"Person of Interest"

Around the Christmas holidays of 2011, I had to do a trans-Atlantic flight, which means eight or nine hours in a cramped plane and the only entertainment is the video offering.  I sat and saw some five episode deal of a new CBS show....Person of Interest.  After viewing the original show, and the next four episodes....I had an interest in it.  For the remainder of the 2011 season, I probably watched a total of a dozen episodes.  After that, I just didn't have time to view it.

This past six weeks....I've been using Netflix and caught up with all the episodes of the first three seasons.  A fourth season was done for last year, and CBS has agreed to produce roughly a dozen episodes for what they believe is the final year.

After watching the sixty-six-odd episodes....I'm at a point where I'm keenly into the series.  On several levels....they've screwed up and accidentally produced a five-star series loaded with mistakes.  Viewership isn't where it should be and CBS thinks they are doing a good thing to let the series wrap up the ending.  There's talk that Netflix or Amazon might be in the background.....ready to pick up the series and run it for a season or two.  Maybe if huge numbers come up for Person of Interest over the final dozen episodes.....CBS might wake up and carry it for another season or two.

The big screw-ups?

1.  The name doesn't work.  It should have been "Man and Machine" or "Man in a Suit".  Person of Interest has zero appeal.

2.  The use of music within the video?  For the first season, they marginally did a good job on this.  For a couple of season two episodes....they did a five-star job and the rest fell between a two-star and four-star.  They should have hired some smart guys to gear music to the scenes.

3.  A lot of this storyline is about Artificial Intelligence (A-I).  For a large segment of the audience....they needed a real introduction to the science.  I think somewhere in the middle of season two, they woke up and did some explanations but they wasted tons of opportunities.

One of the big problems with the series is that you have to watch each single episode because they are laying down bits and pieces of secondary stories.   If you missed two or three episodes from season one, and two episodes from season two.....you'd be in hurt-status for grasping season three.

So, I'm kinda hoping that the series survives the short season, and someone picks it up.