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Person of Interest In The Media: The Machine Reads It All Before We Do


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TVLine Shahi interview.

 

... and they were like, “Wow, that’s great! How far along are you?” I then went to the doctor and he held up two fingers, and since he’s kind of a hippie, I thought he was saying “peace.” Then I saw my husband hyperventilating in the corner, and he had to spell it out for me. And there are no twins in my family at all, so he could have said, “You’re having a unicorn!” — that would have made more sense. ...

  • Love 1

So very sad to lose this character - except perhaps in a smaller recurring role (fingers crossed) - but the pregnancy rules all and I really love that they decided to "keep the character real".  Normally I would hate that phrase, but that is what they did, they played it out true to Shaw!

 

Kudos folks, kudos!

Edited by kaygeeret
  • Love 3

Damn it Sarah, stop getting pregnant in the middle of starring in kickass roles on awesome TV shows! You couldn't have waited until a Fairly Legal or something?!

It's all Steve Howey's fault, I think.

 

Me, too. I shake my fist in the air and yell, "Confound you, Steve Howey! Stop getting her pregnant just when her career is going great!" ."

 

Serioiusly though , I hope the twins are healthy.

  • Love 1

Yeah, that's my guess. Obviously once the twins are born everything could change on a dime, so the show has been smart to be noncommittal, but my guess is that Shaw will make a cameo here and there the rest of this season and in the first half of S5, and then come back more regularly in the second half of S5.

In a recent interview, I think I saw Jon and Greg say that Reese would've been the character on the chopping block if Sarah hadn't become pregnant.  

Is there pressure with a show like this to periodically kill off characters to keep things fresh? It seems that her decision to leave the show might have come as a relief in that sense.

Nolan: Yeah, we were going to have to have a very difficult conversation with Jim Caviezel [who stars as John Reese] this year, and Sarah saved us. [but] it's very true. These guys become a real family. These people are close friends, and yet, when a writer comes into the room and says, "I came up with an amazing, amazing storyline," and it culminates in the death of a given character, you get really excited about it. You get really excited about it, and you get really upset thinking about the conversation. We always knew at this point in the season, the stakes were going to have to be raised in a big way, and so to be able to build it around this, it does eliminate one of those uncomfortable phone calls, which is cool

 

I honestly would've been ok with this.  Reese has steadily become more detached from the overarching plot, and he's more a symbol than a character these days.  Plus one of the problems of having a long running show built around two white men who are sacred cows  is that all of your casualties become minorities and women.

  • Love 2

Wow, is this supposed to be a joke or is it true? I was hoping they would off Reese even since last season. It's been ages since he has had anything interesting to do. He's such a plot device nowadays, it hurts. Shaw was much more dynamic and had more opportunity to grow, even despite the inconsistent characterization.

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As much as I wish it were true that Reese is essentially next up on the chopping block instead of anyone else--especially now that Shaw's gone indefinitely, John is imo by far the least interesting of the core characters, Root and Harold are so much more fascinating and dynamic--I doubt it is. I think Plageman and Nolan are just trolling when they say that. There's no way they'd kill off Reese, not until the series finale, at least.* Too many soccer moms watch the show for Jim Caviezel.

 

*=Unless Caviezel is SO MISERABLE doing the show he demands out of his contract, but I don't see that being the case. PoI has really revitalized his career, and he's seemed less burnt out/happier in the last season and a half (then again, with the loss of Shahi, maybe he'll get more burned out again if he has to return to doing more stunts). I do think Caviezel would likely not re-sign with the show past his initial contract, as I strongly suspect he would want to make a second go of a movie career, but I don't see him asking out prematurely.

Edited by stealinghome
  • Love 3

I'm the opposite.  I grew to tolerate and then even appreciate Shaw, but she's far from my favorite character.  (I do like her better than Root though).  But I have always liked Reese and hate that they sidelined him for so long after they brought Root and Shaw on.  I've liked this season better and his enhanced presence, but they could still write better for him.  But he's not new and shiny anymore.  Anyway, if they write Reese out, that may be something that would get me to quit the show.  And I love this show.  SO glad they didn't do that.  And I hope it never comes up again.

  • Love 6

Finch and Reese are the heart of the show for me. It's their friendship that eventually hooked me in the first season - the idea that both of them need the other to complete their mission, but also to be complete people, because they both have different pieces missing that the other can block in for them. The idea of shipping them just cracks me up, but I love their platonic mateship.

Without that, the show would be interesting to me in principle, but I just wouldn't care much about anyone. I care if Reese gets hurt, because of the guilt it causes Harold and I care if Harold gets hurt because it hurts Reese just as much. I care about Root, Shaw and Fusco, because those two need them.

I know the two of them are probably dying eventually - losing Carter nearly made me switch off and now I'm so glad I didn't, so I know that it could lead to wonderful things - but I secretly wish that they both end up happily ever after, whatever that means (and that could even mean dying - I think Harold would be scared but contented enough to die for Grace, for example, and Reese would be fine with dying if it finally meant that he felt that his mission was completed once and for all). I just don't want that to happen until the series is finished too.

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I don't think there's any way the show could kill Finch before the series finale. He's become the show's one indispensable character; he's utterly integral to The Machine/AI plotline as well as the organized crime stuff. And he's too important to the team, too--now that Shaw's gone (temporarily!), he's the only glue holding Reese and Root together. If they lost Finch, they would a) both lose their shit and probably get killed in a suicidal charge at a bunch of Samaritan servers and b) would have no reason, given their utter disdain for each other*, to ever work together past avenging Finch/Shaw. So I feel pretty confident that Finch will make it to the start of the series finale (even if he doesn't make it to the end!).

 

At this point, I think the next person up on the chopping block has to be Fusco. Before Shahi's (temporary!) exit, I would have said Root, but I just don't think the show can kill off (or "kill off") three female leads in a row and not touch a male lead. They've generally been given a pass on Shaw's "death" because everyone understands Shahi's personal circumstances--though there has definitely been some criticism, too--but three women while all the dudes live would be too much. And they're not killing Finch, and as I said above I flat-out don't believe they'd kill Reese, so by process of elimination, that leaves Fusco.

 

But really, I hope they just don't kill anyone else for a good long while. I could live with Reese dying, Fusco would be a huge bummer, but Finch or Root dying is a dealbreaker for me at this point.

 

*=though I'm really, really looking forward to seeing them work together more. I'm guessing they're going to have to, and that the show will basically slide Root into more or less Shaw's normal role for the rest of this season.

Edited by stealinghome

New interview with Plageman and Nolan. Not much new, but a few interesting tidbits--I'm going to spoiler-bar everything to be safe, but it's really just very general commentary on tonight's episode/the back half of the season. (Mods, if you don't think these require spoiler bars, please feel free to delete!)

 

I was really excited to see that they say the Root-Reese team-up will continue through the back half. That's one relationship that has been really underexplored--perhaps intentionally so--but that has the potential to be very, very interesting, and push both characters to grow in unexpected ways. And Reese tends to work much, MUCH better when he's bouncing off someone he doesn't like.

 

When they first brought Silva (the undercover cop) on in 4x08, my spidey senses tingled, and I wondered if they were grooming her to fill the void Carter left in the show. Little did I know I was to be a Shaw stop-gap! But I hope we see more of her--I do see the potential for her to grow into a Carter-like character, and she had good partner chemistry with Reese. Much better than the Reese-Fusco chemistry.

 

More Brotherhood and Dominic's endless monologuing? Oh, joy. [/sarcasm] Elias is great, but I wouldn't complain if Dominic fell off the face of the earth and was never mentioned again. Or if they would just hurry up and kill him and let Link take over.

 

Samaritan searching for The Machine is something I'd be very, very interested in seeing play out.

Edited by stealinghome

FYI, Katheryn Winnick from THE VIKINGS is headed to PERSON OF INTEREST for an episode:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/02/12/person-of-interest-casts-vikings-katheryn-winnick

Ooh! She is awesome on Vikings! I would not mind her being on the show semi-regularly as basically a modern-day Lagertha.

There's no way they'd kill off Reese, not until the series finale, at least.* Too many soccer moms watch the show for Jim Caviezel.

I have no idea what you're talking about. *shifts eyes nervously*

  • Love 3

Sarah Shahi's had her twins! http://celebritybabies.people.com/2015/03/06/sarah-shahi-steve-howey-welcome-twins-violet-moon-knox-blue/

 

Interesting that the article characterizes her as being on "maternity leave" and likely to return; not sure if that's based on any statements SS may have made post-birth or just the report's spin on things.

Shoot won Zimbio's 2015 March Madness Challenge. Also the writers' room put together this hilarious video in support. You never realize how much the show says that word until!

That's awesome that they won. I love Shoot but I didn't think they were that popular with the POI audience. It's cool that the writers acknowledged it with a video.

 

Fingers crossed we actually get to see them onscreen together again!

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Back from the screening & panel for Person of Interest at the Paley Center...we bought the tickets and were among an excited crowd attending. When we got there, the creatives & cast (Nolan, Plageman, Caveziel, Acker, Chapman & Emerson) were behind a rope being interviewed, photographed, etc., but reaching over the rope to say hi to fans and have pictures taken.

 

When we went down into the auditorium, they first screened tomorrow night's episode (of which I will not say anything until tomorrow except GREAT entrance from Root) and then the panel, moderated by the editor of TVGuide.com. (I think it was livestreamed?) There were a lot of great questions asked (this show has a lot of intelligent fans) and while there were some guesses/speculation as to what would happen next, Team Machine was pretty mum about the future, though it seemed like they were are expecting a pickup for next season.

 

Caveziel & Chapman were unbelievably tanned...they'd just come back from Florida. John Emerson, as we all know, has a dry sense of humor, and Amy Acker is taller than I expected.

 

I'm pretty fried now, and didn't take notes, but I will try to remember more of what was discussed. I also DON'T want to accidentally spoiler anything from the next episode!

  • Love 3
(edited)

Nolan and Plageman TVGuide postmortem on the season finale. Sounds like Control may actually be dead? I'm still hedging my bets there though.

 

The writers are driving me nuts with the cover identities though. There's no way the blind spots can still be intact. Also the cover IDs were some of the least successful elements of this season--why are we dragging them into next season???

 

TVLine with JN and GP. I'm gonna be kind of bummed if they bring back Grice's partner, just because I'd much rather have lost her and kept him.

 

ME on Season 5:

So is that something we’ll see in Season 5? Emerson says he’s only heard some “cryptic remarks” from the writers about what’s in store. “Next season is more Finch-centric. I don’t know what they mean by that,” he admits. “Partly, I’m terrified that I’ll have more scenes and longer episodes. But I think maybe what they mean is that this business of Finch and his relationship to his creation will be played out in more detail.” The actor loves abstract scenes — all that talk of mathematics and philosophy — though he knows that “people tune in because they like the guns and the car chases and explosions and the threat of death at all times.” If we’re lucky, PoI will continue to deliver plenty of both.

*fistpump* PLEASE more on Finch and The Machine, especially in the wake of the finale....

 

IGN with Nolan and Plageman.

Edited by stealinghome
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GMMR with JN and GP.

 

A few thoughts: I call bullshit on "we ran out of time to tell Martine's story." ffs, pretty much everything from 14-20, and ESPECIALLY 14-17, could have been cut and not harmed the season arc one iota. You're telling me that you HAD to tell the stories in Q&A, Blunt, or Karma so bad that you just COULDN'T do Martine's backstory (which sounds way cooler)? Really? REALLY?

 

Ugh, can't Iris be dropped down into a super dark hole with a black bag over her head? WHY is the show doubling down on her/John when it's terrible?

 

Interesting that they plan to pick up in real time in the premiere next season. It's been a while since they've done that.

 

The cover IDs are maddening.

 

This one's a little more pessimistic about Elias, but definitely seems like Control is still kicking.

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Amy Acker and Greg Plageman will be on a Person of Interest panel for the ATX Television Festival in Austin, TX at 12:30pm, Friday, June 5.  This will be POI's first public event since all the Season 5 news hit, so I'm really interested to see how they respond to questions about the show's future.  Also, I think it's promising that the show is going ahead with promotional events like this.

  • Love 1

SpoilerTV has a video of Amy Acker at DenverCon where she did a panel entitled "Women of Whedon" and had a few things to say about POI writers, Sarah, and her take on Root's feelings for Shaw*: http://www.spoilertv.com/2015/05/the-spoilertv-daily-newsreel-25th-may.html

 

*Hint: she likes her a lil' bit. 

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(edited)

Dioxin, do you know what time in the video Amy makes these POI comments? The sound is pretty bad and it's difficult to sit through and I'm not so into Whedon. Thanks. 

 

prican, try this shorter clip - it's at the 19 sec mark, but the whole clip is only 90 seconds.

Edited by wevel
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