Person of Interest

[Caviezel] and Emerson make for one of fall's most formidable odd couples.

The first episode unfolds nicely with plenty of suspense and tension. If they can keep it up week after week, they should have no problem holding viewers' interest.

The show can simultaneously unsettle, comfort, excite, and amuse its viewers--something for everyone, if you, like Mr. Finch, like to watch.

Despite the presence of Nolan (who's co-written most of his brother Christopher's films, including "Memento" and "The Prestige") and producer J.J. Abrams, this is very much a CBS crime procedural, one that could fit comfortably alongside "The Mentalist," et al. But it would help an awful lot if Caviezel had a few Red Bulls first.

When the only real tension is one character telling another to hurry and the most emotionally involving scene lasts 30 seconds and involves the cop who may not engage with the principals again all season, it's difficult to remain an interested person.

Ultimately, Person Of Interest is built on too cockamamie of a premise to be taken seriously.

Some viewers won't buy the premise of the Social Security numbers. Its beauty, though, is that you don't have to.

A gritty, almost plausible winner, and distant reflection of Stephen Spielberg's "Minority Report."

This could grow into a show of more than ordinary interest. [28 Nov 2011, p.57]

Clever but somehow not very absorbing, Person might provoke the paranoid while leaving the generation who's grown up on camera wondering what all the fuss is about.

Of course, it all sounds preposterous, but so did a movie about a guy who remembered everything backward, and Jonathan Nolan was nominated for a writing Oscar for Memento.

Beneath that glossy sheen, it seems like it will be a procedural crime show like so many other programs on CBS.

From a storytelling standpoint, though, the real juice of the show is going to lie in its long-form arcs. It's a delicate balance to maintain, and it will be interesting to see if Person of Interest is up to the challenge.

Person of Interest separates itself from the gimmick pack, not only because of superbly nuanced characterization and writing but also because of how it engages a post-9/11 sense of paranoia in its viewers.

So far, though, it has mostly kept its ambition in check, preferring to follow the playbook of a typical crime procedural, with a little more darkness and a little less energy.

There isn't a single interesting person in CBS's dud-on-arrival Person of Interest; at best, there's only a single interesting idea.

Both Emerson and Caviezel are compelling and the way Nolan and Abrams have constructed the look (lots of nourish far-away shots in crowded streets, a sense of contained doom in an urban city) bodes well. That alone is worth the investment.

If Person of Interest can calibrate the relationship between the leads in a way that makes their interactions more compelling, and if the show finds ways to answer Nolan's questions in creative and unexpected ways, it could be CBS' next addictive drama. If it ends up being a post-9/11 version of 'The Equalizer,' then this person will quickly lose interest.

The result is that the twin aspects of the show, fighting each other for screen time, both end up a little vague and underwritten.

This is the rare crime drama that revels in actual mystery, its dark, paranoid tone embodied by two damaged heroes.

Together they'll be the brains and brawn of this operation in times when the broadcast networks aren't particularly interested in take-charge men with acquired tastes for pounding the hell out of bad guys--or shooting them in their thighs. Thanks. We maybe needed that.

They may not enchant you, but they and their series, the best new hour this year, are unlikely to bore you. Would that every new show could say the same.

The show is a shrewd if not terribly exciting bet on upping the network's hip quotient without straying far from its procedural wheelhouse.

It's a whole lot of techno-hooey, relying on screenwriter-friendly leaps of logic. Emerson turns out to be a one-note actor, but Caviezel is appealing in a particle-board sort of way.