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A few thoughts on Person of Interest
Since we've been watching this show and I know some of you do too, how about some thoughts?
I should say outside the cut that my reaction to the show so far has been rather mixed. Actually, it reminds me a lot of the way I felt about season one of Fringe, where I liked some things a lot, and some things not very much, and my favorite characters tended to be side characters rather than the main ones, who I was having trouble warming up to.
Having said that, we're up to ... I think 1x21 was the last one we watched? (We're getting DVDs from Netflix, so it's sometimes a bit difficult to figure out where we are, as opposed to having nicely numbered episodes from iTunes or whatnot. It was the first episode on the 6th DVD ...)
I also have to say that a lot of the fun that we're getting out of watching the show is mocking the characters' pain. It's kind of like Highlander in that the characters have SO. MUCH. ANGST and it expresses itself in such over-the-top and genre-typical ways that ... well, you feel sorry for them and you also want to laugh at them a lot. At least I do, which possibly makes me a bad person.
.... but seriously, Reese and his Beard of Sorrow? It's such an awesomely classic example of the trope that scenes which are, I'm sure, supposed to be very serious and full of angst are mostly punctuated by me giggling at his beard. (ETA: Exhibit A: the first hit I got when I googled for "person of interest reese beard". REESE, YOU APPEAR TO HAVE SOME SORT OF MAMMAL ATTACHED TO YOUR FACE.)
I'm pretty sure there is also at least one scene per episode that makes me inform the TV screen of some variation on the following: "Well what do you expect when you hire a homeless guy whose main skills involve killing people, Finch?"
... but in all honesty, it's a fun show, a show that takes itself so seriously and angstily that it makes me giggle a lot (again, a lot like Highlander, except Highlander was often more conscious of its own goofiness than PoI). And then you have episodes, or moments in episodes, that are genuinely supposed to be funny, like the entire stealing-a-baby episode, which was THE MOST AWESOME THING. (Except for the plot making no actual sense in any way, but I don't particularly care because there was a BABY PLAYING WITH GRENADES while being looked after by two people with absolutely no social skills in a house full of guns. Every show with violent, socially maladjusted characters needs a babynapping episode!)
And also, I like shows with basically sympathetic characters who have conflicting goals and valid reasons for keeping secrets from each other, and this show has that all over the place. Some of the episodes are really intriguing little moral puzzles, such as "Blue Code", which made me tumble head over heels into love with Fusco. And Carter is pretty much wonderful throughout; she hits my "one honest cop" kink so hard.
I have been musing quite a bit on the way Reese relates to Fusco, because he is a complete dick to him, and half the time seems to be deliberately trying to get him killed (or, at least, extremely cavalier with the possibility that he might be actively blackmailing him into getting killed). Which is no doubt partly because Fusco tried to kill him, but it's also just interesting. I thought at first that the way he deals with Fusco has something to do with Fusco reminding him too much of himself (I mean, besides the whole trying-to-kill-him thing, but most of the people he knows are trying to kill him) -- that he sees all the things about himself that he likes the least in Fusco and essentially handles Fusco the way that he does out of basic self-loathing. (And quite possibly because he IS actually trying to redeem Fusco, but he's making him work for it. Rather like himself.)
But I think it might be the other way around: that all of Fusco's worst failings are basically the opposite of Reese's failings. Reese's life disintegrated because he was too loyal. The worst things he did were done out of integrity. Whereas Fusco is pretty much the opposite of that, and I think it's Fusco's lack of loyalty (to the force, and to his fellow cops) that Reese can't forgive. I definitely got that feeling in 1x20, the one in which Fusco spends most of the episode with the dirty-cop HR guy (I really should be better at remembering people's names) trying to find the suitcase of platinum that HR stole, and then ends up shooting HR Guy in the back to save Reese -- which is contrasted against Reese not shooting his partner in the CIA. I really think that if the roles were reversed -- if it was, say, Snow about to shoot Carter or Fusco, and Reese had to shoot him in the back to save them -- he probably wouldn't have done it; it's just too much of a violation of his personal code. Whereas Fusco doesn't hesitate. And that, I think, is why Reese likes Carter and doesn't like Fusco, because Carter is the same way, with the loyalty-unto-death adherence to her principles. Whereas Fusco makes his moral decisions in the moment.
It's kind of a similar deal to something some of us were talking about recently in White Collar, where Peter has a black-and-white moral code (albeit with a lot of shades of gray in it) whereas Neal is pretty much all situational morality; Peter goes for principles, Neal goes for people. In this case, I think that's basically what's going on here -- Reese goes for principles, and Fusco goes for people. The characters are not similar to the ones in White Collar in any other way -- it's a very, very general comparison, and PoI is a WAY darker show -- but as far as the source of their antagonism, I think that's at least part of it.
As much as it bothers me that Reese jerks around Fusco with so little regard for his welfare (because I'm inordinately fond of Fusco), I do appreciate that Fusco hasn't been let off the hook for the things he's done. I mean, he WAS driving Reese out into the woods to dump his body in the first episode! Fusco's redemption, inasmuch as he's getting one, is a very slow, one-step-forward-and-two-steps-back thing, in which nobody really forgives him for anything, and I appreciate that, even though I do occasionally want to give him a hug AND TELL CARTER WHAT'S GOING ON OH MY GOD ~SERIOUSLY~.
... although, I've sort of come to terms with Reese not telling Carter and Fusco about each other, because it actually does make sense for a CIA-trained guy to compartmentalize his contacts that way. It seems very him, even if it does lead to slightly contrived narrative drama at times.
Along those lines, the general jerking-people-around aspect of this show gets to me at times. Emotional manipulation is something that's very difficult for me to deal with in fiction, and it's what led to me so deeply loathing Michael Emerson's character in Lost that I sometimes had to leave the room when he was on the screen -- it's borderline triggery for me. This show isn't nearly so bad, but there are times when that and the surveillance aspects make the show rather uncomfortable or simply annoying.
Also, New York on this show is HILARIOUSLY dystopic. It's the sort of place where a car blows up on the street and no one seems to notice, because THAT'S JUST HOW WE ROLL IN NEW YORK. (Since Burn Notice treats Miami pretty much the same way -- it's basically Baghdad -- one of our other recurring favorite things is to snark at the TV, when the characters shoot up a building in broad daylight or firebomb something, "Where do you think you are, Miami?")
And, you know, all of the above IS affectionate. I like the show! We've been marathoning it at the rate of 2 or 3 episodes a night. It's just that it's a show which is so very, very earnest about being ~serious~ and ~deep~ (without actually being all that deep) that it's very easy to laugh at. But it's a (usually) affectionate kind of mocking. Also, I kind of want to write fic about Fusco.
I should say outside the cut that my reaction to the show so far has been rather mixed. Actually, it reminds me a lot of the way I felt about season one of Fringe, where I liked some things a lot, and some things not very much, and my favorite characters tended to be side characters rather than the main ones, who I was having trouble warming up to.
Having said that, we're up to ... I think 1x21 was the last one we watched? (We're getting DVDs from Netflix, so it's sometimes a bit difficult to figure out where we are, as opposed to having nicely numbered episodes from iTunes or whatnot. It was the first episode on the 6th DVD ...)
I also have to say that a lot of the fun that we're getting out of watching the show is mocking the characters' pain. It's kind of like Highlander in that the characters have SO. MUCH. ANGST and it expresses itself in such over-the-top and genre-typical ways that ... well, you feel sorry for them and you also want to laugh at them a lot. At least I do, which possibly makes me a bad person.
.... but seriously, Reese and his Beard of Sorrow? It's such an awesomely classic example of the trope that scenes which are, I'm sure, supposed to be very serious and full of angst are mostly punctuated by me giggling at his beard. (ETA: Exhibit A: the first hit I got when I googled for "person of interest reese beard". REESE, YOU APPEAR TO HAVE SOME SORT OF MAMMAL ATTACHED TO YOUR FACE.)
I'm pretty sure there is also at least one scene per episode that makes me inform the TV screen of some variation on the following: "Well what do you expect when you hire a homeless guy whose main skills involve killing people, Finch?"
... but in all honesty, it's a fun show, a show that takes itself so seriously and angstily that it makes me giggle a lot (again, a lot like Highlander, except Highlander was often more conscious of its own goofiness than PoI). And then you have episodes, or moments in episodes, that are genuinely supposed to be funny, like the entire stealing-a-baby episode, which was THE MOST AWESOME THING. (Except for the plot making no actual sense in any way, but I don't particularly care because there was a BABY PLAYING WITH GRENADES while being looked after by two people with absolutely no social skills in a house full of guns. Every show with violent, socially maladjusted characters needs a babynapping episode!)
And also, I like shows with basically sympathetic characters who have conflicting goals and valid reasons for keeping secrets from each other, and this show has that all over the place. Some of the episodes are really intriguing little moral puzzles, such as "Blue Code", which made me tumble head over heels into love with Fusco. And Carter is pretty much wonderful throughout; she hits my "one honest cop" kink so hard.
I have been musing quite a bit on the way Reese relates to Fusco, because he is a complete dick to him, and half the time seems to be deliberately trying to get him killed (or, at least, extremely cavalier with the possibility that he might be actively blackmailing him into getting killed). Which is no doubt partly because Fusco tried to kill him, but it's also just interesting. I thought at first that the way he deals with Fusco has something to do with Fusco reminding him too much of himself (I mean, besides the whole trying-to-kill-him thing, but most of the people he knows are trying to kill him) -- that he sees all the things about himself that he likes the least in Fusco and essentially handles Fusco the way that he does out of basic self-loathing. (And quite possibly because he IS actually trying to redeem Fusco, but he's making him work for it. Rather like himself.)
But I think it might be the other way around: that all of Fusco's worst failings are basically the opposite of Reese's failings. Reese's life disintegrated because he was too loyal. The worst things he did were done out of integrity. Whereas Fusco is pretty much the opposite of that, and I think it's Fusco's lack of loyalty (to the force, and to his fellow cops) that Reese can't forgive. I definitely got that feeling in 1x20, the one in which Fusco spends most of the episode with the dirty-cop HR guy (I really should be better at remembering people's names) trying to find the suitcase of platinum that HR stole, and then ends up shooting HR Guy in the back to save Reese -- which is contrasted against Reese not shooting his partner in the CIA. I really think that if the roles were reversed -- if it was, say, Snow about to shoot Carter or Fusco, and Reese had to shoot him in the back to save them -- he probably wouldn't have done it; it's just too much of a violation of his personal code. Whereas Fusco doesn't hesitate. And that, I think, is why Reese likes Carter and doesn't like Fusco, because Carter is the same way, with the loyalty-unto-death adherence to her principles. Whereas Fusco makes his moral decisions in the moment.
It's kind of a similar deal to something some of us were talking about recently in White Collar, where Peter has a black-and-white moral code (albeit with a lot of shades of gray in it) whereas Neal is pretty much all situational morality; Peter goes for principles, Neal goes for people. In this case, I think that's basically what's going on here -- Reese goes for principles, and Fusco goes for people. The characters are not similar to the ones in White Collar in any other way -- it's a very, very general comparison, and PoI is a WAY darker show -- but as far as the source of their antagonism, I think that's at least part of it.
As much as it bothers me that Reese jerks around Fusco with so little regard for his welfare (because I'm inordinately fond of Fusco), I do appreciate that Fusco hasn't been let off the hook for the things he's done. I mean, he WAS driving Reese out into the woods to dump his body in the first episode! Fusco's redemption, inasmuch as he's getting one, is a very slow, one-step-forward-and-two-steps-back thing, in which nobody really forgives him for anything, and I appreciate that, even though I do occasionally want to give him a hug AND TELL CARTER WHAT'S GOING ON OH MY GOD ~SERIOUSLY~.
... although, I've sort of come to terms with Reese not telling Carter and Fusco about each other, because it actually does make sense for a CIA-trained guy to compartmentalize his contacts that way. It seems very him, even if it does lead to slightly contrived narrative drama at times.
Along those lines, the general jerking-people-around aspect of this show gets to me at times. Emotional manipulation is something that's very difficult for me to deal with in fiction, and it's what led to me so deeply loathing Michael Emerson's character in Lost that I sometimes had to leave the room when he was on the screen -- it's borderline triggery for me. This show isn't nearly so bad, but there are times when that and the surveillance aspects make the show rather uncomfortable or simply annoying.
Also, New York on this show is HILARIOUSLY dystopic. It's the sort of place where a car blows up on the street and no one seems to notice, because THAT'S JUST HOW WE ROLL IN NEW YORK. (Since Burn Notice treats Miami pretty much the same way -- it's basically Baghdad -- one of our other recurring favorite things is to snark at the TV, when the characters shoot up a building in broad daylight or firebomb something, "Where do you think you are, Miami?")
And, you know, all of the above IS affectionate. I like the show! We've been marathoning it at the rate of 2 or 3 episodes a night. It's just that it's a show which is so very, very earnest about being ~serious~ and ~deep~ (without actually being all that deep) that it's very easy to laugh at. But it's a (usually) affectionate kind of mocking. Also, I kind of want to write fic about Fusco.
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Having said that, I have found it worth watching, though not worth buying.