'Person Of Interest' Series Premiere Review & Discussion

'Person Of Interest' Series Premiere Review & Discussion:CBS' new action-thriller has a lot of buzz going for it, with stars James Caviezel and Michael Emerson, not to mention 'Dark Knight' writer Jonathan Nolan. But does the premiere deliver on the good guy/Big Brother premise? We begin with the sound of seagulls and the sight of breezy curtains. Reese (played by Jim Caviezel) is sexily shirtless and canoodling in bed with a pretty young woman. His voice is musing about how it is when you meet the right person…Cut to Reese in a NYC subway car, and now he’s shaggy-haired and in need of a shower. His voice asks: but when the right person is taken from you, what do you become then?Some thugs who are up to no good enter the car and their leader, Anton, tries to filch Reese’s bottle of whiskey. In a display of supersharp reflexes, Reese grabs hold of Anton’s wrist and scares the bejeesus out of him. But does Anton walk away? No, he taunts some more until Reese flips out and displays straight kung fu style: he knocks three of the thugs out and has Anton in a chokehold, all in the span of five seconds.The screen fades to fuzzy black and white, revealing that the entire scene has been filmed on security camera. And here we encounter one of the show’s major themes: civilian surveillance. The screen pans to hundreds of other black and white camera shots of ordinary life – the Brooklyn Bridge, the highway, a subway entrance, then a police station. Big Brother is always watching, and now we’re getting meta and watching people just like you and me being watched.