Reviews

After Snowden, this series has less "science fiction" feeling to it, that it might've had otherwise. Some people see an analogy to "Minority Report" - but Person of Interest has no esoteric or futuristic touch to it whatsoever. It actually manages to address both sides of a total "big brother" surveillance - the increased security (the heroes use it to save lives) and the danger, if it falls into the wrong hands. It defines the parameters, under which such a system might be regarded as acceptable (and which many people think are impossible to achieve in the real world), an the dangers to these parameters, especially coming from power-hungry politicians.

Admittedly, I started to watch mainly because of Jim Caviezel (Outlander, anybody?) the man with the saddest eyes in Hollywood. However, Harold "only the paranoid survive" Finch turns out to be a much more interesting, deep and mysterious character (finally a nerd in a main role, not just a live-in-moms-basement-pie-into-a-bottle side character).

And don't you think that "the machine" starts to evolve into a character more and more? I'm just at the beginning of season 2, but I really hope, that we will be seeing more of an AI evolving here, interacting with its "admin" much the same way as "bear" does. When Reese blackmails the machine into helping him to save Finch - you can just see the inner struggle behind this red, blinking camera eye.

I really like this show. OK, it's not overly fast-paced and has a few plot holes - but it does have a lot of heart. I enjoy the interaction of the main characters (esp. Oz) and the slow unfolding of the back-story. The end of season 1 left me wondering, what we will learn about his fate and his mother. However, this is where I'm stuck now.

WHERE IS THE SEASON 2 DVD?!

You're 4 episodes in, so it's about time to bring 2 and 3 out on a disc. Does nobody think about the poor European viewers? Do you really want to force me to ask a friend to download the episodes from some illegal platform? Come on! I'm ready to spend money - so give me a chance!

Just saw the first episode and after high expectations am somewhat disappointed.

Good things up front: Stephen Amnell is a pleasure to look at and his costume really is one of the cooler ones in the superhero world (no pointy ears, no tights, no cape to get stuck with in a revolving door). And there is no awkward animal-reference in his hero-name! However, the story and the character seem kind of familiar. Young Millionaire comes home after having suffered. At home, he keeps playing the high society idiot, while in his secret fighter identity he tries to save "his city" from the bad guys with the help of his butler - sorry, driver. Oh, and his wannabe-girlfriend is a lawyer for the poor and helpless. Sounds familiar? You might say: Why not copying a good idea? OK - but this was not a good copy. In a series, you normally have more time to evolve a character, than in a 90-mins movie. However, this was just clad together without any love or effort. They gave Batman much more time in his movie to show his motivation, his background, to make the character 3D. My feeling in ARROW was: "you all know the general idea anyways, so let's tick of the main points so that we can get to the action." If you like that - It's your show.

Some more irritations: His father, after having been a "bad guy", turns around in a life-threatening situation (where normal people think about themselves, even more so a bad guy) and asks his son to set everything right - not really convincing. In Batman at least, Wayne tries to keep up the ideals of his father, which he grew up with - much more convincing.

ARROW pushes away his girlfriend, just when she seemed to mellow towards him. In Spiderman, they took a whole movie to motivate this act. Here - nothing (ah, you know, that's just what superheros do, so swallow it!)

The bad guys here are the "Money Makers". OK, after the financial crisis, that was to be expected at some point. However - as opponents for a super-hero? I mean - to defeat simple bad guys (like the Cat, the Penguin, Dr. Octopus) with simple kick-ass action, that is OK. Nothing against simple solutions - but then create bad guys where that fits. The worlds economic and finance system is just too complicated for an "I kill them and then their're gone" solution. So the ARROW certainly satisfies the desire for vengeance, but not the desire for a good story.

Promising, however: the hint at the end, that his mother is up to something against him. Whether this motivates me enough to watch the second episode, I'm not sure yet.