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Ben X

Person of Interest

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DOUBLEPOST because I need to tell everyone that Person Of Interest is amazing. Under the Michael Mann sheen of cool and slick action, and the slowly expanding web of characters and plot threads, lies quiet humour and touching character development. It's overtly post-9/11 as well, in a way that reminds me of Magnum pi's post-'Nam themes.

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Oh, really? Man, I need to get back into that.  Been hearing AVClub talk about it chaning too. When does it get good? Because I watched like.. 10 episodes i think and it was ok, then got a bit boring, then sort of ok, I guess? It was a lot of meh, with a few ok characters and a pretty blank lead.

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Ep 7 was a really good one, then it starts heating up around episode 10. Caviezel continues to (purposefully) underplay him, but the lead does very very gradually warm up and deepen.

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Ah, yes. The Elias reveal was great! That was a high point I remembered, then it sort of got back to what it was doing before and I remember thinking it was getting a bit more interesting but just not enough to keep me and my GF watching every week. It'll be easier now, I think, when I can just go to the next episode immediately if I'm interested!

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I made it to about ep 4 or 5 when it first started, don't think I'll go back to it

I am watching the blacklist at the moment which is kinda similar... it isn't actually at all BUT it is a lot of fun and I would recommend

I just watched Moon, what a fantastic movie. I saw it at the cinema which must be a good 4 years ago. I had completely forgotten how unbelievable fucking sad it is #sadface it made me throw away my peanuts! I need to look after myself! no matter what you do we're all going to get old, deteriorate and die (and that's if we're lucky). Fuck

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Third season's on Netflix?? Awesome. The first two seasons were really good. Much better than people led me to believe! Even the first season!

 

I've been binging Person of Interest because of Rob talking about it on Idle Weekend (it'd been on my list for a while, but he pushed me over the edge). Man it's so good.

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Third season's on Netflix?? Awesome. The first two seasons were really good. Much better than people led me to believe! Even the first season!

 

I've been binging Person of Interest because of Rob talking about it on Idle Weekend (it'd been on my list for a while, but he pushed me over the edge). Man it's so good.

 

I started watching Person of Interest when it first started (back when I still had cable).  I remember thinking it was ok and that the intro to the show constantly reminded me of the trailer for Watch_Dogs

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It's very much watch doggy.

 

Also it's the best. It's definitely a not-quite-dystopian surveillance state almost cyberpunk (sans the typical aesthetic) type of show. Right up my alley!

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I finished season three of Person of Interest last night.

 

Man I cannot recommend this show enough if you're at all interested in the basic idea of an omniscient AI and the people who want to use and/or abuse said AI for various goals. Some good, some... not. The first... half (!) of the first season is unfortunately deceptive in that it appears to be nothing but a procedural with a surveillance state twist. Fun, but nothing to write home about. However, it seeds the show with some good concepts that bloom into some truly crazy shit later on. It's really good!

 

The end of season three basically culminated in 

a second AI being born and given the same access to information as the first - but without the hard work put into it to make sure it had empathy for humans. So now we've got a war going on between two omniscient AIs. One that cares about people. Another whose ultimate goal is thus far unknown, but certainly doesn't appear altruistic.

 

dis gon be gud

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Maaaaan, Twig. I'm with you on Person of Interest! I remember watching some of the first season and liking it but just sort of quietly forgetting it.

 

Just powered through almost four seasons now, and it's absolutely brilliant. So much good stuff.

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I finished season three of Person of Interest last night.

 

Man I cannot recommend this show enough if you're at all interested in the basic idea of an omniscient AI and the people who want to use and/or abuse said AI for various goals. Some good, some... not. The first... half (!) of the first season is unfortunately deceptive in that it appears to be nothing but a procedural with a surveillance state twist. Fun, but nothing to write home about. However, it seeds the show with some good concepts that bloom into some truly crazy shit later on. It's really good!

 

I've started watching POI partly based on this and Rob.  I'm still in the first season and I'm really hoping that you're right about the later seasons.  I kind of dig the mythology of the show but watching it is becoming something of a chore.  The plots are extremely predictable right now.  Every episode so far seems to rely on a very transparent plot twist of "the person you thought was a good guy is actually a bad guy and vice versa".  Reese doesn't seem like a particularly effective operator either.  He lets his guard down a lot and should have been killed several times over by now.  Also his serious almost Christian Bale Batman voice and demeanor are starting to grate on me.  I'm frankly not interested in his past and find Finch and the Machine to be far more interesting. 

 

I'll keep at it but you better be right Twig!

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How far into POI are you, SAM? I found it rather mediocre until episode 7 of the first season and then it steadily and continuously improves from there.

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I'm near the end of the first season, just a couple left.  I'll admit its gotten a bit better but still rather formulaic.  I've thus far been able to reliably predict each episode within the first ten minutes.  I can see glimpses of interesting stuff happening but nothing that's really grabbed me yet.  Agents of SHIELD started off like that too though and it turned into something pretty great so I'm willing to give POI more time.

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I'm only like four episodes into the first season and I'm at the same place with it. I love the concept but the execution just is not there yet and Reese is generic unlikable action man. I definitely plan on keeping with it though thanks to the interesting ideas and the praise that makes it seem that promise is eventually realized. It's really highlighting to me that sometimes it can be really hard to find new shows to watch because a lot of great shows have lackluster first seasons but you can't really just skip ahead because you end up missing important character development/world building that contributes to later seasons paying off.

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Person of Interest does get significantly better in the later seasons, and a lot of that is because they introduce additional main characters which takes focus away from Reese, who is basically the least interesting parts of Batman. It never entirely abandons it's case-of-the-week structure, and the cases of the week never really stop being predictable, but as the show goes on they spend more time on the larger plot and character stuff. The show is really at it's best once Root and Shaw become regulars, especially Root, Root is the best.

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Root IS the best!

Also I like Reese. ):

Haters. ):

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I've started the second season and already the show is improving.  Strangely the thing that started turning it around for me was the dog.  Bear adds a bit of levity that the show desperately needed as up until now it was all serious all the time.  I don't want it to be a dumb buddy cop show or anything but it felt rather monotonous till now.  Also involving their cop buddies and various other allies a lot more is helping.  I get that the first season needed to be a lot of setup to reach this point but I'm really glad that part is over.

 

I don't dislike Reese or anything, I just find him really generic and uninteresting compared to everyone else.  The best moments with him so far have been when he's out of his element (such as being forced to be the computer guy or pretending to be a normal dude on a date).

 

I found Root to be kind of disappointing once they figured out who she was but I've only seen her a couple of times.  I have no idea who Shaw is yet.

 

Also I recently watched an episode where the POI was a female surgeon whose wife was being threatened.  That was pretty cool (the wife thing, not the threatening thing).

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I used these reviews to figure out what to watch and what to not in the second season of POI. Season 2 is a step up from 1 and 3 is as big as step up from 2.

 

Your point of the wife of the surgeon reminded how the show, definitely in the later season had more women in roles that weren't victim x that I would except from a CBS show. I think someone(s) were definitely making a point to have at least one woman in roles that in other shows you wouldn't see any.

 

About half way through the current season of Bojack horseman which continues to be really good show about people trying to not fuck up their lives and not doing a great job of it. As of this season  is now one of the few I can think where a character actually goes through with an abortion and it involves a pop song about shotting said feutus that as pop songs go is pretty good. Also ending the third episode with a different version of the ending song was genius.

 

Also re-watching Crazy ex-girlfriend on Netflix which like  Bojack has a pretty dark undercurrent under it bright surface with another main character in need of some help regarding her mental health. The only show I know that has a

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I hope you don't skip any POI eps, SAM.

 

Stranger Things is well-made and pretty enjoyable but it really is a collection of tropes and 80s references (which I'm kind of over now) to the point where it does nothing original or unpredictable. I don't know if I'd bother watching a second season...

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I hope you don't skip any POI eps, SAM.

 

I hate skipping episodes.  I never do it unless something is particularly unwatchable.

 

I've moved into season 3.  The show has gotten decidedly better.  I'm not a huge fan of Root (sorry Twig) but I like Shaw.  She's a more interesting (and seemingly more skilled) version of Reese.  What I'd like to see now is the Machine itself becoming more of a character.  It's already started to happen.

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Root is the best.

 

I started watching Penny Dreadful because I like vampires and shit, and it's definitely piqued my interest. I'm only three episodes in. There's a psychic lady who appears to be hunted by all manner of the supernatural including possibly the devil?? i dunno, a fake cowboy who's a pretty good shot and apparently bisexual, a pretty boy obsessed with sex who's also apparently bisexual (Dorian Gray), an old man who wants to save his vampiric daughter, and literally Doctor Frankenstein.

 

There's also one African guy who is the old man's servant. It is Victorian London, and he's never treated poorly, at least. He's got a bunch of bumps on his cheeks? I don't know what that's about.

 

Very violent and NSFW.

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