Person of mother-fucking Interest!!!!

DAAAAAAMMMMMM!

I CAN'T believe they did that! That was an insanely ballsy move, particularly in light of having set up the killing that didn't happen earlier in the show. Person of Interest just blew my mind. As storytelling, it was tremendous, but as to what it means for the future i'm....disturbed.

to sum it all up: WOW.

The producers of Person of Interest have made a business decision.

For this show, Taraji P. Henson has done everything you could ask an actress to do,
but they have decided to go in another direction.

In my opinion, a show should not kill its characters.
The characters are assets of a show.
If an actor or actress has to leave a show, the character can just accept a new assignment.

Taraji P. Henson will be interviewed tonight on David Letterman.

From a strictly storytelling point of view, I loved it - it was a very well crafted script, well played. long term? It certainly will be a different chemistry - they lost a lot of the "heart" of the cast. Maybe this will serve to make john a little less cold, or maybe it will somehow migrate into Root becoming an actual member of the team...i duno.

from the Letterman clip it seems like this was part of the plan all along, and she wouldn't have signed with them otherwise. In that case when you know it's something you are going to do, the question is HOW you do it and my hat is clearly off on that score.

Loved the ep, and it truly was a WTF moment!

I hate you Nova...I'm over a full season behind and now you post this...I didn't read the OP but now I have to catch up to know what amazing thing happened.

I enjoy the show but honestly it got a little TOO formulaic for a good chunk of this season, so I missed several episodes. But it appears that I tuned back in just in time. I still wish they'd use the resource they never think of...the network of victims whom they've help in the past.

I didn't spoil it in the OP....anything else is on you.

two thoughts:

1. I thought the whole "the machine has a plan" angle was the very definition of changing up the formula, particularly in heavily featuring Root's ongoing ...stuff.

2. They have used people they have helped before, particularly there "common cause" moments and mutual respect with Elias, and also Zoe (7 eps) and Leon (4 eps) have each turned up

Uh-huh, I'm sure. Remember how touchy-feely Jessica's death pre-season one made John?

Oh hell yeah.

PoI skill level - Ninja.

they have seamlessly moved this show form "case of the week" to "proto-Batman" to "dangers of Big Brother" to "war of the demi-god AIs" getting into deeper and more compelling storytelling at each stage.

Last night was the most important character episode since Carter's last ep, as well as a crucial world-building/backstory plot.

As usual, Fusco gets the funniest line.

I'm seem high quality storytelling, and I've seen complex world-building, I may never have seem both done together and done this well.

They're killing this show with stupidity.
An outstanding crime drama has been turned into a pathetic serialized travesty.

Jim Caviezel and Sarah Shahi do a good job,
but their efforts are wasted on juvenile story telling.

The ratings for Person of Interest are tanking, and show is headed for cancellation.

Apparently not, according to this guy:

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/20...e-7-ratings-for-week-ending-october-5/317313/

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/20...-with-adults-18-49-with-total-viewers/317766/

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/20...e-renewed-next-stop-syndication-ville/315837/

The information provided by Nova shows that Person of Interest lost 41% of its lead-in from NCIS: New Orleans.
Also, despite a huge advantage from the lead-in, it lost to Chicago Fire in 18 to 49 year-olds.

According to Marc Berman, of TV Media Insights, Person of Interest was down by 19% from the comparable night one year ago.

In my opinion the loss in viewers can be attributed to changes in the program that began at the start of the third season;
specifically the ongoing battle with Decima and Samaritan.

Person of Interest is still one of my favorite programs, and I hope it does well.

So the title of the show now refers to the one person still watching it?

I've never watched it. I have grown more than weary of shows with the cookie cutter approach to series television: "so-and-so plays a quirky but super smart fill-in-the-blank who works with a crack team of dysfunctional specialists...and they fight crime."

Person of motherfucking bored to tears. Give me something new, television. I demand it at these prices.

Donovan, it may or may not be your cup of tea but it is ANYTHING but formulaic. You are thinking of shows like Leverage which can be well played but, as you said, follow a stock formula. This has a MUCH deeper world than that, albeit it started out in that territory.

Look at the shows that typically line the opening page of Media Central.

The sameness. The Drabness.
The lack of substance. The lack of character.

A testament to groupthink fail.

At least Nova has identified a program that demonstrates some potential.

I will amend to say that one might identify a formula of some sort, there's nothing truly new under the sun, but it's not a common one and it sure as hell ain't the one Donovan described. "Fighting crime" was the vehicle that lured mainstream viewers in - and it may be argued the viewership is mildly smaller because some looking only for that have lost interest - that may well have never given time to a highly complex "big picture" story, but it was never anything other than bait.

The show's basically Batman. They even have a Batcave.

Was. That was Phase 2. They just crossed into Phase 4 this season

I'd say the move to Tuesday nights from being on Thursdays has hurt the program as well. That being said, more often than not, I watch the show on Comcast's "in-demand" service since they finally made it available there last season. I doubt that folks like me are counted in the standard ratings. On the program itself, it's going to progressively darker places, but I'm still keeping up with it.

as far as I can see, the only late viewing that counts is what's done within 7 days.

Still, I wonder why they rely on Neilson still, with all the ways they have to get hard numbers on online viewing and DVR. You probably already have the tech available with newer TVs to keep track of what's actually on screen as well. Just pay the price and implement it already

Just revisiting old threads to catch up. Still ain't watching the PoI show, but I heard something interesting the other day about a problem Nielsen was having with shows and advertising, and how some networks were considering moving away from them altogether. Can't find the original story, think it was NPR, but this link is a related article on Nielsen shortcomings and why shows like PoI get killed when they don't deserve to be.
http://adage.com/article/media/nielsen-struggles-media-change/296054/

yes, there's been some discussion of this in the FB group (not the official one) for the show. It does well in the +7 ratings but not so well in the live viewership - and there's a question about Neilsen handles demographics i think. I'm only vaguely aware of the discussion.


Meanwhile, they are in the midst of a trilogy of episodes right now that kick all manner of ass. They are not the sort f eps the new viewer will want to jump in on but for those up to speed - DAMN!

If-Then-Else was amazing.

Haven't watched last week's episode yet, plan on doing so later this morning after work.

Won't let me read the article.
I always knew there was something wrong when they would not see that 18-40 yrold males were no longer the top buyers and watchers

Gird up thy loins!

I think I'll wait till all 3 are on the DVR

I just watched that episode. Best episode of the series, and top ten best TV episodes of all time. I don't yell at my monitor very often, but there were several "Hell Yeah's" and "Noooooo's" throughout this episode. Fan-fucking-tastic.

I can't believe they went for the creepy kid cliché.

I mean that hasn't been used in a sci fi show in like a month (Ascension).