*Warning: spoilers ahead
It all started with a paradox- with Harold Finch thinking that the Machine had been an honest mistake on his part and the fate carving their destinies. But little did Finch and his assets knew, that saving the lives of the numbers, the “Persons of Interest”, would be the absolute choice if it would’ve been the right life, or so does John say while counting his moments slowly with the brilliant piano score at the background.
The Nolan brothers never fail to amaze me, let it be with their science fiction genres or superhero on the quest of saving the earth genre. But when Jonathan Nolan comes with the same genre of hero saving the earth with a twist in the plot, it right away flabbergasts me.
Person of Interest follows Harold Finch and John Reese, the Admin and the Primary asset respectively, in their journey of saving the numbers that Finch’s creation, the Machine- a super massive surveillance system created as an aftermath of 9/11, provides them. Each episode follows their arduous and tireless expedition to hunt down the perpetrators and save the victims while they try to remove the chaos of the Metropolitan New York city. A corrupted HR cop turned good cop, a true to her morale NYPD homicide detective, a warlord vengeful to his mother’s slaughterer bound by his loyal team players, a “fixer” assisting them occasionally, a ruthless, runaway brilliant hacker turned the Analog Interface, a skilled ISA agent with an Axis II Personality Disorder turned a loyal asset- they’re all part of the Machine’s army. I wouldn’t go to the tiniest spec of details, but what I would love to say is that Person of Interest is without a shadow of doubt, one of the greatest milestones in the history of television- so to speak that it is worth watching.
Each and every episodes of POI is unique in its way, they’re what I would like to say, pieces of art. Art that is so calm and serene to look at, art that provides the peaceful bliss and an addicting adrenaline rush on the other hand. But the last episode of it, it’s a symphony, a symphony in morbid isolation. While the uncertainty sure hangs over our head like a looming shadow, it is quite a manifestation. An epiphany of euphoria, a presentation of such an elation, that is too strange to even fathom. I guess getting a chance to be the Analog Interface and conversing with the machine, be a conduit between the material world and the all seeing caretaker that is right there for you- is the only thing that can make your day better.
This is not your typical Good AI destroys Bad AI thing, this is a metamorphosis, your stomach is going to churn from the alluring excitement and uncertainty it throws at you.
Did I mention the soundtrack? Oh yes, Nolan didn’t only play with our innocent minds in utter astonishment with Ramin Djawadi’s starting theme- he also outdid our brains with the scores and the original soundtracks of the series. Never have I ever seen such symmetry between a scene and its corresponding score, the events unfolding in front of our gazes with such music that resonates so much with that particular scenario.
Even though CBS had to cancel the show as they had mentioned that their ratings were dropping, I believe the memory of the team machine has not faded yet in the minds of the fandom. The strange ramification that the cancellation brought upon us inspired us to take up steps to keep the memory always alive.
There might be many other processions and pompous shows, but you will not find any as it. Just like Root says, “If we're just information, just noise in the system, we might as well be a symphony.”
