Person Of Interest

I really enjoyed Person of Interest last night, best new show I've seen in ages. I hope it keeps up the standard.

I've just watched this pilot.

It's like Michel Foucault had a wet dream in a postmodern world of slick, stylised violence, heavily influenced by Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis' and Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner'.

In this world, a computer conveniently spits out the social security number of an individual who is about to be involved in some way, in some bad shit.

In response, a twenty first century Michael Knight is dispatched to find out what the score is, identify the bad guys, and engineer their downfall through a combination of neat gadgetry, never-miss marksmanship and pithy one-liners delivered through a mouth that is never more than half open.

Naturally, the bad guys are the establishment and authority figures and the victims of these machinations are wide-eyed ethnic minorities, dragged into a spaghetti plot by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

'Person if Interest' is a voyeuristic glance into a paranoid post-911 world of absolute state control of information, the all-seeing eye of Stanley Kubrick's HAL-9000 and a bespectacled, reformed industralist (like the hero, obviously, also legally dead) who is drip-fed these social security numbers and creates a collage of these people on his office wall, where they form a sort of pre-determined dead pool.

Once you accept and learn to live with the idea that the basic premise is ludicrous, you're thrown into a detective story about writing wrongs which haven't yet occurred. Imagine a hybrid between Scott Bakula in 'Quantum Leap' and Lorenzo Lamas in 'Renegade' and you will have a grasp on how humourless, contrived and unoriginal these escapades are.

I will give 'Person of Interest' about two more weeks to, well, pique my interest.

largehat wrote:
Imagine a hybrid between Scott Bakula in 'Quantum Leap' and Lorenzo Lamas in 'Renegade' and you will have a grasp on how humourless, contrived and unoriginal these escapades are.

Oh give it a rest, do you have to analyse everything as though it's a mathematical problem.

Sometimes I just want to watch something that's easy on the eye, has a simple plot, and lots of action and beating up of bad guys.

I bet you're a dream date down the cinema.

Nat, study some film theory, it's fascinating and gives you a whole new perspective on visual media.

No wonder you didn't like Freaks and Geeks.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:Nat, study some film theory, it's fascinating and gives you a whole new perspective on visual media.

No wonder you didn't like Freaks and Geeks.

It's not a film, it's a tv series on Channel 5 aimed at the masses. I enjoyed it, and in my house that is all that matters.

Either give me a full Proppian reading of it, or stay out of this thread!

largehat wrote:I've just watched this pilot.

It's like Michel Foucault had a wet dream in a postmodern world of slick, stylised violence, heavily influenced by Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis' and Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner'.

In this world, a computer conveniently spits out the social security number of an individual who is about to be involved in some way, in some bad shit.

In response, a twenty first century Michael Knight is dispatched to find out what the score is, identify the bad guys, and engineer their downfall through a combination of neat gadgetry, never-miss marksmanship and pithy one-liners delivered through a mouth that is never more than half open.

Naturally, the bad guys are the establishment and authority figures and the victims of these machinations are wide-eyed ethnic minorities, dragged into a spaghetti plot by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

'Person if Interest' is a voyeuristic glance into a paranoid post-911 world of absolute state control of information, the all-seeing eye of Stanley Kubrick's HAL-9000 and a bespectacled, reformed industralist (like the hero, obviously, also legally dead) who is drip-fed these social security numbers and creates a collage of these people on his office wall, where they form a sort of pre-determined dead pool.

Once you accept and learn to live with the idea that the basic premise is ludicrous, you're thrown into a detective story about writing wrongs which haven't yet occurred. Imagine a hybrid between Scott Bakula in 'Quantum Leap' and Lorenzo Lamas in 'Renegade' and you will have a grasp on how humourless, contrived and unoriginal these escapades are.

I will give 'Person of Interest' about two more weeks to, well, pique my interest.

"Minority Report - The Series"?

Keegan wrote:
"Minority Report - The Series"?

I'm afraid I still haven't seen 'Minority Report', it's on the mental list of films I keep in my head.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Sometimes I just want to watch something that's easy on the eye, has a simple plot, and lots of action and beating up of bad guys.

And sometimes -I- just want to watch something that isn't a rip-off of ten ten other things I've already seen before. Buy a Knight Rider box set on eBay and watch the original version, it had humour and characters you could relate to.

largehat wrote:

And sometimes -I- just want to watch something that isn't a rip-off of ten ten other things I've already seen before. Buy a Knight Rider box set on eBay and watch the original version, it had humour and characters you could relate to.

Why do I have to relate to characters to enjoy something?

Virtually every show is a rip-off of a previous show.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Why do I have to relate to characters to enjoy something?

Virtually every show is a rip-off of a previous show.

YOU don't have to. I was talking about my opinion of it, in response to you trashing my thoughts about it. My opinion is just as valid as yours, gorge yourself on formulaic crap TV, be my guest.

I love Minority Report by the way, extremely underrated film.

largehat wrote:

YOU don't have to. I was talking about my opinion of it, in response to you trashing my thoughts about it. My opinion is just as valid as yours, gorge yourself on formulaic crap TV, be my guest.

I wasn't trashing your thoughts, jusy trashing your obsession with slagging everything off because it's not as good as a silent film from 1918.

Natasha Whittam wrote:
I wasn't trashing your thoughts, jusy trashing your obsession with slagging everything off because it's not as good as a silent film from 1918.

Yes, of course, I see, I should stop comparing everything to silent films from 1918, silly me. I do that ALL the time and it's a terrible thing to do.

largehat wrote:

Yes, of course, I see, I should stop comparing everything to silent films from 1918, silly me. I do that ALL the time and it's a terrible thing to do.

I still love you though.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:I love Minority Report by the way, extremely underrated film.

The premise sounds very similar, doesn't it?

Natasha Whittam wrote:

I still love you though.

You're just upset with me for writing a review which had references to films you've never seen.

Next time I review something, I will try to draw parallels which you are likely to understand.

"The main guy looked a bit like Egon Spengler".

"He had a big gun, like Arnie in Terminator 2 when he cripples those pigs"

"It was like finding your exotic pet is actually a mogwai by getting it piss wet through"

"When I saw that ladder I thought of Richard Gere soiling his trousers at the end of Pretty Woman".

"The lead character was like Superman, only he wore his underpants inside his trousers".

I don't want to alienate you from my teachings.

largehat wrote:"The lead character was like Superman, only he wore his underpants inside his trousers".

That would be good of you actually, although I've never seen Pretty Woman.

Natasha Whittam wrote:That would be good of you actually, although I've never seen Pretty Woman.

Look in the mirror.