Person of Interest Season 1 on DVD Now!
Person of Interest stars Jim Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ. The Prisoner) as John Reese. An ex-CIA officer and Green Beret, he’s current living in a rundown apartment in NYC after an ‘incident’ left him presumed dead. But a ‘less than chance’ meeting with billionaire computer genius Harold Finch (played by Lost’s Michael Emerson) is about to change his life.
Finch explains he’s built a computer that uses information gathered in today’s surveillance culture to create a prediction engine that will predict terrorist attacks and crimes. When the government ignores Finch, he decides to take matters into his own hands, persuades Reese to join him, using his CIA & ex-military training to track down the crimes, and stop them before they happen. It’s less a whodunit and more a whosgonnadoit.
I think of Person of Interest as being part Batman, part Minority Report, part cop show. The Batman element is not surprising given the show’s writer and creator is Jonathan Nolan, the scribe behind his brother Christopher Nolan‘s brilliant Batman Trilogy. And when you add in J. J. Abrams as exec producer, you know you’re going to be in for something good.
Caviezel and Emerson have a great on screen rapport, both serious when they need to be, but with a darkly dry humour bubbling up to the surface. Whilst the show-to-show format is of a procedural cop drama, there is a deeper over-arching story of how the 2 characters got to where they are, with occasional flashbacks giving glimpses into the 2 main protagonist’s pasts. Much like the machine in the show, you’re never given all the information, only parts of steps along their journey.
The 2 main leads are supported by 2 members of the NYPD. First is Detective Lionel Fusco (Kevin Chapman – Rescue Me, Brotherhood) is a corrupt cop who’s caught out by Reese, but rather than turn Fusco in, Reese leverages him into helping them out. The other is Detective Jocelyn Carter (Taraji P. Henson – Boston Legal, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), who is sent to catch the mysterious suited vigilante who’s been showing up a crime scenes. However, once she realises that Reese is actually helping people, she backs off, and even starts to lend a hand.
The procedural elements of the show intertwine nicely with the bigger over-arching story of how the machine became into being, and the hints of government conspiracy along the way. If you’ve not managed to catch Person Of Interest on Channel 5 yet, I urge you to go out and pick up the [amazon_link id=”B005YYCMEO” target=”_blank” ]DVD of Person of Interest – Season 1[/amazon_link] or [amazon_link id=”B0090K6E06″ target=”_blank” ]on Blu-ray[/amazon_link] now. You really won’t regret it.
Extras include: Broadcast Pilot Episode with Producer Commentary, Extended Pilot Episode (with and without Commentary, Gag Reel and the rather disturbing ‘Living In An Age Of Surveillance’ Featurette.
