Round Two: Person of Interest

Person of Interest: Season 1, Episode 2 “Ghosts” (C+)

I’m trying to give this show a chance because of the talent involved, but if J.J. Abrams’ name wasn’t attached, I might have grouped this show in with the other shows I wrote about in last night’s Second Chances post. This episode did start off strong, launching in media res with an elevator encounter that had Reese quickly taking out the bad guys. After that, however, it got rather stiff and didn’t prove to be too accessible. In a sense, it’s actually just a different kind of procedural, and I’d like to have the stakes raised a bit higher with the tone of the show’s cases lightened somewhat. Finch’s emphasis on meeting on his own schedule makes him perfectly mysterious, but to have him hiding in plain sight by working in a cubicle as a low-level software engineer in his own company and being on call for babysitting duty during active missions degrades the character considerably and makes him less interesting. I’m also less than excited by the role given to the talented Brett Cullen, who is the public face of Finch’s company but doesn’t seem to have a meaty part at all. The show does possess occasional cleverness, but it seems surprising to me that Detective Carter is still so far behind Reese in her quest to find and interrogate him. This show is going to have to step it up to become truly worthwhile, and I’m not sure that it has what it takes to do that right away.