PilotWatch: PERSON OF INTEREST

CBS Thursdays @ 9pm

What's it about?
A crime thriller about a presumed dead former-CIA agent, Reese, who teams up with a mysterious billionaire, Finch, to prevent violent crimes by using their own brand of vigilante justice.  Reese's special training in covert operations appeals to Finch, a software genius who invented a program that uses pattern recognition to identify people about to be involved in violent crimes.  Using state-of-the-art surveillance technology, the two work outside of the law, using Reese's adept skills and Finch's unlimited wealth to unravel the mystery of the "person of interest" and stop the crime before it happens.

So, how was it?
Just so you're forewarned: I love all things J.J. Abrams (LOST, FRINGE, ALIAS, STAR TREK, SUPER 8), and was therefore prepared to love this show.  And I did.  It has exactly the right proportions of complex concept, interesting characters, levels of mythology, and exciting action to immediately grab my interest.  Plus, anything with the incredible Michael Emerson is going to be worth watching.  This is no exception.

The conceit of the show is that after 9/11, Finch (played by Emerson) developed a pattern recognition software for the government that uses surveillance cameras to identify people who are going to be involved in crimes (think MINORITY REPORT with cameras instead of precogs).  However, the government was only interested in those crimes relevant to national security, and "everyday" murders and such are logged away into an Irrelevant file to be deleted.  Finch, unable to let those supposedly "irrelevant" crimes go unnoticed, built himself a backdoor so that he could access the information.  The catch?  He only gets a social security number, and he has no idea how that person will be involved in the crime: he or she could be either the victim or the perpetrator.

Now, if that concept sounds totally uninteresting to you, then skip this show.  If, on the other hand, you find this absolutely fascinating, you need to check it out.  Michael Emerson is, as always, a delight to watch as the enigmatic Finch.  Much like Ben, he fights more effectively with his words than his fists.  So he recruits Jim Caviezel's Reese to do the actual fighting for him.  The two make for an odd-couple team: the eccentric, know-it-all billionaire and the shadowy, depressed fighting machine.  I can't wait to watch them interact every week, and hopefully with JJ Abrams and Jonathan Nolan (brother of Christopher and writer of MEMENTO, THE PRESTIGE and THE DARK KNIGHT) at the helm, the show will continue to churn out interesting crimes every week.

In my ideal world, I imagine this show being much like FRINGE, one of my favorite shows currently on the air.  It seems like initially PERSON OF INTEREST will remain largely a procedural, with Finch and Reese solving a different case every week.  But I hope as time goes on that the writers will start delving into deeper levels of mythology and tying the story into a unified whole with an overarching plot line.  But for now I'm content to sit back and watch the story unravel each week.

Plus it's just great to have Michael Emerson back on my TV screen.  He's been sorely missed.

Rating:
**** Certifiably ADDICTive.  A must-see.
If you, like me, enjoy high concept shows with great acting and great production quality, then this is the best pilot so far this year.  I have complete faith in JJ Abrams, and can't wait to see what he has up his sleeve for this show.  I'm sure there are plenty of surprises in store.

What about you, Fellow Addicts?  Did the concept hook you?  Or did you find it too unbelievable?  Were you happy to see Benjamin Linus again?  Vote in the poll below and then hit the comments!

(For a quick glance at the other pilots coming out, check out my Fall TV Preview.)

What did you think of PERSON OF INTEREST?