Person of Interest - review

I first came across this series maybe almost a decade back. Even within first few episodes it felt very content heavy and that too quite serious about itself. The reason why i even went about this one is because of the name "Nolan" being associated with it. It is created by the brother of Christopher Nolan, the madsensical director, who is hell bent on making movie watching as serious and interesting as reading quantum physics for public exam. He is one guy who has an increasing set of niche followers with every movie of his!! Not understanding his movies in first watch is an "in" thing to say and no one would believe if you said anything else to the contrary. Person of Interest, stands heads and shoulders above any other data series that has ever been made and possibly will be made as well in its genre for the simple reason that it takes itself seriously from episode one and every single episode then onwards, which form a straight line towards the season finale episode of the fifth season. In between, the story travels back and forth in time, when it has to explain the rationale behind the behaviour of important characters.

The guy who plays Harold Fitch, is a cross between Pratap Pothen and the TTR character from Anbe Sivam (two to two to two two fame). With his funny walk, having suffered from a bomb explosion, his weirdly big glasses just to re-emphasize his nerdiness every single time he comes on screen, his goofily shocked reactions and his uprightness when it comes to dealing with dilemmas makes him the center point of the whole series. He recruits John Reese, the actor who actually played god Jesus in Passion of Christ movie, and gets to play god with people's life in this series as well. But somehow he still comes out as suffering from the final scene hangover of his most famous movie, grimacing even while smiling, as if some one is out to get him again with a hammer and nail!! Despite having atleast a couple of action sequences per episode his hair style never wavers. A good ad suggestion for the hair gel or whatever went behind the same! The lady characters are as kick ass as you will ever get in a sci-fi thriller with Sameen shah and Samantha Groves( Root), each giving Lara Croft to Black widow a run for their action money. I am smitten by the Root character, who appears to be smiling all throughout even while getting beaten to near death or beating some one down to their death!! She reminds of someone whom i am not able to recollect. 

Now comes the main character(s) of the series - The machine and Samaritan. In fact, till the 3rd season the second character hardly makes an entry and from that moment onwards, it is roller coaster ride to finish. The story is actually about how Finch makes an AI tool, which feeds on NSA data and finds out potential attacks on US soil, before they occur. It doesn't just deal with terror angle but also with individuals who get categorized as "irrelevant" for their numbers would be quite huge for the government to handle - more like Minority report movie, kind of setup. Finch hires Reese to help him save the lives of those people, who are identified by his machine as potential victims whose life are in danger and they both go about saving them. Root and Shah joins them along with Fusco, a rolly polly cop from NYPD who complete the gang of five. In comes Samaritan, another AI similar on the lines of Machine, but is unbridled. Finch, in fact, erases the memory of his machine, each night so that it doesn't get into god mode, there by becoming all encompassing, which is the very essence of Samaritan. What happens in season 4 and 5 are, what we may potentially be witnessing in few years time when two ASI's (Artificial Super Intelligence) fight each other for supremacy. 

Watching the series, in present day scenario is actually scary, for when Nolan made this, AI was not the fad as it is now and every episode seems more prophetic and true as compared to what is happening around us!! It is all the more relatable and even though each episode runs like a movie in itself, they've written it spectacularly well so that every part finds its place and leads towards the ultimate climax. Probably when it got released the first time, people might've wondered "ipdilam kooda nadakum" and considering present day world, this series is not prophetic but actually a candid and honest view, which might only increase its cult following. A must watch for every drama series fan of the sci-fi and thriller genre!