forum, where the Carter (and Tariji Henson) disdain) is full-blown and unmistakeable. Why did I do that? I know better! There's a reason why I hadn't read anything there in months. Lesson (re)learned the hard way, blergh.
I had to delete a userpic in order to upload this one. *sobs* (This, by the way? The only userpic I've seen of Carter anywhere. Yeah...)
Posted at Dreamwidth: http://rose-griffes.dreamwidth.org/218883.html. Comment where you wish.