This week we discovered that J.J. Abrams’ Person of Interest has been picked up by CBS for their fall line-up. Today we get to see a lot more about it.
When I first heard about Person of Interest, I expressed some concern that the story would be too mysterious, that the secret of how Emerson’s character is getting his pre-crime information would become a Lost-esque plot-line which would simply frustrate, rather than compel.
Now, however, it seems that this fear was unfounded as the method of divination has already been revealed. Of the possibilities I mentioned, it seems closest to the Harry Seldon style of divination.
Emerson’s character is a wealthy software genius who has gained access to vast amounts of information – way more than the government could ever actually have, of course – and is feeding it into a computer which predicts people’s behaviors and actions based on its understanding of human nature. It’s not straight-up predictions, however.
It looks like the characters only figure out who will be involved, but not how, which leads us to the involvement of Caviezel’s character, the ex-CIA operative who doesn’t have a problem with breaking the rules.
I think the interesting thing to bring away here is Abrams’ comparison to Batman. He’s sort of approaching this project from the scope of a vigilante superhero, which is pretty cool.
The video came with this huge synopsis, so there’s also that:
“Person of Interest stars Jim Caviezel, Emmy Award winner Michael Emerson and Academy Award nominee Taraji P. Henson in a crime thriller about a presumed dead former-CIA agent who teams up with a mysterious billionaire to prevent violent crimes by using their own brand of vigilante justice.
“Reese’s (Caviezel) special training in covert operations appeals to Finch (Emerson), 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.
“Reese’s actions catch the attention of the NYPD, including homicide detective Carter (Henson), and Fusco (Kevin Chapman), a cop who Reese uses to his advantage. With infinite crimes to investigate, Reese and Finch find that the right person, with the right information, at the right time, can change everything. Emmy Award winners J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk (Lost), Academy Award nominee Jonathan Nolan (Memento), David Semel (Heroes) and Greg Plageman (Cold Case) are the executive producers for Warner Bros. Television.”
The Pilot for Person of Interest will play this fall on CBS as part of their season premier week.
