Person of Interest.

Is J.J. Abrams really a selling point for a new show? Channel 5 seem to think so, because they trailed Person of Interest as from J.J. Abrams. He is only a co, or perhaps co,co producer on the show, but it does bring back spectres of Lost and all that wasted time we spent thinking it was something meaningful. Oh what glorious idiots we were back then.

So what of Person of Interest? It stars Jim Caviezal, who we last saw looking baffled in the pointless remake of The Prisoner, as John Reese. We meet him on a subway train looking like a tramp straight out of central casting, I thought he was going for an audition, or something. But no, he is really a down on his luck ex Special Forces man; you know the type. He promptly does over half a dozen hoods in the way that only happens on telly and in the films. This brings him to the attention of the mysterious, mega rich (aren't they always) Mr. Finch played by Michael Emerson, who was that creepy little geezer who did loads of creepy stuff in Lost. Well, it appears, he has built a super computer ( add lots of techno-babble here) that can determine crimes before they happen, much like Minority Report but without the baldness and birthing pools. He enlists Reese, to help him, and the fun and games begin. We also get a little Burn Notice 'how to' espionage voice over thrown in for good measure. The story was pretty perfunctory, though it had a few decent twists as  it raced to its inevitable conclusion. 

 

Person of Interest is well acted and  shows promise; they also make good use of the New York locations, making sure we all know this is not down town Toronto masquerading as the Big Apple. A lot depends on how much the show can add spice to the future crime of the week scenario. Will we all be watching by the end of the season? We might need Mr. Finch's super computer to tell us that. 

Over