DVDs I have been watching recently
Mar. 18th, 2017 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessPerson of Interest disc 3
These four episodes were completely new to me, although I had been spoiled that Carter was killed off, but I was curious as to how the show would handle it – the answer is pretty well, especially the aftermath for the other characters.
Inevitably, in 3.09, ‘The Crossing’, Reese was the NOTW, and things got pretty bad for the whole team. The build-up between John and Joss went somewhere, with a call back to the first time they’d met and even a kiss. Eh. I felt the latter stuff was a little crammed in because they were going to kill her off, but I’m a John/Zoe shipper because of the Bruce/Selina echoes, even if I know it hasn’t been shown as going too deep. The final scene was excellent, though, with Finch there and the Machine’s attempt to communicate with him as the last loose end from HR did for Carter right in front of Reese.
3.10 ‘The Devil’s Share’ was the best of the quartette, as the show upped its game to deal with the loss of Carter. Great use of flashbacks to four interviews that were informative and sometimes misleading: Finch talking about survivor’s guilt; medical student Shaw getting blocked from being a doctor; special operative John doing what needed to be done – and the lighting was excellent here, turning his face into a skull; and a ruthless Fusco admitting to taking the law in his own hands. In the present, we had Shaw, but mainly Reese, on the rampage (the latter to the detriment of his health) and Shaw finally talked Reese into reuniting Root with the Machine.
I had Angel flashbacks at Acker’s Root intoning that something big was coming.
They skilfully managed to keep Team Machine from dishonouring Joss’s memory (and I loved the consideration for Carter’s influence of Lionel) but justice was served by Elias for us the audience. Lots of attention to detail, pay-off and moral ambiguities.
3.11 ‘Lethe’ ended with a cliffhanger, and was also very good. John was AWOL - out of the city, even. Harold was ignoring the Machine’s calls until she/it made Root get through to him. So Shaw was looking after the NOTW, which meant she got a lot of air time. It turned out the NOTW and the people after him were connected to Team Machine in brilliantly escalating reveals. We also got flashbacks to young Harold, explaining how his father’s early-onset dementia inspired him to try to create the proto Machine. Oh, Harold.
Fusco was well deployed, but I’m not going to say that spoiling for a fight with John (drunk or not) the episode after another brawl and recent torture was anything but stupid.
At the end of the ep, we and the Machine had a lot to ponder.
3.12 'Aletheia' (I had to look up the meaning/reference) concluded much of what had been left open after the last episode, but left enough unresolved and everyone and everything in a very different position. Although Lionel got John to return to the city to save Harold’s life, he didn’t sound like he was ready to rejoin Team Machine. Harold bonded with old friend (and NOTW) Arthur over their artificial children, but his decision not to trust Root had ramifications (I didn’t think the bank teller was evil but I did think that they should have looked out for her more among the explosions).
The sequence where Root got part-deafened for Control for the Machine was extremely intense.
Have we seen the guy at the very end before or is he representing a new set of players?
I keep forgetting that Vigilance is the name of the pro-privacy group – it’s not really sticking with me. I tend to go ‘oh, THEM’.
These four episodes were completely new to me, although I had been spoiled that Carter was killed off, but I was curious as to how the show would handle it – the answer is pretty well, especially the aftermath for the other characters.
Inevitably, in 3.09, ‘The Crossing’, Reese was the NOTW, and things got pretty bad for the whole team. The build-up between John and Joss went somewhere, with a call back to the first time they’d met and even a kiss. Eh. I felt the latter stuff was a little crammed in because they were going to kill her off, but I’m a John/Zoe shipper because of the Bruce/Selina echoes, even if I know it hasn’t been shown as going too deep. The final scene was excellent, though, with Finch there and the Machine’s attempt to communicate with him as the last loose end from HR did for Carter right in front of Reese.
3.10 ‘The Devil’s Share’ was the best of the quartette, as the show upped its game to deal with the loss of Carter. Great use of flashbacks to four interviews that were informative and sometimes misleading: Finch talking about survivor’s guilt; medical student Shaw getting blocked from being a doctor; special operative John doing what needed to be done – and the lighting was excellent here, turning his face into a skull; and a ruthless Fusco admitting to taking the law in his own hands. In the present, we had Shaw, but mainly Reese, on the rampage (the latter to the detriment of his health) and Shaw finally talked Reese into reuniting Root with the Machine.
I had Angel flashbacks at Acker’s Root intoning that something big was coming.
They skilfully managed to keep Team Machine from dishonouring Joss’s memory (and I loved the consideration for Carter’s influence of Lionel) but justice was served by Elias for us the audience. Lots of attention to detail, pay-off and moral ambiguities.
3.11 ‘Lethe’ ended with a cliffhanger, and was also very good. John was AWOL - out of the city, even. Harold was ignoring the Machine’s calls until she/it made Root get through to him. So Shaw was looking after the NOTW, which meant she got a lot of air time. It turned out the NOTW and the people after him were connected to Team Machine in brilliantly escalating reveals. We also got flashbacks to young Harold, explaining how his father’s early-onset dementia inspired him to try to create the proto Machine. Oh, Harold.
Fusco was well deployed, but I’m not going to say that spoiling for a fight with John (drunk or not) the episode after another brawl and recent torture was anything but stupid.
At the end of the ep, we and the Machine had a lot to ponder.
3.12 'Aletheia' (I had to look up the meaning/reference) concluded much of what had been left open after the last episode, but left enough unresolved and everyone and everything in a very different position. Although Lionel got John to return to the city to save Harold’s life, he didn’t sound like he was ready to rejoin Team Machine. Harold bonded with old friend (and NOTW) Arthur over their artificial children, but his decision not to trust Root had ramifications (I didn’t think the bank teller was evil but I did think that they should have looked out for her more among the explosions).
The sequence where Root got part-deafened for Control for the Machine was extremely intense.
Have we seen the guy at the very end before or is he representing a new set of players?
I keep forgetting that Vigilance is the name of the pro-privacy group – it’s not really sticking with me. I tend to go ‘oh, THEM’.
