Person of Interest, the new CBS series from Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight) and JJ Abrams, was by far my favorite pilot of Warner Bros’ Preview Night at Comic-Con. The story of an ex-CIA spook and a billionaire teaming up to prevent violent crime is an interesting hybrid of Batman Begins and The Bourne Identity.
The show stars Jim Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ) doing his best impression of Eric Roberts as the fallen agent. His backstory is cloudy, but draws comparisons to Christopher Nolan’s Batman reboot: “Reese” has spent the past few years living as a transient to punish himself for the death of his loved one(s?). He’s pulled out of the gutter by Finch (Michael Emerson, earning a round of applause from the crowd), a mysterious benefactor with a vigilante slant. Finch has a source that provides information about violent crimes in New York, but he needs Reese to help him stop those crimes.
It’s a straightforward idea, but the initial mystery surrounding their relationship calls everything into question, thanks in no small part to The Ben Linus Effect. This show will live or die on the Finch character, since Emerson is the more compelling and expressive actor and his character has the most intriguing story. However, when Finch tells Reese early on that he will never lie, it’s hard to accept it, since we’re used to seeing Emerson saying that and then proceeding to lie. Finch and the show will have to show, not tell, when it comes to the truth. The best part of the pilot is that it was keenly aware of that problem, and lays all its cards on the table in the second half.
The central conceit of the show has a Big Brother slant, grounding itself in 9/11 and homeland security concerns. Finch’s money comes from designing software that identifies potential terror threats, except it also identifies smaller-scale violent crimes that are below the scope of the government. He set up the program to feed him that “irrelevant” information so he can stop some of the hundreds of murders happening in New York every year.
It feels exaggerated but relevant, like it COULD happen even if it isn’t currently happening, and it also lends itself to a slick transition mechanic between scenes and commercial breaks.
The story really picks up once the exact nature of their mysterious “information” is revealed. Caviezel seems wooden and out of place as Reese when we first meet the character, but when he finally gets on board and shakes off the rust, that disaffected demeanor really lends itself to his new job. He seems very natural in the spy role, throwing around heavy weapons and monotone one-liners with aplomb.
Those action sequences are also well-timed and set up well - when Reese finally Saves The Day, it’s always at exactly the right moment (story-wise, not “narrowly-escaping-death”-wise). They also use this first story to establish some plot devices and ancillary cast for the rest of the series, and it feels very natural.
The pilot also features a major guest appearance by Natalie Zea (Winona on Justified) as their first titular “person of interest” and begs another question: did they just get lucky with a great actress to guest star, or do they intend to build the show around these compelling cameo appearances? Justified’s first season did a great job of having solid actors in one-shot roles, building their hero off the character of the villains he pursues. Person of Interest could really benefit from a similar approach, because the difference in watching Caviezel snoop on people vs. watching Caviezel shoot at people is massive.
I was surprised to see Person Of Interest on the CBS slate for fall, as it feels more like a spiritual successor to 24. It’s a spy tale about one man with seemingly unlimited resources taking matters into his own hands. If they keep up the tone and pace of the second half of the pilot through the rest of the series, it could be one of the fall’s best new shows.
Person Of Interest debuts in September on CBS, where it takes over CSI’s coveted slot, Thursday at 9:00 p.m.