One of the first scenes from "The Conversation" features a handful of directional microphones pointed down in a nearby park, trying to record a particular conversation between two acquaintances. There's a similar scene halfway into the pilot for "Person of Interest," where reclusive billionaire Harold Finch (Michael Emerson) reveals to John Reese (Jim Caviezel) about the omnipotent machine, which he created for the government, that has the power to predict terrorist attacks but at the cost of disregarding average crime.
Whereas the couple in the former were recorded surreptitiously, Mr. Finch knows well that surveillance cameras (and "The Machine") are watching, listening and determining nefarious intent of others.
All that works well about the pilot involves this supercomputer and window dressings. The first "client" of these two men is a prosecutor, whose either unwittingly been the target of corrupt cops or is the perpetrator. They're able to obtain a clearer picture of which possibility she belongs to through a combination of breaking into her home, collecting information, and using the microphone on her smartphone as it's own directional microphone.
Created by Jonathan Nolan, brother to Christopher Nolan, "Person of Interest" could have only been made in a post-9/11 privacy-free society and likely only been the product of the Nolans. It also antiquates "The Conversation," but that's a conversation for another day.
Anyone whose watched the following three and a half seasons of the show will know that the creative team likes to weave in and out between the line between the need privacy and security, both national and personal. Within the pilot itself, there's only an inkling of this, in the implications of the machine.
Nolan and his team do an admirable job providing the furnishings and the characters, only giving brief glimpses of their motivations and backstories, providing opportunity to fill in the canvas further along in their story. All that doesn't quite gel is whenever the show veers dangerously close into the crime-procedural arena, with the corrupt cops, that only work because what surrounds it.
Yet, it's a shadowy, dangerous and delicate world that Reese and Finch operate within, one where either of these two men could be killed at a moment, which Finch casually mention at episode's end. However, both, who've been declared legally dead by the surrounding world, seem aware of that knowledge and perfectly accepting of it.
All in the name of being a stranger's guardian angel who doesn't even know they're being saved. Kinda like the machine they're taking their intel from.
Whereas the couple in the former were recorded surreptitiously, Mr. Finch knows well that surveillance cameras (and "The Machine") are watching, listening and determining nefarious intent of others.
All that works well about the pilot involves this supercomputer and window dressings. The first "client" of these two men is a prosecutor, whose either unwittingly been the target of corrupt cops or is the perpetrator. They're able to obtain a clearer picture of which possibility she belongs to through a combination of breaking into her home, collecting information, and using the microphone on her smartphone as it's own directional microphone.
Created by Jonathan Nolan, brother to Christopher Nolan, "Person of Interest" could have only been made in a post-9/11 privacy-free society and likely only been the product of the Nolans. It also antiquates "The Conversation," but that's a conversation for another day.
Anyone whose watched the following three and a half seasons of the show will know that the creative team likes to weave in and out between the line between the need privacy and security, both national and personal. Within the pilot itself, there's only an inkling of this, in the implications of the machine.
Nolan and his team do an admirable job providing the furnishings and the characters, only giving brief glimpses of their motivations and backstories, providing opportunity to fill in the canvas further along in their story. All that doesn't quite gel is whenever the show veers dangerously close into the crime-procedural arena, with the corrupt cops, that only work because what surrounds it.
Yet, it's a shadowy, dangerous and delicate world that Reese and Finch operate within, one where either of these two men could be killed at a moment, which Finch casually mention at episode's end. However, both, who've been declared legally dead by the surrounding world, seem aware of that knowledge and perfectly accepting of it.
All in the name of being a stranger's guardian angel who doesn't even know they're being saved. Kinda like the machine they're taking their intel from.