So I came across Person of interest on imdb a couple of days ago and I mean it does sond interesting. Is it worth watching? If yes how long will does it take to watch?

I watched the show a while ago so maybe there was an explanation and I forgot about it, but a silly question just came to my mind. Why didn’t the machine give them both numbers of the perp and victim? I remember there were episodes where we had multiple numbers so it is capable of doing so.

spoiler from here onward(i kept the title vague)->! when they are asked to killed that congressman who held the power to ok samaritain, !<he had to know that the machine would only ever ask such a thing if it was ABSOLUTELY certain. all the horrible things and lives to save and it never asked him before this. aka if we dont do this samaritans is going online. was its harolds hubris to think he could find a way to stop it and the machine could not

i think Harold should have understood it and never asked him to do any such thing before therefore the machine must of predicted a very horrific event. he should have risked it. "only once will i ever obey this act? type of thing.

he also played life and death as his machine gave the government numbers. he had to know what would happen to a lot of those people right? but he understood that sometimes a few bad deeds are needed to protect the whole.

its a real moral question, which i love about this show , Harold is deciding without foresight we have. Was Harold right or wrong? the 1000s of lived ruined and 1000s or more dead. the risk that the world could be conquered and humanity enslaved which only didnt happen due to luck if we are honest. i think Harold morals forced him to make the "right" choice but looking back it was the wrong one.

was this one of his rules that he had to keep himself in check. we see how Harold has a real dark streak in him. maybe this was him forced to follow his own rules

not many shows where there are a bunch of questions that the creators dont spoon feed you the right answer.

was Harold right or wrong in his decision, on whether or not to listen and obey the machine involving that congressman

Each show was just so well made. I'd love to know who worked on all three, along with Jonny.

So I've absolutely powered through Person of Interest in the last couple of weeks. Fantastic show. I have a newfound respect for Jonathan Nolan, every bit as genius as his brother.

Ahh, I am going to miss these characters. Especially John and Finch. I feel like old network style of telly forced you into a relationship with the characters of sorts since you spend so many hours with them and the storytelling is just so detailed...because it just has to be with the sheer amount of episodes they produced.

Gonna miss them! What was it like for you guys when you came to this moment of saying farewell to the show and these characters? Did you finish it when it was broadcast or more recently?

I originally watched this as a way of killing time while waiting for Severance season 2 to put out a few more episodes. I picked PoI because I got that similarly weird vibe from it and was intrigued to power through and uncover the sci-fi beneath the initial procedural premise.

This show fully took over my attention. Just remarkably well made. It came out at the perfect time, reflecting real life events like the NSA exposure. And it was even ahead of its time, AI and mass surveilance are far more prevalent in our lives than back then. It lends the high concept sci fi arcs an air of authenticity. Just so prescient in many ways.

Fantastic performances all round, Amy hacker stole every scene and there were some great villains, especially Robert John Burke and Enrico Colantoni. Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson completely reverant as the co-leads. Phenomenal writing.

I also have to hand it to the network and for producers for getting such a high budget for this show. Seriously, well produced. So many top level action sequences.

What brought you to this show? I'm interested to hear other fans stories.

(Anyway, I've just taken some edibles and going to power on with the finale - Invictus Maneo!)

I'm currently on the penultimate episode of the show and have just seen the bit where Finch pretends to be a French minister to get into a building.

At first, I was going to post a thread about how awful the French accent was, despite the fact Emerson is such a great actor. But the lack of effort being put into it tells me Emerson is intentionally putting in a 'poor performance'. It's in character.

And we all must remember his awful Irish accent, haha..

Of course, Finch can't do accents - and it would make him feel extremely uncomfortable! Bravo Emerson!

Reminds me of Dominic West's 'English accent' as Jimmy McNulty in The Wire. Another fantastic pseudo performance.

Episode keeps says The Machine wasn't able to locate Harold without Hersh's help but, during one of iconic 'The Machine pov', it just shows where Harold and Greer are, TWO times(first from outside the building, second INSIDE the building showing both Harold and Greer with that identification square.) It doesn't show up more than that but even after this The Machine keeps saying she can't find Harold. This seems like a plot hole to me. What do you guys think?

I know this is like throwing a fire in gasoline but since I was thinking about this for years, I will write it down.

There were many cases the existence of ASIs influenced the numbers(mostly in bad ways) and our protagonists had to show up to either save them from asking too much which will get them killed, or if it's not enough, reveal the truth to save them.

Henry Peck, Sameen Shaw, Arthur Clypool, that Kangaroo court and lastly, our good detective Lionel Fusco, were such cases.(I know revelation to Sameen wasn't done entirely when she first showed up but nonetheless Finch did tell her more than he usually do.)

Other numbers were, mostly, not even needing that or were better off knowing nothing.

BUT, rewatching the show again and again, I couldn't help myself but think there were more cases where Finch and protags had to reveal the truth. Two of which are both related to Samaritan.

Roger McCourt and Sulaiman Khan.

In McCourt's case, while even myself doubt any words would have swayed the man from passing new legislation that will aid in Samaritan's activation, it kinda came weak 'they did everything except killing him' without Finch revealing the truth about Northern Lights to him. I mean, like I said I doubt even this will sway him but still, like everyone said it's one step away from Samaritan activating and killing many people or having him killed to save those casualties. Finch really should try everything else aside from killing him, shouldn't he? Especially when he already did such a thing to the numbers several times.(And before you ask, McCourt clearly didn't know that much about Northern Lights and The Machine other than what's been revealed to the press by Vigilance, so it was worth a try.)

And Khan... The amount of hostility shown toward him by Samaritan was, imo, worse than Simon Lee got. Lee atleast had some place to go back when he 'dropped' his suspicion even though, comparatively, was more threatening to Samaritan and his plan than Khan was(not to mention his state only got worse as he continued to seek truth) while Khan literally lost everything at the opening moment of Samaritan's attack, while he didn't do any harm to Samaritan itself before this happened. Not to mention his own curiosity was too severe to be mitigatigated without knowing the truth. (Greer himself mentioned Samaritan wanted to take this personally and Khan's curiosity will be death of him and it did so this is pretty not a thing to argue about.) I strongly believe when TM had Khan in their safehouse they should had just spilled the bean even just to save him. We CAN think Finch underestimated his curiosity, but the danger he got into? Root was there and, even though god mode was sparsely used during that time, The Machine did know it and should had more ways to notify TM, or, even just consider recruiting him.(Maybe this is why The Machine decided to recruit Harper in next episode...) Yes, you may argue that even this wasn't enough but unlike McCourt, we don't know. He was a complete victim on this case and not that bad person, and considering the amount of dedication on revealing the truth he had shown, I'm certain The Machine was able to sway him to help TM stop any similar case like him to show up anymore, like she did to Root.

PS. I know this will throw MORE fire to this, but these two cases, and Elias' advice and arguement toward Harold during S5 about war, really makes me think Finch DID underestimated what his lack of action(in this case, ofc, spilling the bean) would cause and when he needed to go all in sometimes. Ofc there are many counter cases to this(the mentioned episodes which Harold or Reese did reveal the truth), but when he didn't, it often led to fatal results. Not hating him on this or sth, but you gotta wonder how things would look if he did spill the bean.

Hi, all! I'm an avid fanfic reader (and some times writer) and I'm curious about your opinion on fics for this show.

I've read a few good stories on AO3, and now I wonder if other people here might have similar tastes to mine.

I personally love anything that studies the relationship between Finch and Reese (platonic or romantic, I like both), as long as they're not too ooc.

Reading about Bear, Shaw and Root is also great. I haven't read a fic that picks up right after the finale, but I'd love to find a good one.

(I have a post-series idea I'd love to put into words and upload there, but I don't have the time to do so right now.)

Have you read any fics about our characters?

What kind of stories do you usually like to read?

Just thinking about what has happened between the last season in 2016 and present day in the real world and wondering how Person of Interest (POI) would have tackled the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, October 7 2023 and consequent Israel-Gaza War as well the fall of the Assad Regime in Syria in Dec 2024. They might have even had a Covid storyline and its effect on geopolitics if they had done a season after 2016.

• I hoped that somehow she ( Amy Acker ) served in the SCS (the F6 or America’s MIF) - in the style of Samantha Groves from the TV series Person of Interest - continuing Root's legacy of being bullied by Team Machine into doing dangerous things.

I feel like Person of Interest ended way too early and I think they could have had at least another 2 or more seasons considering how geopolitics has heated up in the past 8 years. Here are also other possible stories:

These are just a few possibilities, but given Person of Interest's knack for weaving real-world events into its narrative, it's likely the show would have continued to be both relevant and thought-provoking.

What do you all think? Could Root have had another couple of seasons if they wanted considering what's happened in the real world since 2016?

By weaving these contemporary issues into its narrative, "Person of Interest" could have maintained its relevance and provided a gripping exploration of the complexities of modern geopolitics and national security. Here are a few potential areas the show might have explored:

1. U.S.-China Relations.
2. Global Pandemic Response.
3. Middle East Dynamics.
4. Domestic Terrorism and Political Polarization.
5. Climate Change and National Security.
6. Cybersecurity Threats.
7. Intelligence Community Evolution.
8. Pandemic Response and Bioterrorism.
9. Russian Interference
10. Technological Advancements.

NOTE: I've been watching "The Brave" on NBC and love it (very similar feel to TV Show Homeland)...i think its being produced by the same people as Homeland. You guys should watch it... its a great way to spend time while waiting for Homeland to get back on! The drama focuses on a Special Ops group led by Commander Michael Dalton (Mike Vogel) while Patricia Campbell (Anne Heche), Deputy Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and her analysts support Dalton's team with intelligence.

Just finished 3.9. Feel like I will need a break before I can watch any further.

Are people normally floored by the ending of this one or am I one of the few who didn'tt see it coming?

This might the best hour of TV of all time. And I’m a Sheild/24/BB/BCS/Lost fan

I'm currently watching through season 5 for the first time.

I just find it hilarious how every episode of season 5, the penny drops for them and they realise it's Samaritan behind the peculiar nefarious acts.

Like, ffs! Are they really not expecting Samaritan at this point? Or was this element added for the benefit of 'case of the week' casual viewers?

I'm enjoying the show. This just makes me laugh every time as it's literally every episode.

That was said by Zoe to Captain Crooked Cop in the first season. Even though the show takes place in NYC the Nolans have roots in Chicago, and Councilman Rush refers to Bobby Rush, who eventually became Congressman Rush.

The importance of the name drop was to announce the political leanings of the show and the nefarious ways surveillance is used against citizens. Bobby Rush was a member of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party at the time Fred Hampton was the chairman and was murdered by the Chicago police. The murder was carried out in part by using police informants for surveillance and to drug the organization's dinner so that they were incapacitated when the police raided. Fred Hampton was in bed with his eight-month pregnant girlfriend when the room was shot up.

Like the titles of the books Harold reads and the names of some of the characters, this iykyk moment was loaded with meaning.

It's also related to Samaritan's "Correction," but that's a topic for a different post.

I was just looking at the broadcast dates of each of the seasons, basking in the glow of the one season per yer clockwork and consistency of the viewing schedule.

I then noticed season 4 ended almost a whole year after the first episode was broadcast. It started in September 2014 and ended in May 2015.

And during that time, there were gaps in the broadcast schedule with some episodes not shown for weeks after the previous episode was broadcast, or weeks randomly being skipped.

Why did CBS make the viewing schedule so erratic and draw it out for so long?

Did it affect the ratings?

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