| Person of Interest | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Drama Thriller Crime |
| Created by | Jonathan Nolan |
| Starring | Jim Caviezel Taraji P. Henson Kevin Chapman Michael Emerson |
| Composer(s) | Ramin Djawadi |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 10 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | J. J. Abrams Bryan Burk Jonathan Nolan Greg Plageman Richard J. Lewis |
| Producer(s) | Athena Wickham Margo Lulick Kathy Lingg (co-prod) Stephen Semel (co-prod) Ben Brafman (associate) |
| Editor(s) | Dorian Haris Farrel Jane Levy |
| Location(s) | New York City |
| Cinematography | Teodoro Maniaci |
| Running time | 44 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Bad Robot Productions Kilter Films Warner Bros. Television |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | September 22, 2011 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Person of Interest is an American crime drama television series broadcasting on CBS. It is based on a screenplay developed by J. J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan.[1] The series was officially picked up by CBS on May 13, 2011,[2] and debuted on September 22, 2011.[3] On October 25, 2011 the show received a 22 episode full season order.[4]
Contents |
Mr. Finch (Michael Emerson), a mysterious billionaire, developed a computer program for the government that predicts terrorist threats in New York City. It was designed as a means to prevent another 9/11-type disaster, but Finch discovered that it was also predicting many "irrelevant" (non-terrorist) violent crimes. The non-terrorist data is dumped to a separate database and deleted each night. Finch realized that a great many domestic crimes could also be prevented if that data could be used. Finch built a back door into the machine that allows him to retrieve a list of Social Security numbers of people who will be involved in those crimes in order of occurrence. Unable to investigate on his own, Finch hires John Reese (Jim Caviezel), a former Green Beret and CIA field officer who is presumed dead, to help stop the crimes from taking place. Finch made the choice of only transmitting the Social Security Numbers of the persons of interest so that if the back door is discovered, the government would have no clue as to what the numbers mean, or who is acting on the data.
Opening: narrated by Mr. Finch (Michael Emerson):
| “ | You are being watched. The government has a secret system--a machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because...I built it. I designed the machine to detect acts of terror but it sees everything...violent crimes involving ordinary people; people like you, crimes the government considered irrelevant. They wouldn't act so I decided I would, but I needed a partner--someone with the skills to intervene. Hunted by the authorities, we work in secret. You will never find us. But victim or perpetrator, if your number's up, we'll find you. | ” |
At the point where Finch says "But whether victim or perpetrator, if your number's up, we'll find you", the person of interest of the week is shown.
According to CBS, Person of Interest received the highest test ratings of any drama pilot in 15 years,[5] what one CBS executive called "crazy broad appeal you don't usually see," prompting CBS to move CSI, which was broadcast on Thursday for over 10 years, to Wednesday, opening up a slot for Person of Interest.[6] The pilot episode won its time slot, drawing 13.2 million viewers.[7]
David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle says "[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."[8] David Hinckley of the New York Daily News gave the pilot four stars out of five, commenting on Caviezel and Emerson's performances, saying Caviezel "brings the right stuff to this role" and Emerson "is fascinating as Mr. Finch."[9] Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times stated, "the notion of preventing crimes rather than solving them is an appealing twist...The surveillance graphics are very cool."[1]
Person of Interest is nominated for Favorite New TV Drama at the 2012 People's Choice Awards.[10] Voting for this category will remain open until the night of the show on January 11, 2012.[11]
| Year | Award | Category | Recipients and nominees | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | People's Choice Awards | Favorite New TV Drama | Nominated |
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